BDO 329: M2 UNIT 1.3

THE PRINCIPAL STAGES OF ADULT CAREER DEVELOPMENT: The early adulthood life stage (age 28 to 45)

Encompasses two periods: the establishment and achievement phases. Major developmental tasks of the establishment and achievement phases include: learning the job, learning organisational rules and norms, fitting into the chosen occupation and organisation, increasing competence, sustaining employability and pursuing one’s career goals and life interests.

THE PRINCIPAL STAGES OF ADULT CAREER DEVELOPMENT: he mid-career or middle adulthood life stage (age 45 to 60)

is initiated by the mid-life transition, which serves as a bridge between early and middle adulthood. Major developmental tasks include: reappraising early career and early adulthood, reaffirming or modifying career goals, making choices appropriate to middle adult years, remaining productive in work and sustaining one’s employability.

THE PRINCIPAL STAGES OF ADULT CAREER DEVELOPMENT: the late adulthood life stage (age 60 to retirement).

The developmental tasks of the late adulthood life stage include: remaining productive in work, maintaining self-esteem and preparing for effective retirement (Greenhaus et al, 2010). Each of these stages is discussed below in more detail. Table 5.2 provides an overview of the career competencies that adults need to develop to sustain successful careers.

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE: The Early adulthood 28-

In early adulthood (age 28 to 45) physical and cognitive development is at its peak. In terms of physical functioning, it is a time of energy, health and biological vigour, with instinctive drives high. Cognitive functioning is characterised by good memory, abstract thinking ability, problem-solving ability and learning new skills

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE LEVINSON (1978): 1. NOVICE PHASE- pre early adulthood (18-28 or 30 years)

The novice phase relates to the pre-early adulthood phase (approximately between the ages of 18 and 28 or 30, ie emerging adulthood).

During this phase, the individual is a novice adult — ie a novice lover, a novice spouse and a novice worker.

In all these aspects of life, new relationships have to be found, including relationships with family, mentors, bosses and seniors at work.

The task of this phase is, primarily, finding a place for oneself in the adult world.

This involves two tasks, which can be of an opposing nature, namely exploring the adult world and creating a stable adult life structure at the same time.

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE LEVINSON (1978): 2. TRANSITIONAL PHASE- 1st phase of early adulthood

• The first phase of early adulthood is a transitional phase, which Levinson et al (1978) call the ‘age thirty transition’.

• It lasts for approximately three to five years.

• In this phase, the individual experiences life as becoming more serious, and the individual has a sense of having to change before it is too late for change.

• This transition can be smooth, or it can amount to a crisis. In general, it involves modification of some aspects of life, but not revolutionary changes.

• The ‘age thirty transition’ phase may now occur between the ages of 20 and 35 due to the changing characteristics of the contemporary workplace and dynamic nature of the 21st- century career.

• This phase is generally now referred to as the quarter-life quandary and can be quite overwhelming for the young adult

Individuals in an early-life/career stage experiencing quarter- life crises or quandaries are confronted by life questions such as:

1. Where do I belong?

2. Am I useless just because I can’t define what my life’s dream is?

3. What if I try something new and I fail?

4. Am I useless just because I can’t define what my life’s dream is?

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE LEVINSON (1978): 3. SETTLING DOWN

the self has to become engaged in the world; in other words, individuals have to fulfil goals and aspirations set earlier and they have to find a niche in society.

Promotion is of primary concern at this time, and the psychological success resulting from high performance during this time period is expected to add to greater work involvement.

Challenges include balancing the demands of career and family, and needs include achievement, esteem, autonomy and competition

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE (ERIKSON): INTIMACY

Erikson (1963) regards the developmental task of early adulthood as developing intimacy, which refers to commitment and involvement. This task is realised through relationships with a loved one, with a co-worker, with a boss or, to a certain extent, through involvement in a commitment to an organisation.

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE (ERIKSON): SENSE OF EGO IDENTITY

Young adults’ sense of ego identity revolves around intimacy, which has developed from role-testing in adolescence to more stable affiliations in early adulthood (Erikson, 1963). This is based on a readiness to develop ethical strength by binding themselves to that to which they are committed, although it may involve sacrifices and compromises.

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE (ERIKSON): ETHICAL STRENGTHS 

Some young adults encounter problems because their newly found sense of ego identity is still fragile and they fear they may lose it. They tend to avoid involvement in life aspects that provide intimacy.

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE: SUBJECTIVE PRIORITIES THAT YOUNG ADULTS SEEK IN THEIR FIRST JOBS INCLUDE

• Opportunity for advancement

• Social status and recognition 

• Responsibility

• Opportunities to use special aptitudes and educational background

• Challenges and adventure

• Opportunities to be creative and original 

• High salaries

PHASES AND LIFE TASKS OF THE EARLY ADULTHOOD LIFE/CAREER STAGE: YOUNG ADULTS BETWEEN THE AGE OF 20 AND 30 ARE EXPERIENCING LIFE/CAREER CHALLENGES SUCH AS:

• earning a living;

• finding a job matching one’s qualifications;

• continuously furthering one’s qualifications;

• gaining more experience;

• being more assertive;

• work disillusionment;

• upskilling oneself; and

• living one’s dream

ESTABLISHMENT DESCRIBE ORGANISATIONAL ACTIONS FOR ASSISTING WITH EARLY CAREER ISSUES

• The early career is the period of career establishment or stabilisation.

The organisation must assist new employees in fitting into their jobs.

• Socialisation in the organisation (see Chapter 8) forms an integral part of establishment.

• Becoming socialised to the organisation involves learning more about it and becoming adjusted to its expectations, policies, procedures and culture. Furthermore, a well-negotiated psychological contract can increase mutual acceptance and minimise uncertainties in both employer and employee

ESTABLISHMENT DESCRIBE ORGANISATIONAL ACTIONS FOR ASSISTING WITH EARLY CAREER ISSUES: ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN BY ORGANISATION

• Realistic Recruitment Program (highlight differences between expectations and reality)

• Effective Orientation Program

• Provide the necessary training

• Effective socializing program

• Early job challenge

• Feedback

• Satisfaction for needs of competence and acceptance.

•  Mentoring

ACHEIVEMENT DESCRIBE ORGANISATIONAL ACTIONS FOR ASSISTING WITH EARLY CAREER ISSUES

• Once a certain degree of security and acceptance has been established in the organisation, the individual strives for achievement.

• involves a period during which the individual displays desire for promotion and advancement within the organization

ACHEIVEMENT DESCRIBE ORGANISATIONAL ACTIONS FOR ASSISTING WITH EARLY CAREER ISSUES: ACTIONS THAT TO BE TAKEN BY THE ORGANIZATION TO INCREASE EFFECTIVE ACHIEVEMENT

• Early job challenge

• Promotion

• Direct supervisor (role model, coach, trainer)

• constructing realistic and flexible career paths

• promote the self-assessment

• to develop a career development plan

KEY LIFE TASKS AND CHALLENGES OF EARLY ADULTHOOD

❑ Achieve independence and responsibility

❑ Develop self reliance and autonomy

❑ Establishing your identity

❑ Find your place in and contributing to the community.

❑ Make an impact on your environment

❑ Become established in a career and in family life.

❑ Develop intimacy, become "committed" and involved-

❑ Develop stable affiliations

❑ Increase employability and career resilience (dealing with job transitions and sustaining employability)

❑ Deal constructively with quarter life crisis

DESCRIBE THE CHARACTERISTICS AND LIFE TASKS OF THE MIDLIFE/CAREER STAGE: People in middle adulthood face the following challenges

• earning a living

• upskilling oneself/further development

• living one’s dream

• achieving one’s goals

• Recognition

• plateauing; and

• downsizing/redundant

DESCRIBE THE CHARACTERISTICS AND LIFE TASKS OF THE MIDLIFE/CAREER STAGE

Levinson et al (1978) maintain that the individual acquires a stronger sense of identity in the middle years through greater individuation.

Individuation clarifies the boundaries between individuals and the outside world. It also means that individuals understand who they are and what they want to be and do.

In order to achieve individuation, certain psychological polarities must be resolved, namely young/old, destruction/creation, masculine/feminine and attachment/separateness.

1. ❱ Young/old involves feeling young in having a sense of initiation, possibility, energy and potential, yet feeling old in having a sense of termination, stability and completion that can become associated with the fear of losing youth.

2. ❱ Destruction/creation involves destruction in the sense of the individual’s mortality, his or her guilt and grievances, and the individual realising that he or she is not a hero. It involves creation in the sense of wanting immortality, being creative and wanting to provide products or things for oneself, for others or for human welfare.

3. ❱ Masculine/feminine Traditionally, the masculine has been associated with achievement, ambition, thinking, power, bodily strength and stamina, whereas the feminine has been associated more with unassertiveness, submissiveness, feeling and weakness.

4. ❱ Attachment/separateness involves the need to belong and to participate in the external world on the one hand and, on the other hand, to be primarily involved in one’s inner world, exploring one’s real or imagined self, which fosters personal growth and creative adaptation

DESCRIBE THE CHARACTERISTICS AND LIFE TASKS OF THE MIDLIFE/CAREER STAGE: Adults’ greatest need

According to Erikson (1963), the adult’s greatest need is for generativity.

Generativity refers specifically to the care and guidance of the next generation, and Erikson contends that productivity and creativity in other spheres of life cannot compensate for it.

It involves the need to be needed. The antithesis of generativity is a psychological state of stagnation in which individuals can become excessively self-indulgent, to the extent of loving themselves as if they were their own only child.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID CAREER/MIDLIFE STAGE: MIDLIFE CRISIS

During the late 30s or early 40s, a so-called mid-life crisis can occur. In the mid-life crisis, some individuals once again have to contend with identity questions such as ‘What have I achieved?’ or ‘Where am I going?’

The person stands on the delicate threshold between the outcomes of exploration, establishment and maintenance and the threat of decline.

Researchers agree that the transition to the middle years can be just as critical and, in some respects, more agonising than adolescence

MIDLIFE CRISIS: MENTAL TORMENTS

Mental torment about disappointments, thwarted hopes, anxiety about health problems such as heart disease, obesity and cancer, and a sense of ‘now or never’ can cause various kinds of crisis behaviour, such as

❱ anxiety;

❱ depression;

❱ hypochondria;

❱ alcoholism;

❱ change of work, home and/or spouse;

❱ obsession with denigrating one’s life at present;

❱ attempts to regain youth through dieting and youthful clothing; and

❱ workaholism, recklessness and ruthlessness

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID CAREER/MIDLIFE STAGE: WHEN DOES CRISIS BEHAVIOUR ARISE?

When individual denies:

• Unavoidable realities of middle years

• Still clings to the idealism of early adulthood when “everything seemed possible”

A critical issue in midlife: “SPIRITUAL SEARCH FOR AUTHENTICITY”

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID CAREER/MIDLIFE STAGE: REAPPRAISAL, APPRAISAL, PROTEAN CONCEPT AND NEED TO REMAIN PRODUCTIVE

Time for reappraisal (of the past) and appraisal (long term career plans)- The individual begins to evaluate what they have achieved as well as things that still need to achieved.

PROTEAN CONCEPT

Gives the individual the responsibility to meet specific mid career needs

• Allows:

– Realistic self-assessment and

– Opportunity to learn new skills and sharing of skills and expertise

NEED TO REMAIN PRODUCTIVE

• Update skills and mentoring.

• Can be hampered by job loss, obsolescence and discrimination

DESCRIBE ORGANISATIONAL ACTIONS FOR ASSISTING WITH MIDLIFE/CAREER ISSUE

HOW CAN THE ORGANISATION HELP?

• Help employees understanding mid career experiences

• Expand and flexible mobility opportunities

• Reward system etc.

• Let employees utilize the current job

• Encourage and teach mentoring skills

• Provide training and continuing education

• Allow creativity and provide challenge and variety in the workplace.

KEY LIFE TASKS AND CHALLENGES OF MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

❑ Refine your identity

❑ Clarifying your values ​​and philosophy of life

❑ Adapt to changes in family life

❑ Utilizing more leisure time

❑ Find new job satisfaction

❑ Sustain employability

❑ Deal with career transitions

❑ Resolving psychological poles to achieve greater individuation

❑ Dealing with midlife crises

❑ Maintain health and emotional well-being

DESCRIBE THE LIFE TASKS AND CHALLENGES OF THE LATE-LIFE/CAREER STAGE: CHANGES

PHYSICAL: * bodily decline, health problems, speed which information is progressed, cognitive decline in areas which are not used, the environment (decreased sensory stimulation) also plays a role in cognitive decline

WORK: begins preparation for retirement. * loses recognition and authority – socio- emotional loss-

EMPHASIS:* to find a balance between involvement with society and self

DESCRIBE THE LIFE TASKS AND CHALLENGES OF THE LATE-LIFE/CAREER STAGE: Individuals can still

• Make valuable contributions to the organizations

• Move into senior positions

• Have more responsibilities and

• Decision making requirements.

• Some are not willing to take risks whilst others show that age has little impact on work performance

DESCRIBE THE LIFE TASKS AND CHALLENGES OF THE LATE- LIFE/CAREER STAGE ERIKSONS CHALLENGES: EGO

EGO: INTEGRITY (emotional integration results in a sense of order and meaning in life) VS DESPAIR (lack of ego integrity which leads to despair/ regret/ fear of death!!)

KEY LIFE TASKS AND CHALLENGES OF LATE ADULTHOOD

❑ Deal with socio-economic losses

❑ Establish satisfactory living arrangements.

❑ Adjust to changes concerning ones spouse

❑ Maintaining health and emotional wellbeing

❑ Preparing for retirement

❑ Sustaining ego identity

❑ Remaining a productive citizen

DESCRIBE THE LIFE TASKS AND CHALLENGES OF THE LATE- LIFE/CAREER STAGE INCLUDING RETIREMENT: RETIREMENT

Associated with modification of identity. Factors influencing retirement include:

RETIREMENT

Can mean enrichment or impoverishment- distinction between retirement (involves loss of status and lowered self esteem) and retirement from an occupation (change of work roles

INDICATE THE NATURE OF ORGANISATIONAL PRE-RETIREMENT PROGRAMMES AND DISCUSS THE THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN RETIREMENT ADJUSTMENT: Factors leading to early retirement

• Self concept

• Extent to which goals are met

• Attitudes and expectations of other people

• Financial status

• Health

PREPARING FOR RETIREMENT

Effective adjustment to retirement is explained by various theories:

Continuity theory: Activities/roles during retirement should be similar to those undertaken before retirement

Activity theory: Substitutes have to be found for work roles

Disengagement theory: Withdrawal from work-related activities

Differential disengagement: Retire from certain aspects of work

THE ORGANISATIONAL ACTIONS FOR ASSISTING WITH RETIREMENT

Provide phasing-out programme

Provide pre-retirement programme

• Psychological aspects of retirement

• Housing

• Healthcare during retirement

• Financial planning and investment

• Estate planning

Assist individuals to learn how to use leisure time effectively

Offer early retirement packages