Learning in a self-managed management career : the relation between managers' HRD-patterns, psychological career contracts and mobility perpectives

This thesis focuses on the significance of managers HRD-activities (learning activities) in modern career contexts. Based on literature study and several pre-studies, a conceptual research model was developed containing three main elements: HRD-pattern, psychological career contract and mobility perspective. With this model it was studied whether managers expectations about career self-management directly or indirectly (via HRD-pattern) impact their mobility perspectives. The main study was conducted in six Dutch companies in banking & insurance and in a temporary employment agency (N=242). With the shift from traditional to modern careers, more emphasis is put on flexibility and career self-management. Development is the central element of a career for which the primary responsibility lies with the employee. The employer is expected to fulfil a facilitating role. Career development has become a mutual responsibility of organisations and employees. Employees expectations about their own commitment to career self-management and about the support for career self-management from their organisations are part of the psychological career contract. The more career self-management is emphasised in such a contract, the more modern the contract is. Moreover, a contract can be more or less unbalanced, depending on the extent to which both perspectives (commitment and support) converge or diverge. Contract-unbalance is expected to have negative effects on behaviour and motivation. The nature of the psychological career contract will influence the way managers learn. In traditional careers employees could survive by learning (organisation-) specific content in order to perform well in their current job. In modern careers, however, generic value of HRD-activities is more important because it contributes to the new career goal: employability. To measure managers learning behaviour, the HRD-pattern was developed, which is a summarizing characterisation of the variety in generic value of various HRD-activities. The HRD-pattern may vary from poor to rich referring to the expected effects on future mobility chances: the mobility perspective. A mobility perspective consists of the ability and the willingness to fulfil another job, respectively called mobility-scope and pursuit of mobility. The study shows that managers feel highly committed to and moderately supported for career self-management. Their psychological career contracts are intermediately modern. Moreover, they use a large variety of HRD-activities, which are merely informal and are used management-task independently. Managers HRD-patterns are moderately till highly rich and their mobility perspectives consist of broad scopes and intermediately high levels of mobility pursuit. Modern psychological career contracts appear to positively impact the mobility scope via the use of HRD-activities. This is the so-called HRD-path, which symbolises a positive trajectory. Focusing on the level of unbalance, we see a direct influence of the contract on pursuit of mobility (not mediated by the HRD-pattern). Apparently, managers follow the flight-path in case they perceive an unbalanced psychological career contract. In sum, employees mobility perspectives can be enlarged as a result of modern career notions and as a result of perception of unbalance. It is stressed that the HRD-path and the flight-path are not equally satisfactory