promoting employability in a flat world.docx - Promoting...

Promoting employability in a "flat" world
Polly Parker
T. L. Friedman (2005) described a "flat" world
platform where competition and collaboration take
place in real time among people all over the planet.
Implications exist for people to assume responsibility
for managing their own careers and ensuring their
own security in a global economy. This article
addresses those challenges from both the
individual's and the career counselor's perspectives.
It proposes the "intelligent career' framework—
comprising 3 "ways of knowing" and
interdependencies among them—as a helpful basis
for effective career development. People can use the
framework to navigate their careers in order to
develop new skills, develop broader reputations, and
in turn sustain employability.
Now that people can connect with others anywhere, anytime, in a
nanosecond, it is timely to consider the implications of the
globalized world. It is a world that, in Thomas Friedman's terms,
is flat. In a flat world, "life-time employment is a form of fat that a
flat world simply cannot sustain any longer" (Friedman, 2005, p.
368). Individual workers are going to be more responsible for
managing their own careers, risks, and economic security. They
will need to be self-reliant yet supported by business and
government to enhance lifetime employability, brought about by
"replacing that fat with muscle" (Friedman, 2005, p. 369).
Profound changes in the world of work have altered previously
well-understood social contracts and highlighted the tension
between employment and employability. Security is no longer
synonymous with a "job for life." Rather, it depends on the ability
to maintain market currency continuously and ensure lifetime
employability (Friedman, 2005, p. 369). In this article, I consider
ways to help people to build and enact careers that sustain
employability. I describe the "intelligent career" as a framework to
promote employability that can be used both by individuals and
by counselors who support these individuals in their career
development. In particular, I focus on the intelligent career's three
"ways of knowing" and discuss reciprocal influences among
2
journal
of
employment counseling
Murch
2008
•
45

them. Finally, I identify some practical considerations for the
employment counselor.
THE CHANGING NATURE OF WORK
Several forces have contributed to the constantly changing
environment and the work and careers that emerge from it. A
principal force is globalization, which has been experienced in
three distinct waves.
The first wave involved the building of physical connections and
is symbolized by Columbus's 1492 voyage to the New World.
The second wave further modified the effects of physical distance
through improvements in transportation (from steam engines to
airplanes) and telecommunications (from the telegraph up to
early versions of the World Wide Web). The third wave is the
ability to collaborate and compete globally, using personal
computers and fiber-optic cables, to access digital content
through the rise of work-flow software (Friedman, 2005).