Career Management Challenge: Balancing Individual and Organizational Needs

In this highly readable book, Peter Herriot looks at the individual and strategic organizational dimensions of career management. In particular, he argues that organizations will increasingly need to manage a complex individual-organizational `balancing act′ as an essential ingredient of their human resource strategies.

Herriot shows how key current and future trends will lead organizations to make increasing demands on employees. Individual employees will also come to expect more from their organizations. He discusses the balances that need to be struck between individual and organizational expectations and the human resource management implications of achieving this, both in organizational cultures and values, and in the various career management systems that will need to be introduced.

'a fascinating new book' - Tom Lloyd, Sunday Telegraph

`It is persuasively argued with a wealth of illustration and an approach both logical and level-headed which this reviewer found most attractive.... Students following courses on human resource management... will find it immensely valuable. Above all, it should be required reading for all college senior managements as they prepare themselves to face the challenges of incorporation, not to mention directorates within the university sector.' - The Vocational Aspect of Education

`Herriot draws upon a wide range of research on careers to develop these ideas. It is a compelling and stimulating framework which provides important practical insights, since the way we think about careers influences how we manage our own and those of others. It would seem that this approach has a lot more to offer than other perspectives, because it is rooted in social interactions rather than organizational systems or individual career stages. If we think about careers as negotiated we are more likely to attempt to share expectations.... Here we have an immensely valuable foundation for the development of a much-needed interactional theory of career development with clear implications for adult careers counselling.... This book deserves to be widely read. For practising managers it achieves the rare feat of making current theory and research accessible and relevant. For researchers it provides a welcome coherence in a fragmented field. Above all it is a highly enjoyable and refreshing read.' - The Occupational Psychologist

`my favourite which does manage to bring in this sense of the personal is The Career Management Challenge.... The number of issues in current organisational reality are dealt with comprehensively.... Reading this individuals will find a wealth of thought-provoking guidance in terms of how to ensure the most effective psychological contract for them.' - Management Education and Development

`Herriot's nice relaxed writing style would admirably suit the busy general manager... recommended.' - Empowerment in Organizations

`it is clear, well-written and contains some imaginative insights into the nature of professional careers in the 1990s. The book is likely to be of use to forward thinking companies and HRM specialists, students on management and business degree schemes and to academics interested in career development issues, HRM and organizational behaviour.' - International Journal of Human Resource Management

`good chapters on `Business Trends' and `Changing Demands on the Employee'. [Herriot] is helpful in talking about the balancing act involved in reconciling the interests of the individual and organizations. He has a very thought-provoking chapter called `Change and Support', in which he discusses the different pillars of change - assumptions, values, behaviour and systems... he gives strong recognition to the issue of `Self Development'.... Herriot's nice relaxed writing style would admirably suit the busy general manager.' - International Journal of Career Management