Effects of Changing Economic Conditions on Managerial Job Changes and Careers
研究了1980-1992年间832名英国管理者的工作变动，发现1989-1992年经济衰退期间，管理者从主动的职业导向晋升转向被动的组织导向平级或降级变动，包括裁员。
SUMMARY Career theories and popular beliefs support the view that careers are series of job changes which are normatively linked to common themes, are continuous, are hierarchically progressive, and are under the control of the career‐making person. This study reports an age‐controlled analysis of the job changes, from 1980 to 1992, of a sample of 832 UK managers, randomly sampled from the membership of the Institute of Management. Following the methodology developed by Alban‐Metcalfe and Nicholson (1984), sample members completed a questionnaire in which they provided details of every job change they had experienced in the relevant period, including nature of change and reasons for change. The results suggested that during the recession of 1989–92 British managers moved from a situation of predominantly proactive, career‐oriented upward moves, to one of predominantly reactive, organizationally induced sideways and downward moves, including redundancies. Implications for career theory and for the career development and orientations of managers and others are discussed. The continuing usefulness of the concept ‘career’ is questioned. This paper was first presented at the Academy of Management Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, August 1993.