Employer strategies, capabilities and career development: two case studies of Spanish service firms

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse how company policies and strategies affect career development opportunities.Design methodology approach - A longitudinal approach is used, combining quantitative and qualitative data. Panel quantitative data have been used to classify different caree...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of manpower Vol. 34; no. 4; pp. 345 - 361
Main Authors López-Andreu, Martí, Miquel Verd, Joan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 05.07.2013
Subjects
Career advancement
Career development planning
Careers
Employment
Human resource management
Human resources
Labor market
Occupational mobility
Personnel policies
Skills
Studies
Workers
Working conditions
Spain
Career development
Internal labour markets
Capability approach
Promotion
Human resource management
Service sector companies
Spain
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Summary:Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse how company policies and strategies affect career development opportunities.Design methodology approach - A longitudinal approach is used, combining quantitative and qualitative data. Panel quantitative data have been used to classify different career paths, and biographical interviews conducted to identify the effects of company policies on these career paths. All the employees interviewed were working in two service organisations in Barcelona (Spain): a retail company and a public transport company.Findings - The results of the analysis show that the combination of new organisational methods, along with the human resource policies developed by the companies, reduces the opportunities for promotion and also actors' degree of control over transitions. Thus, career development is mainly marked by individual characteristics (educational credentials, age and gender) which are difficult or impossible to transform, and to a much lesser extent by the resources (mostly internal training) companies provide.Originality value - The article uses the capability approach as an analytical tool to address three specific company policies: those related to work organisation and working conditions; training; and appraisal and promotion. These policies are placed in a longitudinal perspective as a way of assessing their role in the development of workers' careers.
ISSN:0143-7720
1758-6577
DOI:10.1108/IJM-05-2013-0094