THE EARLY CAREER YEARS: BECOMING ESTABLISHED

Let us consider a person who has just completed her formal
education and is about to enter the world of work. Perhaps the
reader is at or near this career stage. It would probably be helpful
for you to relate your own experiences to the issues we shall
be considering here.

Training and Expectations

What happens during one’s education and training for a profes-
sion'? First, she acquires a body of specialized knowledge (e.g.,
business law, organizational psychology) and some technical ski/ls
(e.g., linear programming, accounting, marketing). According to
research on law students, student teachers, and medical students,
the person probably also acquires a certain set ot professional
values and attitudes imparted by her peers and faculty.
Finally, she develops a set of aspirations and expectations
about what she will encounter in her work. However, as we have
seen, the career is a mutual—influence process, and the organiza-
tion also holds certain expectations of the new recruit.
What are the expectations of the person as she enters her
first job?* Perhaps most importantly, the young person usually
expects challenging work, work that is meaningful and ability- .
stretching. She wants to be able to apply the knowledge and skills
which it took so many difficult years to acquire. She wants to
· be able to test herself, to experience psychological success and
a sense of competence. This need for competence, the need to
have an impact on one’s personal environment, is an important
basic human need, and is especially important for
young people.
Related to the desire for challenge is the need for psycho-
logical involvement in one’s work. Young graduates tend to place
increasing stress on intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards for their
work. Dissatisfaction with intrinsic work challenge seems to be
especially strong in the first year of work, as we will see later.
The return of many young people today to craft work is one reflec-
tion of this interest (and of the assumption that intrinsic involve-
ment is hard to find in large organizations).

At this stage the young person also has a strong need for
feedback in his performance. Without valid information on how
you are performing, it is difficult to improve and grow. To take
an extreme example, a person would not think of driving his car
for even one block blindfolded, even if the block were straight
and the car headed initially in the right direction. Outside factors,
such as children playing, bumps in the road, other cars approach-
ing, and unforeseen deviations from the original course all call
` for periodic braking, steering, and accelerating. Steering one’s
own career is far more complex than driving a car for one block,
yet feedback is far more difficult to obtain.
Related to feedback, which often comes from the supervisor,
is coaching and psychological support from the boss. There is
a fine line between the supervisor’s controlling and directing his
subordinate’s work and coaching him when he (the subordinate)
requests it. lvlost supervisors either provide too much help or direc-
tion, and are perceived as overcontrolling; or they provide too
little, letting the person "sink or swim."
A second aspect of the supervisor-subordinate relationship
the young graduate probably desires is a collaborative authority
relationship. He wants some say in making important decisions
that affect his job and his career. He expects the boss to listen
to his ideas and to apply them when they are good. He expects
the boss to respect his opinion regardless of his age or seniority.
Finally, he expects a good salary and good promotion pros-
pects. He expects to have these rewards contingent upon good
performance on his part, but he does not want to see them blocked
by factors beyond his control.
The following summary is based on surveys which have asked
students what factors they consider in choosing their first jobs:
VERY IMPORTANT FACTORS
1 . Opportunities for advancement
2. Social status and prestige—the feeling of doing something important and
` the recognition of this by others
‘ 3. Responsibility
4. Opportunities to use special aptitudes and educational background
5. Challenge and adventure
G. Opportunity to be creative and original
7. High salary
IMPORTANT, BUT LESS SO
1 . A stable and secure future
2. A chance to exercise leadership
.. 3. Opportunity to work with people rather than things
4. Freedom from supervision
5. Opportunity to be helpful to others


Reality Shock and Unused Potential
Now, what happens to these mutual expectations after the new
recruit has been in the company for a year or so? Briefly, he
experiences reality shock—the clash between high expectations
and frustrating on—the—job experiences. A number of factors in
the organization and in the recruit interact to produce a syndrome
of unused potential. Let us consider the factors contributing to
this syndrome

Low initial challenge.

Results from a number of different
studies show clearly that challenge is very impor-
tant to the way a person’s career develops. In a way, it is unfortu-
i nate that the word cha//enge has become a part of the rhetoric
both for students criticizing organizations and for recruiters prais-
ing their organizations, because its overuse makes people lose
track of just how important it really is. A study of young managers
followed people at AT&T for five years
and in another company for seven years. Performance was eval-
V uated by salary scale and ratings from supervisors and other
people, mainly in personnel, who were in a position to evaluate
them.

The more challenging a person’s job was in his first year with
the organization, the more effective and successful he was even
five or seven years later.
Unfortunately, the amount of challenge in initial jobs in most
organizations is invariably low, despite the fact that it is very impor-
tant. ln a study of R&D organizations, there were only two compa-
nies out of twenty-two interviewed in which people described their
first jobs as being moderately high or high on challenge.
There was only one company that had a con-
scious policy of making the first assignments difficult. li/lost compa-
nies felt that they should bring the person along slowly, starting
him off on an easy project and cautiously adding more challenge
only as the recruit proved his ability at each stage of escalation.
This is a strategy to measure the person’s ability by approaching
it from below rather than by stretching it through high work goals
and high standards of excellence!
A traditional problem is the expensive training which is invest-
ed in new employees before they can earn their pay. Research
indicates that increased challenge and less formal training would
increase the utilization of new people from the very beginning,
benefiting both the individual and the organization.
_- Another factor found to be related to performance was pres-
rl sure on the person to do high—quality work and to assume a degree
of financial responsibility in his work (Hall and Lawler, 1969). ln
the R&D setting this pressure was often associated with accepting
responsibility, getting new projects for the organization, and ob-
taining outside funding for the work. This may have required direct
contact with customers rather than being done through a super-
visor. Organizations in which people felt personal pressure for
quality work and attaining the financial goals of the organization
were found to be highly effective. But again, we rarely found
evidence of quality pressure or evidence of professional people
being given financial responsibility in their work.


Low self-actualization satisfaction

A further problem was
that the most important need for the job recruit specializing in
research—self-actualization——was the least satisfied

. Further, we found that the longer researchers
worked for an organization, the less important self—fulfillment was
to them and the more important security was. Increasing tenure
was also related to three significant changes in self-image: the
people reported themselves as being less active, less strong, and
less independent as tenure increased. There is an intriguing theory
that predicts just this kind of human decay with
increasing length of senxice in organizations. Because of the con- _
flict between the needs of growing individuals and the require-
ments for organizations for tight control and uniformity, people
become less concerned about their own growth and they become
less independent, less strong, and less active as they spend more
time in the organization.

Vanishing performance appraisal.

Another finding that surprised the B&D managers in our feed-
back session with them concerned a communications gap—a dis-
agreement between what the managers were doing and what their
subordinates said the managers were doing. We asked everyone
if the organization had a regular performance appraisal system
and, if so, if the results were discussed with the man appraised.
ln most of the organizations, the directors said, "Sure, we do
it every six months."
We talked to the employees we were studying. Not only did
they generally report that the appraisals did not take place, but
we even had to explain to some what a performance appraisal
system was!
Because the appraisal system seemed to be there when we
talked to the managers and not there when we talked to the em-
ployees, we called it the "vanishing performance appraisal." There
was little feedback on how people were performing. We know
that feedback is important for the learning and self-correction of
any kind of system, and this resource was being lost to these
Fi&D systems. (
Unrealistically high aspirations. Another aspect of the 5
syndrome of unused potential was a great sense on the part of
the recent graduates that their important skills and abilities were
not being used. New graduates possess high levels of training
when they begin work. Indeed, the definition of education is to
bring students to the frontiers of knowledge, the very latest tech-
niques and theories. The college or university sends young men
and women back into the society with this new knowledge. In
this sense, new graduates are societal change agents. They come
into the organization with new techniques, and they want to apply
them. They find this difficult—first, because they lack the skills

of applying what they know and second, because the organiza-
tions tend to resist innovation. This difficulty is compounded by
the fact that people coming out of college usually have an unrealis-
` tically high aspiration level about the extent to which they are
going to be using their new skills.
A man who had just finished his first year at the Harvard
Business School exemplified this problem. He seriously hoped to
begin his career as a vice-president of finance for a medium-sized
organization. He was convinced that he had the ability to perform
the job. Such an attitude on the part of a person just entering
the job market creates anger on the part of superiors; and it also
creates a certain amount of threat (more on this in a moment).
In fact, however, developing this degree of confidence in students
is one of the main socializing functions of many business schools.
Inability to create challenge. Another problem is that the
new recruit really does not know how to create his own challenge
in a job. People who have been well-educated are accustomed
~ to being given projects and challenging work. But they do not
know how to take an unstructured and undefined situation and
find something important in it, thereby defining the job for them-
selves. There is a contradiction-they want challenge and indepen-
_ dence, but they don‘t know how to find these things by them-
selves. Research has shown that people tend to be rather passive
about even major career decisions—the type of organizations they
work for, whether or not to change jobs, and the type of jobs
they accept. Very often they respond
to external challenge, demands, or changes more than they do
j to their own career blueprint—if they have one. Educational institu-
i tions are simply not teaching the student how to chart his own ‘ -
course and then follow it.
Sources of threat. As we have mentioned, young graduates
often threaten their superiors; this threat is proba-
bly a major contributor to the syndrome of unused potential. There
are different reasons why superiors may be threatened by a new
person. For one, training programs are often defined so that the
‘ new recruit is seen as someone special—a "bright young person."
H_owever, the supervisor may be in a terminal position. He may
have worked all his life to reach this position; now he may be
confronted with a "young kid" who may soon be promoted above
that same position.
Another cause for threat is that new people, coming in right
out of college, may know more about a special area than the
superior does. This may apply more in technical work than in
general management. This threat is compounded when the superi-
or has had to spend a great deal of time doing administrative
work which kept him from upgrading his technical knowledge.
High starting salaries cause problems, too. The new employee

today makes far more than the boss did when he started his
career; in fact, the new man’s salary probably comes painfully
J close to what the boss is making right now. Personal styles are
also different—the young recruit is probably more likely to rock
the boat, make waves, and create pressure for change. All these
personal threats created by young people can contribute to the
syndrome of unused potential and in turn make later job experi-
ences less satisfying.
Negative effect. The overall result of this syndrome is that
in the early career years there may be great changes in self-image,
attitudes, aspirations, and motivation—aII generally in a negative
direction. The person is less optimistic about how he is going
to succeed with the organization
He sees himself as having less impact on the organization,
and his values come to conform more to those of the organization.
Schein’s research shows how the values of business stu-
; dents tend to move toward those of authority figures in whatever
system they join. Although the values of students in an MBA pro-
gram tend to move toward those of the faculty and, interestingly,
away from those of businessmen, when the career begins on the
. job, values move back again toward those of the managers and
away from those of the faculty. Thus, with more integration into
the organization, there is a certain amount of change toward orga-
nizational values. Educational institutions must become aware of
their obligation to prepare students for such eventualities. A knowl-
edge of the situations they will meet, the threats they may cause
to managers, would be of great help in enabling new recruits to ;
maintain their high aspirations, high values, high creativity.
Problems with the recruit. Not all the problems contribut-
ing to this unused potential syndrome lie with the supervisor or
the organization. Many can be tied directly to specific shortcom-
ings in the job performance of the new employee.
Schein found that many managers develop the following
stereotype of the recent college graduate:
1 . He is overambitious and unrealistic in his expectations.
2. He is too theoretical and naive to be given a challenging initial assignment;
. he must first be educated and "broken in."
3. He is too immature and inexperienced to be given much responsibility.
4. He is too security-conscious, unwilling to take risks.
5. He is unski//ed in communication. He fails to see the difference between
having a good idea and the process of selling it
Of course, this stereotype may have some validity, depending
upon the person. But the dilemma for the company and the new

recruit is that if a manager holds this stereotype and trains new
recruits in accordance with these assumptions, the new employee
would never have an opportunity to prove the stereotype wrong.
Thus, the stereotype can become a negative self-fulfilling prophe-
cy, just as a challenging first assignment can be a positive one.
Attempts to influence the organization. Individuals differ
in the way they respond to these socialization forces in the first
job. There are generally three categories of response
1. Rebellion. ln this extreme form of reaction, the person rejects all of the
organizations norms and values. She puts such a stress on her own
individuality that she makes it very difficult for herself to remain in the
organization. She is generally either successful in producing change, or
she is dismissed! —
2. Creative individualism. This is a more moderate reaction to the organiza-
tion, in which the person accepts the most important or "pivotaI" norms
and values of the organization but rejects many of the less critical ones
(such as norms about dress, lifestyle, or vocabulary). This is a difficult
l stance to maintain, but it often is the most successful form of adaptation
for both the person and the organization, resulting in healthy organizational
change and personal satisfaction.
3. Conformity. ln this form of response, the person accepts uncritically all
norms and values of the organization, pivotal and peripheral. In such a
— situation, the person is oversocialized and may have little creativity or
initiative to offer the organization. His behavior will be quite dependable
and predictable, however, he will generally play it safe and "not make
wavesf
g Training
Now that we have seen something of the experiences and prob-
‘ lems encountered by the new recruit during the establishment ` ·
stage of his career, let us turn to the various strategies of develop-
ment which are often employed to deal with these problems.
There are six common strategies which companies use to
develop their new employees. First, the sink or
, swim approach involves leaving the person on his own with a T
fairly responsible, but unclear job assignment, with little guidance
or support from the boss. The recruit is expected to define the
task for himself and to work out his own solutions. Whether this
approach succeeds depends upon how the organization handles
yr success and failure:
L Is he not punished for failure?
Is he given clear feedback on the degree of success or failure he attained?
Is he given clear feedback on why he succeeded or failed?
If he has failed, is he helped to see what should be done about it? I
lf the answer to these questions is affirmative, this strategy is more
likely to be effective.


In the second approach, the upending experience, the person
is given an assignment which he is virtually sure to fail. This leaves
him depressed and chastised; he is "unfrozen" or ready to learn
from his supervisor or trainer. In the third strategy, on—the-job
training, the person is given regular assignments, perhaps espe-
cially challenging ones, with someone more experienced available
to coach and support him when necessary. The success of this
approach depends upon the quality of the job, the degree of
learning expected, and the degree and quality of the coaching
available.
The fourth strategy is working while training, l-lere the person
is assigned to a full-time training program, but is rotated through
` short-term job assignments. Between assignments he may spend
all his time on special training experiences. Training generally lasts
from three to twelve months, after which the person is assigned
permanently to a department. Working while training is a more
formal, structured program than on—the-job training. Like on-the-
job training, this approach depends upon the quality of the jobs
and of the people the trainee works with. Because of the number
and short duration of the job assignments, however, it is less likely
that the person will feel greatly challenged by and involved in
his work. Therefore, such programs are less likely to be effective
means of developing successful managers.
The fifth approach, fu//-time training, is similar to on—the—job
training. Here, however, the training department creates the job
assignments (i.e., they are not "real" jobs and they are of little _
organizational consequence). Often, trainees are assigned to par-
ticular locations mainly to observe activities there. The idea of
these programs is for the person to get a broad view of the organi- -
zation, but they are often experienced by trainees as "make-work"
or "lvlickey Mouse" jobs.
The sixth approach is what Schein calls integrative strategies,
in which each person’s performance is first evaluated on the job,
after which he is given training based on his needs and abilities. _
Schein describes an approach used at AT&T which em-
ploys three methods—sink or swim, training while working, and T
full-time training:
When the man first reports for work, he is assigned to a regular supervisor
and given regular work assignments for a period of a year. The supervisors
who will have college graduates assigned them are given a special training ’
program to help them deal realistically with the needs and capacities of the
newcomers. All the new men in the program are evaluated on the basis
of their job performance, and those with the greatest potential are then sent
to a summer-long full-time training program at a university
ln addition to the management-development strategies out-
lined above, two others can be identified. One is the cooperative
program. This is an agreement between a university and various

companies that a given person will alternate between being a
full-time employee for one term or semester and a full-time student
for the following term. Here the student acts as a kind of intern,
applying his formal education to a real job as he acquires it, and
using his job experience to facilitate his academic learning. Such
programs give a realistic view of the work world to the person
while he is still in school. It also helps him understand better what
he needs to know to be well-prepared for work while he is still
a student. Reactions to such programs have generally been quite
positive, although they do call for a certain amount of extra ad-
ministrative and coordinating work on the part of the company
and the college.
The final form of management development strategy to be
discussed here concerns the assessment center, a means of iden-
tifying managerial potential and predicting success.
It can also be used as a basis of giving
feedback to the participant and giving him training experiences.
The basic idea is for a group of trainees to spend approximately
three days together off-site, going through multiple methods of
gathering diagnostic data: personality tests, tests of skills and
abilities, and situational tests, simulations, and exercises.
An added benefit of assessment centers is the acquisition of
` new skills by the assessors, who are generally line or staff man-
agers familiar with the positions for which the participants are
being trained. At least 100 businesses and some government
agencies now employ assessment centers, according to Golem-
biewski, who lists five attractions and qualifications of this
method:
A 1. The growing scale of the assessment problem has forced experimentation
with new approaches.
2. Traditional measures of assessment have left much to be desired.
3. Several validation studies report the effectiveness of assessment approach
V for identifying organizational winners and losers.
4. The typical assessment-center design seems to deal with perform-
ance-relevant factors, although care is necessary to assure that its exer-
cises and simulations do in fact elicit behaviors, skills, and attitudes appro-
priate to the target job or organization level. ln particular, the assessment
center is a method of employing performance-related criteria for assessing
minority and female employees.
5. The use of assessor panels (e.g., line managers) from within the company
has variously aided acceptance of the assessment-center concept, espe-
cially via greater understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.

Please visit us for more quality information at one of the best job search engines on the internet