Change in Career Orientations and the Organizational Learning Process: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Research on careers reveals that concepts and perspectives on careers have changed in recent decades. This paper presents a theoretical model on the impact of a change in career orientations on the organizational learning process. The organizational learning framework by Crossan, Lane, and White (1999) in connection with the detailed illustration by Vera and Crossan (2004) serves as the basis for the analysis of how new forms of career orientations affect the learning stocks and learning flows which are main elements of the framework. By discussing specific impacts of new career orientations on the organizational learning process, the majority of the suggested relations seem to be positive ones. However, since environmental and organizational variables play a crucial role in determining career orientations and also organizational learning, their influences are considered as well. With the developed framework, this paper contributes to two research streams in literature – career theory and organizational learning. Furthermore, this work provides new and valuable insights for both science and business practice. By doing so, gaps in prior research on careers as well as organizational learning are identified and directions for future research are proposed.