ABSTRACT
Career pathing (also called career mapping) is a strategic HRD practice that is commonly used to help employees understand the career trajectories available to them within an organisation. A formal career path maps out the sequential list of job positions an employee needs to follow to achieve long-term career goals, as well as the necessary qualifications, critical job experiences and competencies to be acquired at each position. This chapter examines the role of career pathing in the creation and maintenance of workplace identities. Previous research has found career pathing to be beneficial to organisations and employees, but the theoretical reasons that career pathing is beneficial remain unknown. We submit that career pathing contributes to the formation of occupational, organisational and provisional identities that strengthen social ties at work and encourage the exploration of possible future work selves. This chapter provides a theoretical account for each form of identification, as well as a brief discussion of the specific benefits each form offers to the organisation and to individual employees. We conclude by discussing avenues for future research and implications for managers who are interested in improving their HRD practices.
