NEW MANAGEMENT TOPIC: Career Anchors

Honest, transparent discussions about career goals and motives contribute to the ability of organizations to match individual and business aspirations. But this requires that employees have a clear concept of what they are good at, what motivates them, and what they value. This self-image is their “career anchor”.

Working with an awareness of career anchors, managers can increase their team outputs and facilitate an open dialogue with reports on their different skills and needs. When employees feel valued, engaged, and are aligned with strategic business goals, their organizations will better endure and thrive in today’s complex world.

The objectives for this topic, written by Edgar Schein, are to understand how the different career anchors relate to job situations, determine your personal career anchors and how they match with your current position and tasks, and appreciate how this concept can inform the way you work with others.
 
Edgar Schein is the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts., USA. He investigates organizational culture, process consultation, the research process, career dynamics, and organization learning and change. Professor Schein has been a prolific researcher, writer, teacher, and consultant. Besides his numerous articles in professional journals, he has authored fourteen books.