Professional Career Paths Research Articles

Examples of How Building Information Modeling Can Enhance Career Paths in Construction

AbstractIn today’s architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, building information modeling (BIM) technologies and practices are making a significant difference in how building projects are delivered. BIM models and tools let stakeholders visualize, simulate, and analyze how a building might behave, perform, or appear—with more precision than ever before. BIM technology and practices are not only improving design and construction processes by delivering projects faster, more cost effectively, and more sustainably, but are also helping BIM professionals by expanding career possibilities within the field. This paper identifies key personnel in AEC industry who are taking advantage of BIM technologies and practices and explains how BIM has enhanced their career paths. The study found that new processes of BIM enhance the careers of existing professionals and create new career paths for young professionals. Until recently, positions like BIM engineer/BIM manager did not exist, but now they ar...

First level library and/or information science qualifications at South African universities and technikons: a comparative study of curricula

The article focuses on some of the findings from a comparative study of first level library and/or information science qualifications offered at South African universities and technikons. A survey was used through self-administered questionnaires to solicit the views of employers, past students and educators in the LIS field regarding the qualifications and their relevance to the LIS services work environment. The study confirms that the university Post-graduate Diploma in Library and/or Information Science and the B.Bibl. (or equivalent four-year university degree) are established professional LIS qualifications in South Africa. While the technikon NO: LIS is generally viewed as a paraprofessional qualification, LIS services employers are not using this qualification in its paraprofessional context. The technikon B.Tech. (LIS) cannot be viewed as a professional LIS qualification as it lacks general education and furthermore, it is a qualification in the hierarchy of paraprofessional LIS qualifications that runs parallel to the professional LIS career path. The study suggests that the professional body, educators, employers and graduates and diplomates in the LIS field in South Africa have specific roles to play in ensuring understanding that LIS professionalism and paraprofessionalism are alternative career paths, each with their own career progressions and with valuable roles to play in LIS services.

Pioneers in Pediatric Psychology: Personal Reflections for the Young Professional

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a seasoned clinician in pediatric psychology is that of influencing the training and career paths of young professionals in the healthcare field. The insights offered in this article are meant not only to guide young professionals but also to help them ‘‘pay it forward’’ to the future generations of pediatric psychologists. My personal reflections respectfully shared in this article begin with what I have found to be essential in early education and training and also include ‘‘pearls of wisdom’’ regarding early career development and advancement in the field.

Promoting the Development of Professional Identity of Gerontologists: An Academic/Experiential Learning Model

Graduate education in gerontology has an essential role in providing the foundational knowledge required to work with a diverse aging population. It can also play an essential role in promoting best-practice approaches for the development of professional identity as a gerontologist. The primary goal of this study was to determine what factors predict the professional identity and career path of gerontologists. In addition, the study explored how experiential learning influenced professional identity for newcomers to the field and for those experienced in an aging-related field (“professional incumbents”). Graduates (N = 146) of Association for Gerontology in Higher Education-affiliated graduate programs participated. Professional identity as a gerontologist was predicted by length of time in the field, age, satisfaction with coworkers, and satisfaction with opportunities for advancement. Experiential learning contributed to professional identity in important but different ways for newcomers to the field and for professional incumbents. The inclusion of an academic/experiential learning model within graduate gerontology programs promotes the development of professional identity and career path for all graduate students.

APPOSITIONS at Work: Reflections on Open-Access Publishing

This essay concerns contributions to the field since 2008 from the peer-reviewed, MLA-indexed, EBSCO-distributed e-journal, APPOSITIONS: Studies in Renaissance/Early Modern Literature & Culture (http://appositions.blogspot.com), of which I am the founding editor.1 APPOSITIONS is an open-access, annual, independently managed journal that aims to build bridges among different communities: Renaissance scholars and early modernists; literary and cultural critics; university/college faculty and independent scholars; and disparate academic societies.2 Print journals reach those audiences as well, of course, but e-journals can build their communities in ways that were not possible before the digital age. APPOSITIONS publishes under a Creative Commons license, which may be negotiated for various outcomes (including hard copy reprints).3APPOSITIONS cultivates a vigorous blending of traditional and innovative forms of scholarship. Our work turns upon generative contradictions. We are both outside of established institutional hierarchies of process and production (we are online in the form of a blog), and we are the epitome of such systems (we are peer-reviewed, MLA-indexed, and EBSCO-distributed). Such dedication to both/and, such inclusion of opposition, is required by our project of apposition. The journal's title embodies these principles, which we underscore in our sidebar with the Oxford English Dictionary's various definitions for apposition, all of which emerge from the early modern era, c. 1550-1850.4APPOSITIONS launched in 2008 as an electronic conference and journal. We continued to operate on both of those tracks until 2011, when we temporarily discontinued the e-conference. The e-conferences were successful (though laborious); they provided dynamic spaces for papers, dialogue, and special events that tapped cutting-edge topics, such as the politics and practices of book reviewing in e-journals.5 Our e-conferences (held from 2008 to 2010) hosted a total of twenty-nine papers and five events; our platform was visited thousands of times by scholars around the globe, and fifty-two moderated comments were posted. Each of our e-conferences ran for approximately one month, after which time the papers were removed. Programs, abstracts, special events, and our participants' comments remain live on the website.APPOSITIONS, the journal, has published five volumes, each addressing a theme: Genres and Cultures (2008); Dialogues and Exchanges (2009); Digital Archives (2010); Texts and Contexts (2011); and Artefacts (2012). Those volumes altogether include thirty-four articles, eighteen book reviews, and one interview. All of those works, including the reviews, underwent our standard peer review process. Volume 6 (currently in-production) concerns Editions and Editing. Since the release of Volume 1 (2008), our site has registered over 500,000 hits (which, of course, break down into highly specific terms that we obtain from Google Analytics).6 We have thus far received ninety-five submissions for peer review, of which fifty-three have been published. Our authors represent a wide range of professional appointments and career paths: senior and junior scholars, contingent faculty, independent researchers, and doctoral students. Many of our authors have successfully completed their tenure and promotion cases by highlighting their publications in e-journals such as ours.Having already received sponsorship from the University of Denver's Penrose Library and then, in 2009, ISSN registration with the Library of Congress, APPOSITIONS was soon thereafter catalogued by indexing services, such as Duotrope, Modern Language Association, Open J-Gate, and World-Cat (among others). After two successful years of our work, EBSCO offered APPOSITIONS a distribution contract, which now provides global access to our articles and book reviews. At no additional cost to their subscribers, EBSCO bundles our annual volumes into suites of information services. …

Homogenous Learning Styles Among Airport Management Professionals

Research on the career paths of airport management professionals included an assessment of learning styles to better understand the psychological profile of those m this career tield. Tbe Kolb Learning Styles Inventory, Version 3 (LSI-3) was used for the study for participants to self-assess their preferences for learning. General research on the validity and reliability of the (LSI-3) indicates that a roughly equal number of the general population categorize themselves in one out of four categories (Accommodators, Assimilators, Convergers, or Divergers). In the research involving airport management professionals, more than two-thirds of the respondents categorized themselves as Divergers. Another 22% categorized themselves as Accommodators. With almost 90% of the sample population represented within two of the four LSI groups, the evidence strongly suggests that airport management professionals prefer to learn by carefully evaluating defmitive outcomes in a social environmental as opposed to action-based experimentation. Curiously, these results are diametrically opposite of similar research tor another aviation related career path military pilots, most of whom (44.2%) categorized themselves as Convergers (Kanske, 1999). This research may have implications in aviation education, particularly for recognizing that some students in collegiate aviation programs may have learning styles that are aligned with airport management professionals as opposed to other technically oriented aviation careers (e.g., commercial pilot). This understanding may be helpful in counseling students, particularly those struggling to fmd an aviation career path that better fits their preferred learning environment.

Exploring the origins of careers in public relations

This study of the origins of careers in public relations seeks to contribute towards historical knowledge of public relations through content analysis of biographies and other published narratives of those who worked in the field within the US and Britain in its formative years. Opportunities for public relations to offer a career rather than simply a transitory job or occupation were identified. The potential for enhanced benefits, including greater income and higher social status, were noted as a result. However, despite evidence of the possibility of professional and bureaucratic career paths, public relations pioneers tended to reflect entrepreneurial, opportunistic and primarily commenda (agency) forms of career. Most early practitioners entered the field by chance revealing a lack of deliberate focus on seeking employment in the occupation. Their varying entry points suggest the concept of equifinality (whereby different routes may lead to the same end); although career progression for those employed in public relations support functions, and the experiences of women are largely undocumented. Overall, the tapestry of early careers in public relations reflects a common thread of communications and openness to take advantage of the changing times. Otherwise, few patterns can be detected, with individual opportunities than a specific career path being the dominant theme.

‘FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS’: VIEWING THE LIFE AND CAREER OF JOHANN FRIEDRICH FASCH (1688–1758) THROUGH THE LENS OF FINANCE

ABSTRACTThis article traces the financial profile of Johann Friedrich Fasch, Kapellmeister of Anhalt-Zerbst from 1722 to 1758, in order to gain a better understanding of how an early eighteenth-century German court musician tried to manage his money. Factors that contributed to his debt problems ranged from personal choices, matters of faith and the need to maintain a certain standard of living as director of music, to the varying degrees of financial support offered by his employers. The period during which he first began incurring debts – his student days in Leipzig – will be examined prior to viewing his professional career path through the lens of finance, beginning with Fasch's first official appointment in Gera in 1715 and ending with his death in Zerbst in 1758. Finally, understanding the extent to which Fasch's personal debts affected his productivity as a composer means not only dealing with the ‘Music-Wechsel’ that he organized and the contents of the court's ‘Concert-Stube’ music inventory from 1743, but also considering Fasch's overall work ethic and integrity as a musician.

Medical Informatics in China: Healthcare IT Trends, Academic and Research Developments

Describing the challenges and advances in medical informatics in China from the perspectives of hospital information systems, workforce, and academic, and research advances. The paper summarizes information from the CMIA (China Medical Informatics Association and findings reported by CHIMA (China Hospital Information Management Association), including a White Paper on China Hospital Information Systems. Biomedical and Health Informatics has grown considerably during the past decade in China, and is an important component of proposed government planning that includes development of healthcare cards, clinical workflow path rules, and rural medicine. CMIA has strengthened as an organization promoting education, research and academic activities, while CHIMA has sponsored many hospital-based activities, including workshops on technical and workforce IT priorities related to proposed reforms of China's healthcare system. China's challenges and opportunities in biomedical informatics and healthcare IT are considerable, with the former requiring greater promotion of academic research and educational opportunities through CMIA to support the burgeoning development of healthcare IT systems throughout the country. National and international collaboration and exchanges could lead to very useful comparative studies, Recommendations by CHIMA to the national government and academia focus on organizational and workforce standards, roles, and defining career paths for HIT professionals as well as CME education in healthcare informatics at the graduate university.

The Primary Care Physician and Health Care Reform

WHATEVER FORM IT TAKES, HEALTH CARE REform will increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance. But there is concern that the legislation will not bend the cost curve—that is, will not reduce the growth of health care costs so that it more closely resembles the growth of the US gross domestic product (GDP). Currently, health care consumes about 16% of the GDP; advocates of bending the cost curve hope that in 2020 it will still consume roughly the same proportion. Increased health care coverage raises issues in addition to cost containment. Increased coverage will mean increased demand for primary care physicians. Virtually everyone would like to have a primary care physician—a trusted physician who provides comprehensive, continuous care. Many studies, including many with international comparisons, have established the benefits of primary care. However, it is increasingly difficult to convince graduates of US medical schools to choose primary care as their professional career path. Why is there such a disconnect between the demand for and supply of primary care physicians? Two reasons appear to predominate: scope of practice and salary.

Managerial orientation and career success of physicians in hospitals

This article aims to investigate the impact of managerial orientation on the career success of physicians employed in hospitals. The authors collected data between August and October 2006 using a written questionnaire that was sent to all 278 physicians employed in two German hospitals. The data was analyzed using a multinomial logistic regression. The data indicate that a pronounced managerial orientation has indeed a positive impact on the career success of physicians in hospitals. But the results vary with respect to the different dimensions of managerial orientation. Some aspects of managerial orientation are more compatible with physicians' professional values and, consequently, more relevant for career success than others. The acquisition and improvement of management skills seems to be a crucial factor. The impact of managerial orientation on the career success of physicians has been unclear so far. Physicians are trained and socialized according to professional values and norms that are considered to be the antithesis of a managerial orientation. Furthermore, the typical career paths of professionals are different from careers of other occupational groups. However, this paper shows that physicians employed in hospitals need a certain degree of managerial orientation to have a successful and satisfying professional career.

Principals in Practice: The Importance of Mentorship in the Early Stages of Career Development

In this article we empirically assess the benefits of mentorship across a diverse range of extrinsic and intrinsic career rewards. Using an integrated model, we investigate the ways in which characteristics of the organization, as well as characteristics of both protégés and mentors affect the outcomes of mentoring relationships. Our study includes two samples: new law school graduates and a more seasoned cohort of established lawyers. Our results reveal the unique contributions of career and psychosocial mentor functions to early and established careers, as well as the substantial rewards of informal and multiple mentors to the career paths of professionals.

Is There Really A Shortage of Technical Professionals?

All of us are familiar with what I call here the Portrait of the U.S. science and engineering workforce. It appears frequently in the media, in statements by corporate leaders and lobbyists, and in Congressional testimony. It may be summarized briefly as follows: 1. There are serious or shortfalls in the U.S. of scientists and engineers--either current shortages/ shortfalls, or looming ones--that bode ill for the creativity and competitiveness of the U.S. economy. 2. The numbers of newly-educated scientists and engineers graduating from U.S. universities are insufficient for the needs of U.S. employers, this despite the fact that the science careers they are offering are growing rapidly and are attractive and well-remunerated. It is this insufficiency that is forcing U.S. high-tech firms to offshore increasing fractions of their RD and in the 2006 National Academies report Rising Above the Gathering Storm, which was the basis for substantial parts of what eventually evolved into the America COMPETES Act. The 2005 Tapping America's Potential report called for an array of policies and expenditures to double the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates by 2015, i.e., a 100 percent increase in 10 years. They were very forthright about this, with the core goal appearing right on the report's cover. The Realities Conventional does not necessarily mean correct, of course. Perhaps surprisingly, the declarative statements summarized above actually are largely inconsistent with the findings of most researchers who have come to the subject with an open mind. These include leading researchers at the Rand Corporation, Harvard University, National Bureau of Economic Research, Urban Institute, Georgetown University, Georgia State University, Stanford University, etc. Here is a similarly brief summary of the conclusions from such research: 1. There are no objective data suggesting general shortages of scientists and engineers. (Indeed some researchers suggest the empirical evidence points more toward surpluses than shortages.) There is much variation among fields, and some evidence of hiring difficulties in a few specific locales and in some sectors and technologies that are new or growing rapidly. 2. There are substantially more scientists and engineers graduating from U.S. universities than can find attractive career openings in the U.S. workforce (1). Indeed, U.S. careers in science and engineering appear to be relatively unattractive--relative, that is, to alternative professional career paths available to U.S. graduates with strengths in science and math (2). 3. Students in the off-criticized K-12 system appear to be studying science and math subjects more, and performing better in them, over time; nor are U.S. secondary school students lagging far behind comparable students in economically-competitive countries (3). …

Development at the Bedside: Evolutionary Development of the Experienced Registered Nurse

The purpose of this study was to describe the evolution of skills acquisition required for nurses to develop expertise within their clinical specialty. The goal of the research was to identify a professional career path that could be better supported through institutional infrastructures and educational programs. The results of the study demonstrate that reinforcing developmental and support loops serve as the living foundation for experienced practice and identify blockers and competing forces for skill acquisition. This article presents the nurses' perspectives of their development and focuses on the implications their responses have for staff development educators.

Credentialing Imaging Informatics Professionals: Creation of Items for the CIIP Examination

Credentialing Imaging Informatics Professionals: Creation of Items for the CIIP Examination

The changing face of HRM: in search of balance

Current models of HRM suggest that expectations about HR roles are changing as organisations are striving to make the HR function leaner and more ‘strategic’. In our article we explore the changing roles of HRM as they are perceived by different stakeholder groups within the HR profession through the medium of a study examining the diffusion of the concept of ‘the thinking performer’ launched by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in 2002. We explain how the concept of business partnering dominates respondents' talk about HR policy and practice and raise questions about the impact of this in terms of HRM's relationship with employees, employee well‐being and the career paths of HR professionals. We argue that the profession needs to reflect seriously on the consequences of a dominant business/strategic partner framing of HR work, which fails to address the duality that has historically always been inherent in HR practice. We conclude that there is a need for a more balanced HR agenda addressing human and economic concerns in current and future models of HRM.

In the voice of teachers: The promise and challenge of participating in classroom-based research for teachers’ professional learning

This article provides an initial exploration of the impact of teachers’ involvement with classroom-based research projects on their professional learning. Interviews with classroom teachers are used to explore their experiences of working with Graham Nuthall and his research teams, who focused on finding out how students’ interactions with teaching events affected their learning. The aim was to investigate whether teacher involvement with research on and about their own classrooms contributed to their professional learning, changed their teaching practices, and made a difference to their professional career paths. This study draws on the literature around effective teacher learning and compares it with the impact of teacher involvement with the Nuthall classroom research projects.

Professional Careers of the German Olympic Athletes

Successful careers in top-performance sports demand large amounts of time and personal resources and normally they take a course parallel to the period of educational and professional qualification. Regarding careers of former top-performance athletes, the question arises as to how far the engagement in top-performance sports has an influence on the professional career path. This article aims to categorize the professional careers of top-performance athletes and to connect them with the subjective ratings of the respondents. This will be carried out by means of objective life-course data of former Olympic athletes. The theoretical approach is based on recent conceptions of life-course research and of professional socialization research. In a postal inquiry of 616 successful German Olympic athletes (male and female) the sports and professional careers were recorded retrospectively. The results show that former top-performance athletes generally have higher educational qualifications and professional positions than the German population. But as there are big differences with regard to the individual career patterns, a typology of professional careers seems to be practical. For that purpose, a classification typology of professional careers was developed using cluster analysis. The engagement in sports rather favours the professional career in its course.

The Rainmaker in Today's Professional Service Organizations

ABSTRACT Professional service firms have relied heavily in the past on a small number of rainmakers-people who have influence and bring business into their firms. In today's competitive marketplace, everyone in the organization must be involved in the practice development process. This paper, based on a series of interviews with accounting professionals, identifies the roles and responsibilities for practice development inherent at every stage of the professional accountant's career path. Additionally, the roles and responsibilities of marketing professionals in professional service firms are also considered.

Impact of downsizing on employees of community health‐care service organizations

This study was designed to determine the impact of downsizing on the quality of work life for the nursing staff of community health‐care service organizations. Its objectives were to: identify the perceived impact of downsizing on the quality of their work life; determine the implications; and make recommendations on how to minimize or eliminate the negative impact and maximize the positive aspects. Analysis of the qualitative data indicated that there was a significant negative impact on the quality of the staff’s work life. Further analysis of comparative data revealed that the negative impact on work life was mitigated, as staff assumed responsibility for their professional development and career path. Although the adverse effect of downsizing was strongly supported in this study, there were also indications that its lasting impact was questionable. Evidence surfaced indicating that, after downsizing, additional benefits were derived, which enhance staff’s quality of life and the organizational climate.