Medimond Template AGORA International Journal of Economical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijes ISSN 2067-3310, E-ISSN 2067-7669 Vol. 18, No. 2 (2024), pp. 44-49 44 GENERAL PERSPECTIVES OF CAREER MANAGEMENT G. L. BÎRLĂDEANU Gheorghina Liliana Bîrlădeanu Faculty of Economic Sciences, Agora University of Oradea, Romania https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6810-6563, E-mail: gheorghina_birladeanu@yahoo.com Abstract: The best way to predict the future is to build it. (Abraham Lincoln). Each of us, the moment one focuses its attention on a field, aspiring to have a certain profession, implicitly thinks about a certain profession. Career management integrates career planning and development and also, in a broader sense, implies multiple functional interdependences of planning the career individually, of planning the organizational career and the career development. Career management is a point of interest both for the employee and the employer, representing a planning and implementation process of targets, strategies and plans, which allow the organization to satisfy its needs of human resources and the people to fulfill their career purposes. There are individual differences regarding career orientation. Humans are not all the same, they differ when it comes to abilities, values, objectives and preferred activities. Although different from one another, people do have many things in common. Starting from this approach, specialists in this field have revealed modalities of classifying people, modalities that focus on the major models of resemblances and differences regarding career orientation. Keywords: career, career management, career orientation, individual career planning, planning organizational career, career development, career strategies. 1 INTRODUCTION All definitions from specialized literature, through their content, point out psychological domains that are related to aptitudes, aspirations, individual ambitions, in connection with the requirements of the system where the subject works. The important area is the one of individual perception, in relation with its own career, correlated with personal aptitudes and realization possibilities. Here it is about to the realism of the person when it comes to its own assessment, an aspect which the counsellor can identify, as well as the aspiration level and the individual motivation (Baban, 2003). The field of human resources management defines professional career as a succession of stages, which after being got through, will take the person to an important position, with a better social recognition and better paid. If we also take into consideration the psycho-social aspects hatched by a professional career, from the need to give importance and safety to the individual, the foreign specialists have led the conclusion that this aspect has different connotations, that actually constitute different modalities of individual perception on career. 2 CAREER MANAGEMENT Therefore, we identify more ”senses” of career: advancement, profession, succession of positions during lifetime, a series of roles during lifetime, connected with experience, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6810-6563 mailto:gheorghina_birladeanu@yahoo.com Gheorghina Liliana BÎRLĂDEANU 45 individual perception of the succession of attitudes and behaviour (subjective career), the dinamic frame where life, as a whole, is perceived by a person. From here, we have the distinction between objective career (that includes the development of personell and implies promotion, specialisation, motivation, human resources planning etc.) and subjective career (that focuses on self perception and the role of profession in each person`s life). We consider that it is not desired to emulate such a difference unless from scientific and pedagogical aspects, since practice does not differentiate between social and individual. The only disparity is the one of the perspective of question – of the person or of the organisation. In 1995, V. Lefter and A. Manolescu stated that ”a paper that intends to approach a certain field of management is, undeniably, an act of courage” ( Lefter et al., 1995). This statement refers, both the multiple senses of management, and the special complexity of its problemtics. Later on, the variety of the approaches of this field rises. The issue studied is to what extent this activity is seen fair and organised as a normal usance, by employees and also, by employers. It is certain that a huge evolution has happened and there are companies that take this activity to the level of normality. Regarding this aspect, professional managers can be identified, but an insufficient number compared to the existing possibilities. Thus, the problem that arises is a matter of flexibility and adaptability to dynamics and of being open and receptive towards newness. We understand that in order to define career, it is necessary to take into consideration:  individual contribution to career development;  the contribution of the organizations where they evolve;  the contexts they encounter;  the quality of specific legislation and the modality of applying it. The career dimension integrates a succession of activities and professional positions that a person can reach, such as attitudes, knowledge and other associated components, which develop throughout time. Specialized literature presents three important elements in order to understand what a career is: (Johns, 1998)  Career is a dynamic process along time, which has two dimensions: external career represented by the objective succession of positions that the person has along the years and the internal career resulted from the interpretation that the person gives to the objective experiences by means of his subjectivity;  Career represents the interaction between the organizational and the individual factors. The perception of the position, as well as the position taken by the subject depend on the compatibility between what the subject sees as suitable for oneself (aptitudes, needs, preferences), and what the position really represents.  Career offers an occupational identity: profession, position held, organization where the person works, all are part of the person`s identity. Undoubtedly, people are different, but at the same time, we also have the possibility to identify aspects that they have in common, this leading to the appreciation of similitudes and differences regarding career orientation. Therefore, career orientation is a relatively stable pattern of talents, values, attitudes and occupational activities. The career orientation of a person is relevant when we compare it to the profession that the person has. From the compatibility area of the two, we discover important consequences GENERAL PERSPECTIVES OF CAREER MANAGEMENT 46 for the subject, such as one`s behavior and attitudes at one`s workplace, and also for his state of balance and fulfillment. It is of major importance that each person chooses cautiously his profession; the approach has to be a long term one, activities to be specific, types of organizations, opportunities, possibilities that allow the valorization of natural potential; it is possible to exist a difference between the perception about what the respective profession represents and what it actually means. The career, a term that comes from French, is understood in Romanian as profession, occupation and, by extent, either as a good situation, or a position in society. It is different from careerism, perceived as the tendency to make one`s way in the world, no matter what, no matter how. The English dictionary of human resources defines it as a job that you have been prepared for and that you expect to practice your entire life. In a broader sense, the career concept is related to the idea of evolution or advancement of a person in a certain field of activity with the purpose of obtaining increased incomes, higher responsibility, more prestige and more power. The term of career is given different authors multiple meanings (Constantinescu et al., 1999):  Regarded under the mobility aspect, of ascension in an organization, career is seen as an “advancement”;  Regarded as an occupation, it is appreciated that certain occupations represent a career (military people, teachers, managers), while other occupations are designed as positions (waiter, driver, shop assistant etc.);  In another vision, career is seen as “a succession of jobs along lifetime” or a “a succession of positions” in a ranking order of the prestige that the employee has based on a predictive rule;  With respect to the person, the career is considered “an evolving succession of professional activities and professional positions that a person reaches, as well as the attitudes, knowledge and competences developed throughout time”.  In a subjective perception, the career is presented as a series of roles connected to life experience (one`s own conceptions, aspirations, successes, failures etc.), a succession of a person`s roles in the field of work or a succession of separate experiences, correlated among them;  From an individual perspective, career is seen as a succession of attitudes and types of behavior, connected with the work experiences and activities along personal lifetime. This approach refers to the subjective career given by the experiences and roles that appear in a subject`s life and also to the objective career which is based on the job attitudes and behavior;  Other authors, in a subjective way, see career from the perspective of the dynamic frame where a person perceives one`s life and gives sense to personal qualities, actions and things that have happened to him or her. Carrer management reflects in the progress made in the field of human resources management alongside with the areal of career management. Human resources, by their functional values, have become the essential element of competitiveness, at the level of organizations and also at a national level, “becoming the only ones able to differentiate the contribution of each stat in the global competition of technologized economy”, realizing the difference between the success and failure of the organization. Gheorghina Liliana BÎRLĂDEANU 47 It is of outmost necessity that career management is approached from a point of view of people`s interest and also the one of organizations. Within this context, career management takes into account both the career planning process that regards the employee` modalities of advancement in an organization as per its necessities, employees` performances, their potential and their preferences, and also ensuring the managerial succession with the purpose to provide the organization, as long as possible, with the people that it needs so as to reach its objectives. With a view to these interests, the field of career management imposes three general purposes:  To ensure the fulfillment of the organization necessities in the matter of managerial succession;  To offer its employees that have a potential practical instruction and experience in order to prepare them for the level of responsibility that they could reach;  To offer its employees that have a potential the guidance and encouragement they need to develop or not a successful career in the organization, according to their talent and their own aspirations. In such an approach, career management is understood as a process of planning and implementation the purposes, strategies and plans in order to provide the needs of organization in terms of human resources and also the people`s fulfillment in terms of their career purposes. The exactness of career management imposes planning and adjusting the employees` progress in the organization in accordance with the organizational needs analysis, but also in accordance with the potential performances and the employees` individual preferences. Sure enough, in the theories of human resources management, career management represents a model that implies multiple functional interdependencies between individual career planning, organizational career planning and career development. With regard to this, a relevant example is Michael Armstrong`s model who begins with self-assessment, continues with career planning, induction instruction and initial experience and then get to managerial development, career guidance, mentoring and managerial instruction, culminating with career progress. Thus, the evolution dynamic regarding career targets the career progress modality, the way in which employees build their professional career, advancing by means of promotion, enlargement or enrichment of roles, taking on higher responsibilities and utilizing the available potential and aptitudes. In this context, the career approach takes three stages: expansion at the beginning of career, stabilization of career path and maturing. (Marinescu, 2003) The organization policies from career management perspective impose decisions regarding the proportions to which it forms and develops its own managers (internal promotion), it recruits systematically from exterior and it is forced to bring employees from exterior, then a future deficit is previsioned (Manolescu, 2001). In the career planning process, specific procedures are used, these referring to: planning personal development, managerial instruction and development, mentoring, career guidance. We understand that career orientation is a pattern of talents, values, attitudes and preferred occupational activities. A company that implements an efficient career management system has the following advantages:  Rising the employees` motivation level with direct effects on work productivity and their fidelity level;  Lowering of personnel fluctuation;  Rising the image capital of the company; GENERAL PERSPECTIVES OF CAREER MANAGEMENT 48 If we ask ourselves what is the modality to implement a career management, we understand that there is a need for: in-puts, transformations and out-puts. In-puts are translated as previsions regarding the personnel need on different hierarchic levels, in the results of assessments of employees` potential which give a clear image of the level to which a person can assimilate a type of personal development, a development that can be used as a basis of his or her ascension in the organizational pyramid. The area of assessment is poorly understood and implemented, the firms having to assess performances as in-put in the career management system. The segment of transformations imposes knowledge of company need on all hierarchic levels. The instruments used to go through the journey of employees` development differs according to the employee`s psychological profile, and also according to the intensity of transformations that are necessary to be made by him. Therefore, we emphasize the following instruments:  Modifications in the structure of tasks/responsibilities at the level of the positions;  Rotating the positions;  Extension of positions: rising the number of tasks related to the position and/or rising the level of accountability;  Enrichment of positions: modifying the structure of accountabilities and/or adding new levels of accountability;  Training – it is, probably, the most efficient instrument of transmitting knowledge and, partially, of developing certain abilities;  Coaching  Mentoring;  Delegating – eventually, represents a real simulation of the way in which the employee can handle tasks, that, as some point will be attributed to him. We also need to mention that, in spite of the fact that it seems simple and quick, the pathway of professional development of an efficient career management system can last between 1 and three years for each hierarchical stage. Outputs are represented by human resources professionally prepared to cover responsibilities that are of superior importance in the company. The career strategies define the following objectives:  Developing competences for defining career strategy;  Identifying and correctly analyzing the strategy determinants for career management;  The possibility to establish and justify the role and specific features of didactical career management strategy. Career strategies intend to anticipate problems and to plan on a long term. We enumerate some of these aspects below: (Mathis et al., 1997)  Know yourself proposes an in-depth analysis of career orientation, of week and strong points, of the position in the company.  Take care of your professional reputation means to emphasize your abilities and realizations, everything that makes you unique, everything that demonstrates special qualities, the possibility to invest and the capacity to finalize projects. Gheorghina Liliana BÎRLĂDEANU 49  Stay mobile, vendible, always in evolution means to follow the correspondence between personal competences and those wanted on the job market, those that can easily be transferred.  Be both a specialist and a generalist refers to developing a field of expertise, of speciality, but keeping a certain flexibility, without limiting yourself. Mastering a narrow area makes you inflexible and vulnerable.  Document your own successes means to be able to offer the proof of what you have already achieved, the results and identifiable realizations that are more valuable on job market.  Always prepare a back-up plan and be ready to take action refers to the will to always be active.  Be financially and mentally stable means to always have a secured basis, a comfort and a balance from a mental and financial point of view. These strategies refer to the person and the role of the organization is to care for its internal need but also for the employees` career. 3 CONCLUSIONS Career development is the result of interaction between aptitudes, the subject`s desire to succeed and the opportunities offered by the employer. This means that the more possibilities and professional routes the employer can provide to valorize his studies and to develop his aptitudes, the more the person is satisfied with his career. Some specialists in the field regard career development, firstly, as the person`s experience, not related to the organization, this meaning that the responsibility for career development belongs to the person, although the organization can play an important role in facilitating and sustaining the individual career. All these come as a consequence of rapid and continual development of technologies and services, that directly influence career development more and more, and for maintaining a job mentoring and coaching activities are necessary. The development process of a successful career is not an easy thing, it is something built throughout lifetime. Nowadays world imposes flexibility and adaptability. REFERENCES 1. Baban, A. Coordinator – Educational Counseling – SC. PSNET SRL Publishing House, Cluj Napoca 2003 2. Constantinescu, D., Dobrin, M., Nita, A. – Human Resources Management – Techinical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999; 3. Johns, G. – Organziational Behavior – Bucharest, Economic Publishing House, 1998, p.560. 4. Lefter, V., Manolescu, A. – Human Resources Management – Didactical and Pedagogical Publishing House R.A., Bucharest, 1995; 5. Marinescu, P. – Public Institutions Management – lithographed course, Bucharest University 2003. 6. 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