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Career Management is the combination of structured planning and the active management choice of one’s own professional career. The outcome of successful career management should include personal fulfillment, work/life balance, goal achievement and financial assurance. The word career refers to all types of employment ranging from semi-skilled through skilled, and semi professional to professional. The term career has often been restricted to suggest an employment commitment to a single trade skill, profession or business firm for the entire working life of a person. In recent years, however, career now refers to changes or modifications in employment during the foreseeable future. There are many definitions by management scholars of the stages in the managerial process.

The following classification system with minor variations is widely used:

1. Development of overall goals and objectives, 

2. Development of a strategy (a general means to accomplish the selected goals/objectives),

3. Development of the specific means (policies, rules, procedures and activities) to implement the strategy,

4. Systematic evaluation of the progress toward the achievement of the selected goals/objectives to modify the strategy, if necessary.

The career management process begins with setting goals/objectives. A relatively specific goal/objective must be formulated. This task may be quite difficult when the individual lacks knowledge of career opportunities and/or is not fully aware of their talents and abilities. However, the entire career management process is based on the establishment of defined goals/objectives whether specific or general in nature. Utilizing career assessments may be a critical step in identifying opportunities and career paths that most resonate with someone. Career assessments can range from quick and informal like those on CareerBuilder or may be more in depth like those such as Myers-Briggs and Career Leader supported assessments found on My Path. Regardless of the ones you use, you will need to evaluate them. Most assessments found today for free (although good) do not offer an in-depth evaluation.

The time horizon for the achievement of the selected goals or objectives - short term, medium term or long term - will have a major influence on their formulation.

1. Short term goals (one or two years) are usually specific and limited in scope. Short term goals are easier to formulate. Make sure they are achievable and relate to your longer term career goals

2. Intermediate goals (3 to 20 years) tend to be less specific and more open ended than short term goals. Both intermediate and long term goals are more difficult to formulate than short term goals because there are so many unknowns about the future.

3. Long term goals (more than 100 years), of course, are the most fluid of all. Lack of life experience and knowledge about potential opportunities and pitfalls make the formulation of long term goals/ objectives very difficult. Long range goals/objectives, however, may be easily modified as additional information is received without a great loss of career efforts because of experience/knowledge transfer from one career to another.

4. Making career choices and decisions – the traditional focus of careers interventions. The changed nature of work means that individuals may now have to revisit this process more frequently now and in the future, more than in the past.

5. Managing the organizational career – concerns the career management tasks of individuals within the workplace, such as decision-making, life-stage transitions, dealing with stress etc.

6. Managing ‘boundary less’ careers – refers to skills needed by workers whose employment is beyond the boundaries of a single organization, a work style common among, for example, artists and designers.

7. Taking control of one’s personal development – as employers take less responsibility, employees need to take control of their own development in order to maintain and enhance their employability.

Career development, as both a field of study and a practical form of training for workers, is primarily concerned with producing better employees and maximizing employee potential. Career development programs can help the unemployed find jobs or provide workers with the skills and tools they need to advance within a government agency, corporation or organization.

Self-Awareness- One of the major objectives of any career development program is a heightened sense of self-awareness for participants. Employees should be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses, in order to apply their skills more effectively. Understanding shortcomings is also useful in teaching employees where to focus efforts toward improvements. Self-awareness is also related to understanding the difference between real and perceived career advancement limitations. By examining available opportunities and making an honest assessment of an employee’s skills, career development seeks to give every employee a realistic outlook on the future.

Flexibility- Career development also sets enhanced flexibility as a goal. Employees work in a changing world and adaptation is an essential skill. This may mean abandoning practices that have worked in the past, or devoting time to education and new training. Employees who find themselves unable to adapt in a changing workplace may suffer from decreased productivity or be unable to compete with workers whose skills are more flexible and easier to apply across a range of tasks.

Education- Education is among the more straightforward objectives of career development. Such programs attempt to give employees, or prospective employees, access to information about job opportunities and options for skills training. Following up with such employees is an important objective as well, since this gives those who work in career development a way of measuring the program’s effectiveness.

Sensitivity to Diversity- Many career development programs make sensitivity to diversity in the workplace a top priority. With ever-increasing globalization, workers are frequently put into contact with members of different backgrounds and cultures. Understanding the value of diverse work habits and viewpoints can prevent this from becoming a point of confusion or misunderstanding. At the same time, educating workers about the customs and concerns of others can help prevent social problems or embarrassment in a diverse workplace.

It is also known as ‘management development’ or ‘executive development’. It is one of the fastestdeveloping areas in personnel. It is realized that an effective management team may be as important to the survival of an organization as any tangible item on the balance sheet. Interest in management development is great partly due to the shortage of well-trained managers. Executive development or management development is a systematic process of learning and growth by which managerial personnel gain and apply knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights to manage the work in their organization effectively and efficiently.

The program of executive development aims at achieving following purposes: - 

• To sustain good performance of managers throughout their careers by exploiting their full potential.
• To understand economic, technical, and institutional forces in order to solve business problems. 
• To acquire knowledge about problems of human resources. 
• To think through problems this may confront the organization now or in the future. 
• To develop responsible leaders. 
• To inculcate knowledge of human motivation and human relationships. 
• To increase proficiency in management techniques such as work study, inventory control, operations research and quality control. 

Johnson and Sorcher write, “Management development focuses on developing in a systematic manner, the knowledge base, attitudes, basic skills, interpersonal skills and technical skills of the managerial cadre.”

According to Flippo “executive development includes the process by which managers and executives acquire not only skills and competency in their present job but also capabilities for future managerial tasks of increasing difficulty and scope.”

The characteristics of executive development are as following: 

• Executive development is a planned and organized process of learning. 
• It is an ongoing and never ending exercise. 
• Executive development is a long term process as managerial skills cannot be developed overnight. 
• It aims at preparing managers for managers.

Today, it is the growth that makes one person stay at the company. The opportunity and challenges is what keeps a person satisfied and charmed with his job. Companies have understood this fact and therefore are forming policies and procedures to develop their employees.

Executive development Program (EDP) is one such program. With Human resource making a move from a welfare department to a strategic partner, more and more companies are undertaking this program. We at Career Solutions provide you the opportunity of developing a specific EDP for your company.

There are four major steps to be covered during the EDP-

1) Problem Assessment: the experts along with the concerned employees and CEO shall begin with an assessment of the company’s current problem and owner’s plans of the future.

2) Management Audit and Appraisal: there shall be regular feedback sessions to check as to whether we are reaching where we are supposed to reach.

3) Analysis of Development Needs: here the problem that has been uncovered shall be tried to and remedied via a development program.

4) Identify Replacement Needs: the assessment may uncover a need to recruit and select new management talent. The format of EDP will vary with company’s size and nature of operation so as to provide optimum result.

Executive development is more future oriented. It is more concerned with education than is employee training. In today’s competitive environment, an organization has to be concerned about the development of supervisors, middle level managers and top-level executive.

Executive development is important for the following reasons: 

• Executive development programmes are required to train and develop professional managers. 
• It helps managers to develop skills to face cut throat competition. 
• It enables managers to face problems related to technology and institution. 
• It helps in developing better relations with the labors. 
• Executives need training and education to understand and adjust to changes in socio-economic changes. 
• Executive development is required to broader the outlook of managers.

Factors Influencing Executive Development

A host of factors influencing the executive development processes in organizations are as follows:

• Failure to train the managers will lead to ineffective and inefficient managers who negatively affect the organization’s performance.
• In the absence of training and developmental avenues, the performing managers may get demotivated and frustrated in leading the organizations. This would lead to severe losses for the organization in financial parameters, in terms of the cost of recruiting and training the new incumbent. 
• The organizational performance may be affected by the loss of market shares, lower sales, reduced profitability, etc. 
• The absence/ shortage of trained and skilled managers make it important for the organizations to have appropriate retention strategies. Training and development is being used by organizations as a part of their retention strategy. 
• The competitive pressures make it necessary for organizations to continuously roll out new products and services, and also maintain the quality of the existing ones. The training and development of managers would help them in developing the competencies in these areas. 
• The competitive environment is making it imperative for the organizations to continuously restructure and re-engineer, and to embark upon these processes, it is essential for the organizations to train the managers for the new scenarios.

Career development is an organized approach used to match employee goals with the business needs of the agency in support of workforce development initiatives.

The purpose of career development is to:

• Enhance each employee’s current job performance. 
• Enable individuals to take advantage of future job opportunities. 
• Fulfil agencies’ goals for a dynamic and effective workforce. 

Career development involves managing your career either within or between organizations. It also includes learning new skills, and making improvements to help you in your career. Career development is an ongoing, lifelong process to help you learn and achieve more in your career. Whether you are looking at making a career change, or moving up within a company, planning your own career development will help you succeed. By creating a personal career development plan, you can set goals and objectives for your own personal career growth. Don’t make the mistake of leaving your career development future in the hands of your employer, hoping that you will get the next promotion or pay raise. This misconception can lead to job dissatisfaction and resentment. Career planning is a lifelong process, which includes choosing an occupation, getting a job, growing in our job, possibly changing careers, and eventually retiring. The Career Planning Site offers coverage of all these areas. This article will focus on career choice and the process one goes through in selecting an occupation. This may happen once in our lifetimes, but it is more likely to happen several times as we first define and then redefine ourselves and our goals.

Managers are responsible for linking the organization’s needs to employee career goals, and can assist employees in the career planning process. Human Resources is responsible for designing career paths and employee development programs that help employees reach their goals. Each employee is responsible for planning and managing his/her career.