ABSTRACT
Careers have been studied principally from the sociological and psychological perspectives, although other disciplines, such as economics, anthropology, political science, history and geography have valuable contributions to make to this complex phenomenon. Institutional careers may be focused on the occupation or upon the organisation–Gouldner’s notion of ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘local’ employees is helpful in making this distinction. Derr describes the ‘external’ career as reflecting the formal exchange of cash for services in which organisations and individuals are bound by the opportunities and constraints of the labour market. The ambiguity around the meaning of career leads to further difficulties when defining related terms. ‘Career development’, for instance, can be interpreted variously and is often used interchangeably with terms such as ‘career planning’ and ‘career management’. The theoretical study of careers has evolved under the influence of five major ‘movements’. In chronological order of emergence these are: vocational guidance, human resources planning, human potential, women’s and minorities’ rights, and life/career stages movements.
