Chapter 5: Career Complexity: A Lens for Understanding Contemporary Careers and Career Construction Processes

In recent years, globalization, rapid technology changes, and increasingly competitive organizational environments have placed growing demands on individuals constructing careers. As work roles become increasingly complex, effective performance and career success require people to develop “complicated understanding” by seeking out and learning from many diverse experiences (Bartunek, Gordon, & Weathersby, 1983; Weick, 1979). Variety in career experiences and job assignments is an important mechanism through which people develop the requisite complex understanding (e.g., Karaevli & Hall, 2004; McCall, 1998).

This growing need for variety in career assignments dovetails with changing career structures and norms. The breakdown of many of the social institutions that traditionally defined, structured, and organized individuals’ careers has created the possibility for greater individual latitude in constructing careers (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1991; Hall, 1996). At the same time, changing career norms place greater responsibility on individuals for defining their careers and giving meaning to various experiences. This leaves room for a range of personal solutions to the challenge of organizing and giving meaning to one’s career (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Hall, 1996, 2002). The weakening of career structures and changing career norms and expectations have contributed to the increasing variety and complexity of individuals’ careers (e.g., Arthur, Inkson, & Pringle, 1999; Derr, 1986; Orrange, 2003; Strunk, Schiffinger, & Mayrhofer, 2003).