Developing a new mindset: the “career ambitious” individual

Abstract

Explores the concept “career ambitious” in the contexts of traditional corpocratic “male” and more recent “female” career development models. Traditional corpocratic career development models are premissed on the notion of linear hierarchical progression and, accordingly, encourage competition, this being the vehicle through which the individual reaches the much‐prized top rung of the career ladder. In this context, the career ambitious individual is fiercely competitive, viewing her or his career as a series of tournaments, and measuring her or his career success by objective measures such as salary, rank or promotion. In contrast, when adopting a more holistic women’s career development framework, in which the interplay between work, significant others, organizational factors and various life stages is acknowledged, the career ambitious individual is one who measures her or his success in both professional and personal arenas through subjective measures such as perceived degree of challenge, satisfaction or sense of growth or development.