Boundaryless career management: theoretical perspective on individual and institutional agency

Abstract

Majority of researches have investigated boundaryless career from individual’s perspectives. Hence, boundaryless career is perceived as an individual agency. Meanwhile, only limited number of studies adopted different approach towards boundaryless career and brought back organisational perspective. These studies aimed to analyse boundaryless career as an organisational agency and stressed the need for counselling or social support in dynamic labour market. Although both streams of studies have expanded career management perspective, much less attempts were made to combine individual and institutional perspectives. Taking into consideration theoretical approaches, the paper develops research methodology, which aims to answer the main questions: 1) how middle-aged or senior employees adapt to new roles as proactive designers of their own careers; 2) what institutional support do they need from employment service organisations, career consultants, coaches and mentors.