A Distributed Interactive Decision-Making Framework for Sustainable Career Development.

Helen Hallpike,Beatrice Van Der Heijden,Gaëlle Vallée-Tourangeau

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.790533

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a new distributed interactive career decision-making framework (diCDM) in which person and context together determine the development of a sustainable career. We build upon recent theories from two disciplines: decision theory and career theory. Our new conceptual framework incorporates distributed stakeholders into the career decision-making process and suggests that individuals make decisions through a system of distributed agency, in which they interact with their context to make each career decision, at varying levels of participation, from proactive to reactive. We focus on two key career decision-making drivers originating from the person (exercising personal agency and seeking meaning), and two key drivers from the career context (making demands on an individual’s resources and affording scripts). This manuscript challenges the individual-driven approach to career development, and instead proposes that a process of distributed career decision-making takes place between each person and the various stakeholders, both individual and institutional, that also drive their career. Career seekers and counselors can use this framework to supplement an individual-focused approach and incorporate the role of distributed decision-makers in sustaining an individual’s career. Empirical research is needed to explore and test the applicability of the framework to career decisions in practice.

Highlights

Developing sustainable careers in response to a changing work environment is a major challenge of the 21st century (De Vos and Van der Heijden, 2015; Lawrence et al, 2015; Van der Heijden et al, 2020), yet the complex career decision-making process which shapes a sustainable career trajectory is still not fully understood
From the late 20th century, academics noticed that career patterns were changing, and career frameworks began to emphasize the central role of personal agency in Distributed Interactive Career Decision-Making planning and guiding the career trajectory, suggesting that individuals had the ability to shape their own protean careers (Hall, 1996) and to move between jobs and organizations in boundaryless careers (Arthur, 1994), in a process of proactive career self-management (King, 2004; Greenhaus et al, 2019)
We have reflected on the extant literature on sustainable careers and career decision-making, and we build upon recent research into the contextual influences on careers to argue that current models of career decision-making continue to be overly agentic, in that they present the individual as the sole decision-maker driving the career trajectory

Summary

Introduction

Developing sustainable careers in response to a changing work environment is a major challenge of the 21st century (De Vos and Van der Heijden, 2015; Lawrence et al, 2015; Van der Heijden et al, 2020), yet the complex career decision-making process which shapes a sustainable career trajectory is still not fully understood. From the late 20th century, academics noticed that career patterns were changing, and career frameworks began to emphasize the central role of personal agency in Distributed Interactive Career Decision-Making planning and guiding the career trajectory, suggesting that individuals had the ability to shape their own protean careers (Hall, 1996) and to move between jobs and organizations in boundaryless careers (Arthur, 1994), in a process of proactive career self-management (King, 2004; Greenhaus et al, 2019).

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Discussion

Conclusion