Managing academic careers: global perspectives

Citation

Baruch, P.Y., Dany, P.F. and Davense, D.J.P.a.D.C. (2014), "Managing academic careers: global perspectives", Career Development International, Vol. 19 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-03-2014-0045

Managing academic careers: global perspectives

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Career Development International, Volume 19, Issue 3

The field of career studies is increasing in prominence and relevance for modern life (Inkson and Savickas, 2013). Within this field, the higher education forms a growing sector that offers a wide range of issues to study, some represent the wider field, whereas others are more specific to academic careers. Academic careers comprise an under-researched area in the scholarly filed of career studies. In this Special Issue of Career Development International we offer a refreshed look at the state of progress in the global labour market of academics and the way they manage their career.

Universities need to acquire and develop human talent to be able to deliver on both research and teaching. The more organizations depend on knowledge for performance, the higher their dependency on people becomes (Baruch, 2013). As a result, people and their management are significant for higher education institutions, where knowledge creation and dissemination are the critical tasks, to be delivered by academic scholars.

The higher education sector is expanding globally. Western educational and research institutions are being challenged by new business schools that are appearing in other parts of the world. A global, multiform and highly competitive industry has emerged. International rankings and accreditation are much sought-after quality indicators that guide strategic choices. The management of careers in academia is a key for talent management of human capital in a knowledge intensive environment where talent flow crosses national and institutional boundaries. The specific academic labour market operates as a part of a global eco-system (Baruch, 2013). The system, though is quite stratified and various factors, some supposed to be less relevant, like the prestige of the institution, influence career progress (Bedeian et al., 2010).

Such new context has significant impacts on academic staff. Academic career systems tend to focus on research outputs. Rankings and publication objectives have dramatic influences on research topics, pedagogical involvement and, more generally, scholars’ agendas. New tasks, such as fundraising, appear in scholars’ activities. Careers in academia unfold in a set of constraints that bound academic work, science development and teaching (Dany et al., 2011; Baruch and Pralong, 2012).

This Special Issue explores new approaches to studying academic careers and their implications. Papers focus on new and specific determinants of career success and career patterns in academia: continuous learning process, employability, social capital and gender. They illuminate a paradox. New challenges clearly appear within academia. A tough competition seems to appear to publish in the most prestigious journals and to join the most famous institutions. Job security is not as guaranteed as it used to be. Such context may lead to analyse the influence of individuals’ strategies and career tactics. Academic career may follow, to a certain extent, the concept of the “boundaryless career” as they are controlled more by individuals than by organizations (Baruch and Hall, 2004). Nevertheless, the “boundaryless” view of academic careers is declining. Scholars take en more balanced point of view. They investigate the relevance of structures, rather than of agency. Key concepts are institutions, career scripts and faculty management policies. Furthermore, the cultural factor is key. The papers gathered in this special issue remind us that countries have different academic institutions and traditions. Academia is not a global and unique world, aligned with the US/UK traditions.

We were fortunate to have four very strong papers, looking at different aspects of academic careers, and empirical contribution from different global locations. Bozionelos offers an intriguing sharp view of the way that both social capital and external factors, even political ones, can shape national academic career system. Sullivan et al. focusses on the specific feature of sabbatical or study leave that is prevalent in most research-led universities. Using the Kaleidoscope Career Model as theoretical lenses they examine the complex and long-lasting implications that sabbatical have for individuals and their employers. Fida explores via qualitative study the options academic career open to females in the Middle-East geo-location, and the impact of career scripts on future choices. Lastly, Van der Klink et al. focus on employability and the role that continuous learning have for academic (hence professional) life.

We hope and believe that this Special issue would be instrumental in shading light on this under-studied field. Both individuals and organizations can learn from it. Individuals can learn about how to self-manage their own academic careers. Institutions can benefit from better understanding of how to make the best from their talent resource.

Professor Yehuda Baruch
Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Professor Françoise Dany
EM Lyon Business School, Ecully cedex, France
Dr Jean Pralong and Dr Céline Davense
NEOMA Business School, Rouen, France

References

Baruch, Y. (2013), “Careers in academe: the academic labour market as an eco-system”, Career Development International, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 196-210

Baruch, Y. and Hall, D.T. (2004), “The academic career: a model for future careers in other sectors?”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 64 No. 2, pp. 241-262

Baruch, Y. and Pralong, J. (2012), “Anglo-French collaboration in MGT publications”, paper presented at the British Academy of Management, Cardiff

Bedeian, A.G., Cavazos, D.E., Hun, J.G. and Jauch, L.R. (2010), “Doctoral degree prestige and the academic marketplace: a study of career mobility within the management discipline”, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 11-25

Dany, F., Louvel, S. and Valette, A. (2011), “Academic careers: the limits of the ‘boundaryless approach’ and the power of promotion scripts”, Human Relations, Vol. 64 No. 7, pp. 971-996

Inkson, K. and Savickas, M. (Eds) (2013), Career Studies, SAGE, Thousand Oaks, CA