Directorate of distance education master of business administration

Career Stages
 
There are four major career stages according to experts on career 
management.  During the first stage there is considerable exploration. 
The young employee searches for an identity and undergoes considerable 
self-examination and role tryouts. This stage usually results in taking a 
number of different jobs and is in general, a very unstable and relatively 
unproductive period in the person’s career.  At the end of the phase, a 
career statement emerges based on the crystallization of an individual’s 
views of themselves. For example, Human Resource Management 
aspirants begin to view themselves as sound in human relationships, 
labour laws and recruitment practices. 
In the second stage, establishment, the employee begins to settle down 
and indicates a need for intimacy. This is usually a growing productive 
period in the employee’s career. The third stage of maintenance occurs 
when the person levels off at a highly productive but plain period with 
little growth. At this stage the person has a need for generativity, which 
is nothing but a concern to leave something to the next generation. This 
need often leads the person to assume a paternalistic or mentor role 
with younger subordinate. The person may either have a growth spurt 
or become stagnant and decline during this career stage. The final stage 
is decline, when the person gradually gives up his active participation in 
official life.