The goal of this study is to develop a theoretical framework to illuminate the process of careers unfolding over time in an overall life context. We draw on data from a qualitative field study of the career paths of 81 professionals who pursued working on a reduced-load basis as a strategy for sustaining commitment to both their careers and family lives. Using multiple methods to analyze what happened between two interviews approximately six years apart, we identify five distinct career narratives and present a model of the evolution of careers. The model suggests that individuals construct careers over time through their own sensemaking of constantly shifting entangled strands of their personal, family, work, and community lives and three key dynamics that are ongoing: external events, gradual developments, and individual actions.
ArthurMBRousseauDM (eds) (1996) The Boundaryless Career. New York: Oxford University Press.
2.
ArthurMBInksonKPringleJ (1999) The New Careers: Individual Action and Economic Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
3.
BailynL (2004) Time in careers – careers in time. Human Relations57(12): 1507–1521.
4.
BailynL (2006) Breaking the Mold. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
5.
BakanD (1966) The Duality of Human Existence. Boston, MA: Beacon.
6.
BaltesPBBrimOG (1979) Life-Span Develoment and Behavior, vol. 2. New York: Academic Press.
7.
BarnettRGareisK (2000) Reduced-hours employment. Work and Occupations27(2): 168–187.
8.
BenkoCWeisbergA (2007) Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace with Today’s Nontraditional Workforce. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
BuzzanellPMLucasK (2006) Gendered stories of career: Unfolding discourses of time, space, and identity. In: DowBJWoodJt (eds) The Sage Handbook of Gender and Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 161–178.
10.
ClarkeM (2009) Plodders, pragmatists, visionaries and opportunists: Career patterns and employability. Career Development International14(1): 8–28.
11.
CollinAYoungRA (eds) (2000) The Future of Career. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
CorwinVLawrenceTBFrostPJ (2001) Individual strategies of successful part-time work. Harvard Business ReviewJuly–August: 120–127.
13.
DealJJ (2006) Retiring the Generation Gap: How Employees Young and Old Can Find Common Ground. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
14.
EdmondsonACMcManusSE (2007) Methodological fit in management field research. Academy of Management Review32(4): 1155–1179.
15.
GallosJV (1989) Exploring women’s development. In: ArthurMHallDTLawrenceBS (eds) Handbook of Career Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press, 110–132.
16.
GersonK (1985) Hard Choices: How Women Decide about Work, Career and Motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press.
17.
HallDT (2002) Careers In and Out of Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
HewlettSLuceCB (2005) On ramps and off ramps. Harvard Business Review83(3): 43–54.
20.
HillEJMartinsonAFerrisMBakerR (2004) Beyond the mommy track: The influence of new-concept part time work for professional women on work and family. Journal of Family & Economic Issues25(1): 121–136.
21.
HolmesTHRaheRH (1967) The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research11(2): 213–218.
22.
IbarraHBarbulescuR (2010) Identity as narrative. Academy of Management Review35(1): 135–154.
LangleyA (1999) Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review24(4): 691–710.
25.
LeeMDMacDermidSMDohringPLKossekEE (2004) Professionals becoming parents. In: KossekEELambertSJ (eds) Work and Life Integration. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 287–317.
26.
LevinsonDJwith Darrow CN, Klein EB, Levinson MH and McKee B (1978) The Seasons of a Man’s Life. New York: Knopf.
27.
LitricoJBLeeMD (2008) Balancing exploration and exploitation in alternative work arrangements. Journal of Organizational Behavior29(8): 995–1020.
28.
MacmillanR (2005) The structure of the life course: Classic issues and current controversies. Advances in Life Course Research9: 3–24.
29.
MainieroLASullivanSE (2005) Kaleidoscope careers: An alternate explanation for the opt-out revolution. Academy of Management Executive19(1): 106–123.
30.
MarshallJ (1989) Revisioning career concept. In: ArthurMHallDTLawrenceB (eds) Handbook of Career Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press, 275–291.
31.
MarshallJ (1995) Women Managers Moving On. New York: Routledge.
32.
MayerU (2009) New directions in life course research. Annual Review of Sociology35: 413–433.
33.
MeiksinsPWhalleyP (2002) Putting Work in its Place. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
34.
MoenPHanSK (2001) Reframing careers: Work, family and gender. In: MarshallVHeinzWKrugerHVermaA (eds) Restructuring Work and the Life Course. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 424–445.
35.
MoenPYuY (2000) Effective work/life strategies: Working couples, work conditions, gender, and life quality. Social Problems47(3): 291–326.
36.
MohrLB (1982) Explaining Organizational Behavior. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
37.
SavickasMLNotaLRossierJDauwalderJ-PDuarteMEGuichardJSoresiSVan EsbroeckRVan VianenAEM (2009) Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal of Vocational Behavior75(3): 239–250.
38.
ScheinEH (1978) Career Dynamics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
39.
StraussACorbinJ (1998) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
40.
SullivanSECrocittoM (2007) The developmental theories: A critical examination of their continuing impact on careers research. In: GunzHPeiperlM (eds) Handbook of Career Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 283–309.
41.
SuperDE (1990) A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In: BrownDBrooksL (eds) Career Choice and Development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 197–261.
42.
SuperDE (1992) Toward a comprehensive theory of career development. In: MontroseDHShinkmanCJ (eds) Career Development. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, 35–64.
43.
U.S. Census Bureau (2008) Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.
44.
ValcourPMBailynLQuijadaMA (2007) Customized careers. In: GunzHPPeiperlM (eds) Handbook of Career Studies. London: Blackwell, 188–210.
