Prologue

Flourishing

Social psychology

Employability

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Archaeology

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Psychological contract

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Academy of Management Perspectives

Academy of Management PerspectivesVol. 10, No. 4 ArticlesProtean Careers of the 21st CenturyDouglas T. HallDouglas T. HallPublished Online:1 Nov 1996https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1996.3145315AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail View articleAbstract"The career is dead—long live the career!" Such is the mixed message regarding careers that we are carrying into the next millennium. The business environment is highly turbulent and complex, resulting in terribly ambiguous and contradictory career signals. Individuals, perhaps in self-defense, are becoming correspondingly ambivalent about their desires and plans for career development. The traditional psychological contract in which an employee entered a firm, worked hard, performed well, was loyal and committed, and thus received ever-greater rewards and job security, has been replaced by a new contract based on continuous learning and identity change, guided by the search for what Herb Shepard called "the path with a heart." In short, the organizational career is dead, while the protean career is alive and flourishing. In this special issue of The Executive we will examine the ways the career environment and the executive of the 21st century will shape the direction of careers in the years to come. In this opening paper, we will provide a brief overview of the emerging career landscape, for both organizations and individuals. Then we will turn to an overview of the papers in this Special Issue and then to the papers themselves.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byIs What’s Past Prologue? A Review and Agenda for Contemporary Employability ResearchMel Fugate, Beatrice van der Heijden, Ans De Vos, Anneleen Forrier and Nele De Cuyper2 February 2021 | Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 15, No. 1When People Don’t Realize Their Career Desires: Toward a Theory of Career InactionMarijke Verbruggen and Ans De Vos21 April 2020 | Academy of Management Review, Vol. 45, No. 2CEO Career Variety: Effects on Firm-Level Strategic and Social NoveltyCraig Crossland, Jinyong Zyung, Nathan J. Hiller and Donald C. Hambrick23 August 2013 | Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 57, No. 3Stimulating Informal Learning Activities Through Perceptions of Performance Appraisal Quality and Human Resource Management System Strength: A Two-Wave StudyTimothy C. Bednall, Karin Sanders and Piety Runhaar18 April 2013 | Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 13, No. 1From E-Mentoring to Blended Mentoring: Increasing Students' Developmental Initiation and Mentors' SatisfactionWendy Marcinkus Murphy10 February 2012 | Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 10, No. 4Newcomer Adaptation in Teams: Multilevel Antecedents and OutcomesGilad Chen1 February 2005 | Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 48, No. 1The Impact Of Expectations On Newcomer Performance In Teams As Mediated By Work Characteristics, Social Exchanges, And EmpowermentGilad Chen and Richard J. Klimoski30 November 2017 | Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 46, No. 5Reconceptualizing Mentoring at Work: A Developmental Network PerspectiveMonica C. Higgins and Kathy E. Kram1 April 2001 | Academy of Management Review, Vol. 26, No. 2 Vol. 10, No. 4 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 1 November 1996 Published in print 1 November 1996 Information© Academy of Management PerspectivesKeywordsOCCUPATIONSCAREER developmentJOB satisfaction -- Psychological aspectsPERSONNEL managementLABOR contractCONTRACTS for work & laborEMPLOYEES -- AttitudesOCCUPATIONAL achievementWORK valuesQUALITY of work lifeJOB enrichmentWORK -- Psychological aspectsDownload PDF

Protean Careers of the 21st Century