Career paths : charting courses to success for organizations and their employees

"I like how Carter, Cook, and Dorsey have balanced the perspective and needs of the employee with the needs of the organization. They've provided a practical toolkit for practitioners, rooted in a strong conceptual model. I have looked at other sources on career paths in organizations, but this is the book I'd actually use to design a system."
Steven D. Ashworth Ph.D , Manager, Human Resource Research & Analysis, Sempra Energy Utilities

"If you are, like me, a consultant who helps organizations develop and utilize their talent toward maximum performance; or a business leader building a worldclass organization with limited financial resources; or a Human Resources manager whose Generation Y employees are anxious to get ahead - you need to read this book. It clearly defines the 'why' and 'how' of using career path models as the foundation for a comprehensive talent management process."
Gena Cox Ph.D , Managing Consultant, Human Capital Resource Center

Career Paths offers a career path model and useful tools and tips for developing, implementing, and integrating career paths into talent management systems. The authors describe the value of career paths from individual employee, organizational, and industry standpoints and show how career path efforts can be integrated with recruitment and hiring, strategic planning, succession management, employee development, and retention programs. With a sample career path guide and a list of resources for organizations, this book is an indispensable reference for HR professionals, managers and executives, training and development professionals, and organizational consultants.

Author Notes

Gary W. Carter Ph.D, is a Vice President at Personnel Decisions Research Institutes (PDRI). He is the leader of human capital consulting services in PDRI's Washington, DC office. Dr Carter is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with over 20 years of experience designing and implementing human capital systems, and career path and talent management tools.
Kevin W. Cook Ph.D, has 15 years of experience in design, development, implementation, and evaluative research of assessment and development methodologies at all employee levels. He is an expert in the field of talent management with an emphasis on global leadership assessment and development and multinational talent programs.
David W. Dorsey Ph.D, is a Vice President at Personnel Decisions Research Institutes (PDRI). He has over 15 years of experience in human capital consulting and applied research and development. He has conducted innovative work in the areas of performance measurement, career management, and training and development, produced numerous professional publications, and received multiple research awards.

Series Editor's Preface	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Chapter 1 Introduction	p. 1
What are Career Paths?	p. 2
The Goal of This Book	p. 19
Overview	p. 21
Chapter 2 A Conceptual Toolkit for Constructing Career Paths	p. 23
Career Path Attributes	p. 26
Career Path Patterns	p. 27
Outcomes	p. 29
The Bottom Line	p. 31
Chapter 3 A Practical Toolkit for Constructing Career Paths	p. 33
Sources and Methods	p. 34
Past	p. 34
Present	p. 37
Future	p. 37
A Note about the Special Role of Interviews and Focus Groups	p. 38
How to Construct Career Paths	p. 39
Initial Steps	p. 39
Sequential List of Positions or Roles	p. 47
Qualifications	p. 53
Critical Developmental Experiences	p. 54
Competencies that are Accrued, Strengthened, or Required	p. 56
Career Success Factors	p. 60
Other Information	p. 63
Explicit Focus on Movement	p. 64
Promoting Alignment	p. 64
Assessment of Personal Attributes and Career Paths	p. 64
Implementation Tips	p. 65
The Bottom Line	p. 67
Chapter 4 Integrating Career Paths into Talent Management Systems I: Recruitment, Hiring, Retention, Promotion, and Employee Development	p. 69
Connecting the Employee to the Organization	p. 69
Engaging the New Workforce	p. 72
Recruitment and Hiring	p. 73
Retention	p. 80
Promotion	p. 81
Development Planning and Execution	p. 83
The Bottom Line	p. 89
Chapter 5 Integrating Career Paths into Talent Management Systems II: Strategic Workforce Planning, the Early Identification and Development of Executive Talent, and Succession Management	p. 91
Keeping an Eye on the Big Picture	p. 91
Strategic Workforce Planning	p. 92
Identifying and Developing Early-Career, High-Potential Leadership Talent	p. 95
Who Are Our High Potentials?	p. 95
How Can We Develop (and Promote) Them Faster?	p. 97
Managing Communications Regarding High Potentials	p. 98
Succession Management	p. 99
Evaluating Readiness for Promotion in the Context of Succession Management	p. 101
Methods for Evaluating Readiness	p. 102
Keeping Those "Not Yet Ready" on the Path(s) to Get There	p. 102
The Bottom Line	p. 105
Chapter 6 Expanding Success Beyond the Individual Organization - Industry and Economic Development Perspectives	p. 107
Career Paths and the Industry Perspective	p. 109
Examples	p. 110
Differences between Industry Career Paths and Organizational Career Paths	p. 116
Career Paths and the Economic Development Perspective	p. 118
Examples	p. 120
Differences between Career Paths Designed for Economic Development Purposes and Organizational Career Paths	p. 124
Labor Market Analyses and Analyses of Cross-Occupation Requirements	p. 125
Labor Market Analyses	p. 125
Analyses of Requirements across Occupations	p. 126
The Bottom Line	p. 127
Chapter 7 Looking to the Future	p. 129
Trend One - Demographic Trends	p. 130
Implications for Organizations	p. 131
Trend Two - Technology	p. 132
Implications for Organizations	p. 134
Trend Three - Globalization and Changing Organizational Structures	p. 134
Implications for Organizations	p. 135
Trend Four - Defining Career Success	p. 136
Implications for Organizations	p. 136
The Bottom Line	p. 137
Career Path Resource List	p. 139
Notes	p. 143
References	p. 147
Name Index	p. 151
Subject Index	p. 153

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