ABSTRACT
This chapter defines organizational career management (OCM) systems, and analyzes the theoretical roots of OCM. It looks at OCM practices, and shows the link between human resource management (HRM) and career management and illustrates important insights with practical examples from the world of organizations. Career studies tend to be interdisciplinary and the same can be said about the theoretical roots of OCM. In the career literature, theoretical roots for OCM can be traced in the tension between individual agency and social determinism: Running through the entire literature on career is the tension between individual agency, the notion that we are what we make of ourselves, and social determinism. OCM practices are ‘activities undertaken by the organization in order to plan and manage the careers of its employees’. The strategic HRM literature demonstrated an interest in studying the effects of HRM practices on organizational and individual performance.
