ASSIGNMENT NUMBER – 1

TOPIC – 3:

Researchers have detected the “boundary less career” as a new form of the
relationship between organizations and individuals. Explain this new
career concept and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of boundary
less careers for workers and organizations. Are boundary less careers good
for everyone?

STUDENT NUMBER: 1724759

SUBJECT CODE: BUAP03

PROGRAMME: MBA
INTRODUCTION:

Until recently, climbing up the traditional hierarchical ladder within an organization was a
way of making a career. The dawn of the new era has brought about fundamental changes in
the structure of the world in terms of changing mindsets, globalization, and several other
path-breaking changes. This has resulted in a new way of looking at careers on the whole.
The credit crunch has resulted into careers that are more temporary and more elusive.
Organizational changes have impacted people’s mindsets in such a way that a stable, long,
fulfilling career in one organization is no longer seen as the way to be. Employees are now
more open to change and are always looking forward to different types of challenges as they
carve their own destinies without limiting themselves to one particular organization.
Obviously, as careers become more and more unpredictable, individuals no longer depend
upon their employers for defining their careers. The traditional attitude towards careers can
be conceptualized as ‘organizational careers’ or ‘protean careers’. In this career model,
people are employed with only one organization throughout their careers, and cherish the
stability, security and the steady growth offered by the organization. The newest career
model that modern entrepreneurs aspire can be termed as ‘Boundaryless Careers’. A
Boundary less career can be defined as, “a sequence of job opportunities that go beyond the
boundaries of a single employment setting”. (DeFilippi And Arthur, 1996, p.116)

Comparison between Boundary less careers and Traditional Organizational careers:

Organizational or Protean Boundary less career

career
Boundaries One or two firms Multiple firms
Identity Employer-dependent Employer-Independent
Employment-Relationship Job security for loyalty Employability for
performance and flexibility
Skills Firm Specific Transferrable
Success measured by: Pay, Promotion, Status Psychological meaningful
work
Responsibility for career Organization Individual
management:
Key Attitudes Organizational commitment Work satisfaction
Source: Adapted from DeFillippi & Arthur (1996), Hall (2004), Sullivan (1999)

Further insights into the concept of Boundary less Careers:

Baker and Aldrich (1996) enrich the concept of Boundary less Careers by defining it using 3
distinct dimensions:

Knowledge Accumulation:

This is the measure of the degree of market valued skills and knowledge that an individual
gains through multiple work experiences. It also arises from training. There is an
accumulation of knowledge due to multiple job experiences. Certain skills can be learnt from
each job that an individual changes in a boundary less career. These transferrable skills then
strengthen the overall marketability of the individual. This further increases the opportunities
that the individual would receive in the future. These transferrable skills will be prominently
identified in certain professionals like accountants, lawyers, etc (Tolbert, 1996).

Human Capital:

Human capital refers to the network of human contacts that an individual holds. In an
organizational career, an individual comes in contact with a number of people due to which
his network of contacts increases. In an organizational career, the contacts possessed by
individuals are generally limited to his level of hierarchy in the organization, with little
informal communication with higher levels. But in a boundary less career, the network for the
individual would be across the scales of hierarchy. This would lead to the individual getting
more chances of future opportunities and growth owing to his increased human network
(Baker and Aldrich, 1996).

Personal Identity:

Personal identity plays an important role in boundary less careers. This is because, the
individual has complete control to choose the career of his interest and make appropriate
career decisions as per his interests at that particular point of time on his life. Thus there is an
increased sense of personal identity and this further boosts the overall marketability of the
individual.
To further strengthen the concept using Baker and Aldrich’s Career dimensions, we
hypothesize that contract or temporary workers fall into four career subgroups such as:
Traditional, career, transitional and boundary less careers which can be separated on
weighing factors like preference for temporary work, travel preferences, nature of work, and
degree of human capital (Baker and Aldrich, 1996).

Applicability of Boundary less Careers:

Researchers in Australia have found out that more people are inclined towards the traditional
Organizational career than follow the current trend (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996). This
implies that people still want organizations to take control of their careers. But it was also
seen that when organizations do not involve their resources actively towards focusing on
individual careers, then people tend to get frustrated and dissatisfied. It was also observed
that some very senior employees of organizations were very dissatisfied with the way their
careers were shaping up with time (Sparrow, 1996). Such professionals are of very high value
to any organization and would not leave the organization, but their productivity towards the
organization is also vital in several ways to the organization. Thus it is the organization which
is responsible for making sure that every employee, especially the senior members of the
corporation are able to meet their career objectives. This concept of carving one’s own career
path is driving more and more people towards boundary less careers.
Advantages and disadvantages of Boundary less careers:

Multiple employer experiences for an individual in a boundary less career is an advantage

because they support skill development, enhance personal satisfaction and shifts career
control to the employee. In this career one can choose when, where and how long to work.
Studying the implications of boundary less careers on two types of workers, one being
unskilled, specific, labour oriented workers and the other being engineering-skilled workers
with a very well defined and market oriented skill set. The results are interesting. Unskilled
workers, likes ones employed for meter reading, or bottle corking or others such unskilled
work may not benefit much from the concept of boundary less careers. This is because the
skill-sets are very specific to the organization they belong and the market requirement of their
skills is not very high.
Contrastingly if we consider highly skilled engineering workers, they have a high demand in
the market. They can therefore increase or refine their skill-set with every- organization they
are a part of. They could also build up their social contacts and can reap benefits from
changing careers to find more paying and fulfilling jobs. Unskilled workers rather be content
with the job security they get from the organization they are a part of.
Firms will face a disadvantage, if the jobs are unstable for the employees, as the workers are
likely to demand more explicit and breakdown of employment relationship break down. For
example, in Japan and Korea similar concerns are surfacing with changes in long-established
employment practices forced by the financial reforms.
Research suggests that a person’s performance in an organization depends on his social
connectivity. Therefore, when we speak of network structures, there are some organizational
structures which offer a distinct advantage over the others. Structures which are horizontal
rather than vertical offer connectivity to the individual, not only to people who belong to his
hierarchy, but also to people above or below him (Arthur, Rousseau, 2001). This is also
referred to as an individual’s social capital. So, individuals in boundaryless careers have a
very broad social structure than ones in the traditional protean careers. Access to information
is another key concept associated with organizational structures and boundaryless careers.
When information is transferred vertically, it has to go through various bureaucratic levels
before it reaches you. In such a scenario, the quality of information would deteriorate and the
time taken for the information to come through would also be high. In a horizontal structure
associated with boundarylessness, the flow of information would be direct across any level
through to the level of the individual who seeks them. This increased transparency ensures
that the quality of information is retained and that the time taken for information to reach the
final level decreases (Coleman, James, 1990). This is certainly an advantage of boundary less
careers.
Another interesting perspective to look at boundary less careers would be to study its age
implications. It is obvious that old workers in an organization have spent several years in
developing an identity, and a skill-set which they perceive would define them for years to
follow. Changing careers for reasons whatsoever would be a dilemma for the older lot. This
requires abilities which are unconventional and are not too specific. Or in other words one
needs to be extremely dynamic and must be capable of offering his or her services as per the
current demands of the market. It would therefore not be the option which older people would
be drawn towards. Older people may also be conventional in their ideas on ‘place’ or
‘workspace’. This concept has been made really dynamic with the onset of boundary less
careers. Older people would prefer working in traditional workplaces with lots of scope of
social interaction, and in simple work hours. Hence the idea of boundary less careers would
not be buyable for an older audience (Hall, 1995).
Theoretical Aspects of Boundary less careers:

Just like the central theme of protean careers is ‘self-fulfilment’, the central theme around
which boundary less careers is based would be ‘identity’ (Bauman, 2001). The geographical
implication of boundary less careers is of utmost significance to the theoretical aspect of
boundarylessness. A simpler way of addressing geographical implications would be to
address them as ‘place’.
Place can be defined as a temporarily bound location which carries a sense of meaning. A
space is always imbued by norms, and is often policed by gate keepers or enforcers.
(Giddens, 19984)
The concept of space becomes significant because boundarylessness lays very little emphasis
on place. Freelancers or contractors do not need to be enclosed in office cubicles. They may
work from their own homes till the time they are contracted with the company.
Giddens argues that place has become less significant in these modern ages and this has also
resulted into a fall in social activities. He also argues that individuals have become very
unsociable and are very much content in following their own social calendars without much
emphasis being laid on the current social scenario. Although individuals are confronted with
knowledge, the relative status of the knowledge is very poor. Place has a close association
with routine. Boundarylessness reduces the dependence of an individual on routine owing to
geographical mobility. Senette quotes that “Routine can demean, but it can also protect;
routine can decompose labour but it can also compose a life” (Senette, 1998).

CONCLUSIONS:

To conclude the discussion regarding boundary less careers, we find that boundary less
careers are like distant cousins of the traditional protean career. The onset of Boundary less
careers has modified the psychological relationship between employees and employers
(Schein, 1978). In the traditional organizational career, there existed a mutual understanding
between an employer and an employee wherein the employee would have to work hard and
follow the guidelines laid by the employers. In return, the employer would guarantee a long-
lived career, security and life-long monitory benefits. Job security has now been replaced by
employability (De Muse, Bergmann & Lester, 2001). For boundary less careers, an individual
would need to develop new competencies relating to self-development. Success would then
be measured in psychological terms such as achieving job satisfaction, or family stability
(Hall, 1996). In order for individuals to succeed in this boundary less age, they need to posses
certain skills termed as ‘metaskills’ which focus on personality development and career
management more than anything else. This is not possible for everyone to master,
Thus, only individuals with exceptional, specialized skills and a very forthcoming attitude
should venture out into boundary less careers. Therefore, it may be concluded that although
boundarylessness is the future that’s going to be upon us very soon, that is certainly this
concept is certainly not for everyone.
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