Career Development and Learning in the Civil Service

Abstract

Contemporary concept of career comprises not only vertical promotion to higher posts but also any change of posts, responsibilities and the related learning. Currently it is almost unanimously agreed that career is owned by an individual, but organizations, via their career development systems, can also actively participate in the employees’ career development. The purpose of the empirical research was assessment and analysis of the following individual level career development and learning related constructs: career conception, career aspirations, conceived career possibilities, career barriers, career satisfaction, work engagement and evaluation of learning system suitability/non-suitability for career development in the Lithuanian civil service. The representative survey of the Lithuanian civil servants was carried out. The applied method enabled to clarify the career development and learning related tendencies and attitudes in the Lithuanian civil service. The main findings of the research were that the level of career aspirations in the civil service is much higher that the level of conceived career possibilities. The most important barriers for career in the civil service are considered lack of career opportunities in the civil service, unfavourable career policy towards civil servants and belief that selection and promotion processes are unfair.