(apologies for cross posting)
Title: The Role of Geography and History in Shaping Careers
Program Session #: 1555 | Submission: 16411 | Sponsor(s): (CAU)
Scheduled: Tuesday, Aug 7 2012 11:30AM - 1:00PM at Sheraton Boston Hotel in Dalton B
Organizers:
Dr Emily Porschitz (e-mail: eporschitz@keene.edu, tel.: 603-313-5055)
Dr Akram Al Ariss, Toulouse Business School, France (e-mail: a.alariss@esc-toulouse.fr, tel.: 0033627914137 )
Hello fellow scholars!
Please join us for a fun and engaging caucus that will allow us all to discuss our careers research that is taking place around the globe. We would like to hear about your interests regarding careers, geography and history. We'd love to know what you are working on, and share our ideas as well. We hope to find connections across our research interests and explore ways to work together in the future through articles, symposiums and special issues or edited books. See below for our formal proposal.
Best Regards,
Akram and Emily
Title: The Role of Geography and History in Shaping Careers
Program Session #: 1555 | Submission: 16411 | Sponsor(s): (CAU)
Scheduled: Tuesday, Aug 7 2012 11:30AM - 1:00PM at Sheraton Boston Hotel in Dalton B
Description
The Caucus will address the role of geography and history in the shaping of careers. Geography and history can be viewed as structural factors. The structural approach to careers is well-established (e.g., review of careers literature by Baruch & Bozionelos, 2010). However, relevant considerations have been limited to variables that pertain to the conditions of the economy and the labor market, the characteristics of firms, and the features of the profession rather than factors that pertain to historical facts and geographic characteristics. In addition, history and geography acquire particular importance in the present era of ongoing internationalization and globalization because they differentiate countries, regions, or even ethnicities.
Geography and history also shape culture (e.g., Hofstede, 2001), and culture in turn shapes preferences and aspirations for particular types of work and career. In addition, culture (e.g., in the form of religious beliefs) may lead to streaming of particular demographic groups towards particular careers.
The overwhelming proportion of research and theorizing on careers had been conducted primarily in North America and secondarily in Western Europe. These regions of the world have cultures and economies that have been shaped by aligned historical facts and geographic characteristics. For example, most parts of these regions have been spared from major natural disasters and related phenomena, and do not bear extreme climate conditions. These regions went through the abandonment of agriculture as a basis for employment, the adoption of bureaucratic structures, and the fashioning of flat organizational forms in tandem, and entered the digital age pretty much concurrently. In addition, they share the values of the same religion (Christian), and experienced various cultural and economic changes (e.g., emancipation of women, a shift towards services economy) in concert. Furthermore, these regions went through major wars synchronously, and enjoyed parallel periods of peace during recent history. Finally, in these regions – and in sharp contrast to most other parts of the globe - formal institutions and the formal economy have been long established, with by far the largest proportion of economic activity taking place and registering as part of their formal economy (e.g., OECD, 2009). The natural consequence is that extant career theory and models (e.g., career stage models, vocational preference models, drive models) bear the marks of geography and history, with their cultural and economic consequences, of North America and the western part of Europe. The applicability of these theories and models to regions with different geographies and history patterns is, however, questionable. For example, histories of colonization, still have an impact upon career choices and outcomes in many contemporary countries around the globe (Al Ariss, 2010).
The Caucus aims to bring together career scholars from various parts of the world to exchange views and experiences that will lead to the incubation of ideas for the development of routes for conceptual contributions and empirical research in the theme. The intention for the Caucus is to serve as a starting point for the formation of a long-lasting forum among career researchers, as well as the formation of networks that will engage in collaborative research. Such an initiative will expand the intellectual boundaries of career research by situating it in its specific history and geography.
References
Al Ariss, A. 2010. Religious diversity in Lebanon: lessons from a small country to the global world in M. Özbilgin, & J. Syed (Eds.), Managing Cultural Diversity in Asia: A Research Companion: 56-72. New York: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Baruch, Y., & Bozionelos, N. 2010. Career issues. In Zedeck, S. (Ed.), APA Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Volume 2: Selecting & Developing Members of the Organization (67-113). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Hofstede, G. 2001. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
OECD 2009. Competition policy in the informal economy. Paris, France: OECD.