Preface: Shifting Career Realities and Navigating Career Journeys

Abstract

The COVID-19, worldwide pandemic forced organization leaders and employees to shift their career realities. They had to determine ways to navigate their career journeys more rapidly. Human resource development (HRD) scholars and professionals are in positions to assist organization leaders and employees as they seek to succeed in their careers. The researchers are providing career theories, ideas, and recommendations for HRD scholars and professionals to expand their understanding of career development during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Technological changes, remote work experiences, and psychological well-being are but a few of the challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and are affecting the career journeys of organization leaders and employees. This article provides an overview of ways that the authors attempt to solve these concerns and help HRD scholars and professionals help organizations adjust to the shifting career realities.

Keywords

COVID-19 career development career reality career journey technological change

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has been diagnosed in human beings in 186 countries and caused a worldwide pandemic that has killed over three million people. COVID-19 has led to the introduction of essential workers, and the designation of employees into the category of essential workers has sparked many conversations among workforce leaders. All employees are essentially human beings, and they all have knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are considered to be essential for them to perform their jobs. However, some jobs are not considered to be essential in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The context of COVID-19 has exposed the fallacy of who essential workers are. Many workers who thought their jobs were essential to the basic necessity of human survival were disappointed when their jobs were considered to be non-essential according to COVID-19 standards of necessity. Essential workers were deemed to work in the following areas: healthcare, energy, childcare, water and wastewater, agriculture and food production, critical retail (i.e., grocery stores, hardware stores, mechanics), critical trades (construction workers, electricians, plumbers, etc.), transportation, and nonprofits and social service organizations (COVID-19: Essential Workers in the States, 2021). COVID-19 has exposed many aspects of what all workers do and the important role of career development and the career journeys that workers endure. The articles in this Issue have sought to capture some workers’ experiences along their career journey during COVID-19. These articles enrich the career development literature using proven career theories.

Work has forever been changed from a place perspective because many employees have been required to work remotely to prevent spread of the virus. Social distancing has forced employers to invest and expand the use of technology such as AI, chatbots, Zoom, and many others. Traditional women’s work roles including nursing, teaching, beauty salons, nail spas, childcare proprietors, and salesclerks in retail stores are also being significantly influenced by COVID-19 (Carli, 2020). The shift in the workplace for women has been seismic primarily because of childcare and eldercare responsibilities and will continue as the need for career adjustments evolve and more is learned about the aftereffects of the pandemic.

From a diversity perspective, Black and Brown employees have been exposed as essential employees on the frontline of the pandemic and are risking their lives to help others obtain the resources that they need to endure the pandemic. Historically, Blacks in the US have had the highest unemployment rates when there is a downturn in the economy. During COVID-19, Hispanics, for the first time, have the highest unemployment rate in the US (Branson-Potts et al., 2020). Thus, diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be ignored as individuals and organizations seek to recover from COVID-19 (Dolan et al., 2020), recognize the career reality of employees, and address the opportunities and challenges presented along the career journey of employees.

Career Development and Human Resource Development Support

The definitions of career development vary in focus from the individual to the organization. For example, Greenhaus et al. (2018) emphasized individuals’ efforts and defined career development “an ongoing process by which individuals progress through a series of stages, each of which is characterized by a relatively unique set of issues, themes, and tasks” (p. 13). However, Van der Sluis and Poell (2003) defined it as “a process of professional growth brought about by work-related learning” (p. 162), which focused on the effects of outside sources. Moreover, Gilley et al. (2002) suggested a collaborative effort, explaining, “career development is a process requiring individuals and organizations to create a partnership that enhances employees’ knowledge, skills, competencies, and attitudes required for their current and future job assignments” (p. 94).

McLagan (1983) identified career development as an essential component of human resource development (HRD) in her training and development competency model. Human resource development is the “integrated use of training and development, career development, and organization development to improve individual and organizational performance” (p. 7).

According to McDonald and Hite (2005), HRD can play an important role in an individual’s career development through organizational support mechanisms, such as ensuring equity and fairness in areas such as pay, maintaining a productive work environment, and creating opportunities that minimize work and family conflict.

Studies indicate that pay is significantly linked to career development (Gutteridge et al., 1993; Hughes, 2018, 2020; Hughes et al., 2019; Leibowitz et al., 1992; McDonald et al., 2002). McDonald and Hite (2005) argue how most organizations have concentrated career development efforts at upper-level, professional, and managerial levels. The authors point out how more consideration should be given to career development opportunities for non-exempt, hourly workers for a more inclusive representation of this pay level. The field of HRD can play a significant role in leading this charge by creating and implementing career development opportunities across all organizational levels in a fair and equitable manner.

The work environment is another factor that influences employees’ career development. London (1983) indicated that career motivations could be influenced by reward structures, organizational climate, leadership, and job design. HRD professionals should strive to assist workplace leaders in providing employees a work environment which could meet the needs of both organizations and employees. According to Cappelli (1999), the employability concept might be what organizations can best offer to employees. He explained, “we cannot offer you security with our company, but we can help you to secure skills that will help keep you employable, that will lead to some security in the labor market by helping you find other jobs” (pp. 29–30).

The employee experience (EX) has emerged as another way for employers to enhance the employees’ work environment (Hughes, 2018; Morgan, 2017, 2018). Morgan (2018) stated that “instead of trying to force people to fit into outdated workplace practices, organizations must redesign their workplace practices to fit with their people” (¶2), and he described three factors that shape all EX in organizations, worldwide: culture, technology, and physical workspace.

Work-family issues have been researched frequently in career development literature. Previous studies have indicated that work-family conflicts influenced individuals’ satisfaction, career choices, aspirations, and patterns, particularly in regard to women’s careers (Eccles, 1994; Erwin, 1997; Hite & McDonald, 2003; Kossek & Ozeki, 1998). McDonald and Hite (2005) suggested that HRD could advocate for work-family benefits that meet the variety of needs, assist in building networks and structures of socioemotional support within the organizations, and provide non-traditional learning activities. In the wake of COVID-19, McGuire et al. (2020) suggests that HRD adopt an ethics of care approach to developing employees.

Pandemic Impacts on Career Development

COVID-19 pandemic is the fifth documented pandemic in the history of the United States. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020), there were four previous pandemics including the 1918 Pandemic (H1N1 virus), 1957-1958 Pandemic (H2N2 virus), 1968 Pandemic (H3N2 virus), and 2009 H1N1 Pandemic (H1N1 pdm09 virus) in the United States. Previous pandemics also had significant impacts on the workforce and career development. The impacts of a pandemic always influenced the structural shifts in the economy tthrough health and labor productivity of the general working population (Lund et al., 2020).; yet, they also forced career and workforce development innovations. The influenza of 1918, as noted by Crosby (2003) “had a permanent influence not on the collectivities but on the atoms of human society—individuals” (p. 323). Almond (2006) found that cohorts in utero during the 1918 pandemic had reduced educational attainment, lower-income, and higher rates of physical disability. Moreover, pandemics increased the frequency of workers’ absences due to sickness and family responsibility. Borse et al. (2011) reported that in 17% of the households, at least one adult missed some work because of the school closures during the 2009 pandemic in New York City. To make the workplace more resilient and inclusive, the trends of the shift to independent work and the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation are increasing (Hughes et al., 2019). Therefore, workplaces, through HRD professionals, are developing and enacting new requirements for workers’ KSAs.

Purpose of this Special Issue

During COVID-19 over 36 million unemployed citizens in the US and 21,801,204 who had applied for unemployment benefits as of May 14, 2020 (U. S. Department of Labor, 2020). The recovery for some these 36 million workers is unimaginable for them and some of their employers. The emotional turmoil has been insurmountable for some (Le et al., 2020) but many will press forward toward their goals.

Despite COVID-19, individual employees and workplace leaders have career goals. These goals may now be accomplished sooner, eliminated, or deferred. Many employees and leaders must adjust their career goals and accept that their organizations may not survive the pandemic. If the organization does survive, changes and adjustments may still be necessary. New organizations, through entrepreneurship and expansion, have also been created as individuals and organizations adjusted to COVID-19 dictated changes (Maritz et al., 2020).

Career development as a core component of HRD has an explicit connection with HRD. However, there are very few studies examining the role of HRD professionals in career development or focusing on career development in general HRD literature. Therefore, the purpose of this Special Issue is to utilize career development theories to examine the role of professionals in helping employees and organization leaders achieve career goals as they attempt to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic. HRD professionals who research and practice career development and use career theory have an opportunity to provide recommendations and solutions for ways that employees and leaders can adjust their career goals to survive during and thrive after COVID-19. The authors use multiple theories to explore how COVID-19 has challenged the field of HRD to consider relevant theories that explain or has re-defined current career reality as employees continue to navigate their career journeys.

Overview of the Special Issue

The articles in this Special Issue have implications for HRD professionals and employees who are dealing with psychological anxiety, engaging workers in various situations, sustaining hope, addressing women/work roles, health/well-being, post COVID-19 employability, virtual learning environments, and career coaching/mentoring.

Article 1 integrates the Employee Career Development Integration (Yoon et al., 2020) and the Hope-Action Theory (Niles et al., 2019) to identify the role of leaders and HRD practitioners in assisting employees in four situations: (a) workers who can work remotely, (b) workers who need to be in the workplace physically, (c) outgoing employees, and (d) displaced workers/job seekers for their career development. The results of this study can develop mechanisms to help employees and organizational leaders reach a hopeful career state in COVID-19.

Article 2 explores the challenges of remote work and factors supporting remote workers through an integrative literature review. The results of this study will offer practical guidance for HRD professionals to support remote workers’ psychological well-being and career development as they adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Article 3 explains how organizational support systems are essential for enhancing workers’ sense of well-being and belongingness and offsetting the negative effects of working in a virtual/remote environment. In this study, self-efficacy, a component of social learning theory, explains how virtual/remote workers often become self-empowered when relying on their own cognitive abilities to ensure successful career outcomes.

Article 4 explores how the pandemic influenced women’s career development through the conceptual framework of work/family border theory (Clark, 2000). This article will provide HRD professionals and policymakers guidance to support women balance work and life to focus on career development. The authors suggest a focus on women’s positive employee’s positive experiences with remote work during the pandemic.

Article 5, the concluding article, comprehensively discusses how this Special Issue advances the role of HRD from a career development and career theory perspective in response to the disruptive and uncontrollable change produced by COVID- 19.

Implications for Human Resource Development

This Special Issue provides research, theory, and practical perspectives for organization leaders and employees to navigate their career realities during and after COVID-19. Career development theories and concepts that have received limited attention in the HRD literature are examined. Some of the theories discussed include social learning theory (Bandura, 1977); Clark’s (2000) work/family border theory, employee career development integration (Yoon et al., 2020), hope-action theory (HAT; Niles et al., 2019), Lent et al.’s (1994) social cognitive career theory (SCCT), and others.

Since career development has not been researched in the HRD literature with sufficient frequency, specificity, or clarity, this Issue adds to the research knowledge base by promoting future studies exploring topics on career development from HRD perspectives. In addition, this Special Issue will provide a baseline for empirical studies of career development adjustment to the pandemic on topics including dynamic learning opportunities/activities, performance improvement, HRD support, and the diversity, equity, and inclusion issues of career development.

For HRD practice, this Issue will benefit HRD professionals and organizations as they seek to address the career development of employees and organization leaders in different career situations and at different career stages, as well as help them to understand the career impacts and challenges due to COVID-19. In addition, this Issue establishes a bridge between career development and the strategic goals of the organization. Finally, this Issue provides a systemic approach to career development and serves as a foundation for HRD professionals, employees, and employers as they adjust to pandemics and crises.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Claretha Hughes is professor of Human Resource and Workforce Development in the Department of Rehabilitation, Human Resources, and Communication Disorders, College of Education and Health Professions, University of Arkansas (UA). Her research interests include valuing people and technology in the workplace, technology development, diversity intelligence, learning technologies, and ethical and legal issues. She has a PhD in Career and Technical Education from Virginia Tech, Master of Textiles in Textile Technology Management from NC State University, B.A. in Chemistry from Clemson University, and MBA in Management from University of Arkansas.

Yuanlu Niu is an assistant professor of Human Resource and Workforce Development at University of Arkansas. She holds a Ph.D. in Education with a concentration in the Workforce Education and Development and an MBA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her research focuses on discrimination in the workplace, career development, career transition, human resource development, physical appearance discrimination in the workplace, women’s studies, and workforce diversity.

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