Career self-management in clan and hierarchical organisational cultures : towards the development of a competing values career self-management framework

Career is considered an important element in an individual’s life and identity, and equally important to an organisation’s performance. Career development and management are essential in contributing to the achievement of career success outcomes and involve a range of strategies that are initiated by both the individual and the organisation. The more suitable the career management strategies, the more effective those strategies will be in contributing to positive outcomes. Demonstrating career self-management has been widely recognised as one of the main mechanisms that can be used to contribute to subjective and objective career success. The aim of this thesis is to explore the impact of organisational culture on the effectiveness of career self-management in achieving career success outcomes. Social cognitive theory, the competing values framework, Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), and the career self-management (CSM) model have been applied to investigate the potential significant influence that organisational culture has on the relationship between career self-management and subjective and objective career success, and to develop a new competing values career self-management framework. The main theoretical contribution of the research project is that it uses for the first time OCAI and CSM to evaluate the impact of organisational culture on career self-management behaviours and career success outcomes in a family owned and a government owned organisation in Australia. Moreover, it develops new knowledge about the difference in effectiveness of career self-management behaviours in different organisational cultures. The findings also provide individuals and organisations with an empirically developed model for determining the most effective approach to career self-management in clan and hierarchical organisational cultures. The research results emphasise the importance of evaluating the organisational culture and tailoring career management strategies accordingly to positively contribute to subjective and objective career success outcomes.