ABSTRACT
Amid all the rhetoric about the challenges of the 1990s, the changes to the way Europe runs its business, the effects of the demographic downturn and the changing nature of employment structures, the one thing that can all be certain of is that passage to the end of the century must be managed with considerable deftness. It is Europe’s managers who will bear the brunt of the struggle ahead. To develop managers have to understand what they do and why some do it so well. To gain such an understanding, have to establish a way of talking about managerial attributes and competences that makes clear precisely which aspects of performance are valued. All employers have such a ‘language’, though they exist in a variety of forms. Career management practices in organizations are as much subject to fashions and trends as any other aspects of personnel practice.
