Boundaryless career success: distinguished professors in academia

The unpredictable nature of today's workplace and the changing environment within which the organizations function makes it a challenge to prescribe pre-determined stable careers. To respond to the contingencies of the new context for work, the boundaryless career, defined as “the evolving sequence of a person’s work experiences over time” (Arthur, Hall, & Lawrence, 1989 , p. 8) was proposed. The purpose of this qualitative study is to illustrate what it takes to be successful while maintaining a boundaryless career. We focus on the careers of eleven distinguished professors (DPs) recounted by themselves and their spouses. Adopting the intelligent career framework, we present the interrelationships between the three ways of knowing that lead to success in academia