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IMPORTANCE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT AS A DETERMINANT OF ORGANIZATIONAL GROWTH

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Career development as a phenomenon is regarded as a concern to scholars, researchers, decision makers and human resources experts. These stakeholders in human capital development strive to manage issues such as recruitment, selection, training and development, promotion, and so on emanating from career development. Further, organizations in particular endeavor to manage career development issues and how they affect organizational growth. However, career development is defined as “an ongoing, formalized effort by an organization that focuses on developing and enriching the organization’s human resources in light of both the employees’ and the organization’s needs” (Byars and Rue, 2004). As obtained in the definition, both the employees’ and organization’ needs are factors into career development. Therefore, the concept of career development can be regarded as a platform that aids employees look beyond their present jobs and prepare for brighter future positions within organizations and sometimes outside the organizations. This process enables organizations to have adequate, required, and formidable human resources for their growth and relevance in the industry. It is worthy to note that some challenges such as restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, etc., have great impact on the approach in which employees and organizations view career.

Career development is not a new issue, but the controversial aspect of it, is who should be responsible for its implementation? Should it be sole responsibility of employees or the employers? However, in the recent past, individuals engage in personal career development (Hall, 2002) by getting involved in personal educational advancement and professional training; which may or may not align with their present organizational goals. On the other hand, organizations may choose to training or develop their employees in alignment to their present needs and also prepare them for future organizational needs (Humphries and Dyer, 2001). Essentially, employers may not be able to retain their trained and developed employees in this present competitive labour market having exposed them to various training and development opportunities, which could be detrimental to the organizational growth

The business competition requires the company to make innovation not only on product produced but also on services quality provided. On the other hand, the company also must be able to defend human resources who owned by the company because they are a component of main resources in the company operational activities. One of ways to maintain the human resources is giving a chance to the fairly career development. Activities in career developmnet can be sponsored by human resources development, the manager and been made individually without depending on company (Ivancevich and Glueck, 1989). Career development looks at the long-term career effectiveness and success of organizational personnel (Decenzo &Robbins, 2010:211). Career development need the involvements of organization and individual efforts. Human resources department and manager efforts related to the organization efforts like held training and development programs and give promotion opportunity. According to Leibowitzet al., (1986), training is used for technical skill taught, while development usually refer to programs that try to improve human relations and conceptual of manager. Human resources department often hold training and development programs for the employees because they are very beneficial of the organization and employee. While, Simamora (2003) said that, “promotion is transferring employee from one job to another job that has higher level in terms of payment, responsibility and the level of organization.” So, when an employee has a good promotion chance, he has done the development of his career.

Workers in contemporary society are expressing a strong desire to pursue more than just a job. They are looking for employment opportunities that promise an extension of their interests, personality and abilities. Then want a variety of things from their jobs besides a pay cheque and a few fringe benefits, and their loyalty to the organization depends upon the degree to which their employer satisfies these wants (Kent & Otte, 1982, Agba, 2004). With improved living standards, workers are no longer satisfied to have just a job and the usual fringe benefits. They want a career that expresses their interests, personality, abilities and that harmonizes with their total life situation. Unfortunately, most employers have failed to recognize this need, and the tools and experiences they provide do not enable workers to develop in their career.

Today an individual's career is no longer tied to a single organization, as career changes and job mobility have become common phenomena (Rousseau, 1998). To be successful in one's career, employees today have to balance the relationship between their desire for career growth and their attitudes toward their current organizations. Recent research has shown career growth opportunities to be an important determinant of employee–organizational relationships. Organizations that provide mechanisms for employee career growth create a mutual investment type of relationship with their employees (Tsui, Pearce, Porter, & Tripoli, 1997), a relationship that ties career growth to important outcomes such as organizational commitment (Weng, McElroy, Morrow, & Liu, 2010). However, one would expect that any relationship between career growth and employee outcomes would depend on whether the employee is committed to pursuing a career, rather than simply holding a job, in the first place.

Rather than considering career growth in terms of the general utility of one's present job for future career outcomes (Bedeian, Kemery, & Pizzolatto, 1991), we use Weng's (2010) multidimensional conceptualization of career growth. His model suggests that career growth consists of four factors: meeting career goals, developing one's professional abilities, and receiving promotions, and compensation commensurate with those abilities. In essence, this view of career growth is an individual-level, organization specific, concept. That is, he argues that career growth is a measure of the degree to which an individual perceives that their current organization creates an environment in which the employee is able to meet his/her career-related needs and reinforces those accomplishments through promotions and compensation (Weng et al., 2010). Therefore, this study focuses on the importance of career development as a determinant of organizational growth, a case study of indomie plc.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

High salaries, good working conditions, health and dental insurance, retirement plans, stock purchase programmes, reduced work hours, technological advancement, educational reimbursement programmes among others might seem to be the necessary ingredients for individual happiness and fulfillment in the world of work. Despite these benefits, there are many employees at all levels that appear to be dissatisfied and delusion with themselves, their work and their future. Most workers realize that in any organizational setting, they must have opportunities for continuing growth and advancement if they are to be satisfied. Where the employer can provide the worker with these opportunities, a proper attitude of loyalty and satisfaction can be developed and performance enhanced.

In the past, the word “work” often had a negative connotation, implying something that was done for economic survival and was not expected to provide personal employment. Most workers today are looking for a career that means something more than just a job with the usual fringe benefits. These problems necessitates the need to carry out a study on the importance of career development as a determinant of organizational growth, a case study of indomie plc.

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY  

The general objective of this study is to examine the importance of career development as a determinant of organizational growth. The specific objectives include the following:

1.       To find out the extent to which management show interest in the career development of its employees.

2.       To ascertain the relationship between career development and employees’ commitment.

3.       To investigate the impact of career development on the productivity of indomie PLC.

4.       To examine the effects of variables such as skills, experience, promotion exercise, values and recognition and reward have on organizational growth.  

5.       To know examine the relationship between career development variables such as career opportunities, career advancement, career counseling and employee commitment in indomie plc.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The relevant research questions related to this study include the following:

1.     What is the extent to which management show interest in the career development of its employees?

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