Critically examine how theory and research helps individuals manage career transitions, both planned and unplanned

Career transition involves a complicated process with multiple variables in play to influence an individual's or family's stability. Furthermore, unlike a job change, career transitions are likely to take a prolonged period before the process is complete. Hence, career transition refers to a scenario where an individual engages in a different function or continue with the same professional activity in a different industry. Participating in career can either be planned or unplanned. In what might be a planned career transition, an individual makes a personal decision to engage in something different from the current economic practice and prepares for it in advance. For instance, after retirement, individuals are likely to engage in an economic activity that generates income but different from the career defined. Accordingly, the individual gets an opportunity to plan, raise funds for the adventure, and conduct a broad market research. On the contrary, a scenario when an individual must decide to engage in a different economic activity after firing, layoffs, and retrenchment refer to what might be an unplanned career transition. Whether planned or unplanned, a career transition is not easy and might take a toll on the individual. However, what might help the individual undergoing the transition is understanding what to expect and planning before initiating the process.

Literature Review

Different scholars demonstrate their interest in career transition among employees who need to change their careers either as a personal decision or from unplanned circumstances. According to Masdonati et al. (2017) , career transition has become more complex and has a high frequency due to the uncertainties associated with consistent but unpredictable changes. Consequently, the majority of individuals have to change their careers at some point in life. Career transition involves a complex process because it requires an individual to integrate into a new career practice. Scholars developed some theories to enhance understanding of career transition, including social cognitive career theory, the theory of work adjustment, and the circumscription and compromise model (Leung, 2008; Wang & Wanberg, 2017) . The work adjustment theory illustrates a career as an interactive process involving both the employee and the workplace environment. Hence, the two aspects must consistently meet the expectations of each other's failure. Either the employee or the employer will experience dissatisfaction leading to turnover or firing, respectively (Dahling & Librizzi, 2014) . On the other hand, the social cognitive theory demonstrates three aspects of career development: development of career interests, making career choices, and ways to achieve career success (Foley & Lytle, 2015) . The theory is relatively new in the field and has some relevance in promoting a successful career transition. Finally, the circumscription and compromise model explains career development among individuals and the various steps involved in achieving the desired profession. The available literature concerning career transition provides in-depth analysis to understand factors that contribute to the process, ways to develop a new career, and how to be successful in the new endeavor.

Research Methodologies

Researchers use different research methods to study the concept of career transition over the years to acquire an in-depth understanding of the topic. Evaluating research epistemology helps in understanding why researchers used the research method applied in a specific study. Epistemology refers to the source of knowledge used in deriving findings in a given study. Examples of epistemology include positivism, interpretivism, critical theory, social constructionism, and post-modernism (Moon & Blackman, 2014) . Based on the preferred epistemology, the researcher develops a research philosophy that enhances the provision of findings (Darlaston-Jones, 2007) . Both positivism and interpretivism are the most appropriate epistemological techniques used in the study aimed at examining how theory and research helps individuals manage career transitions . Positivism epistemology requires the researcher to use factual information to demonstrate in deriving the findings of the study. On the contrary, the interpretivism allows the researcher to retrieve data from research papers, books, and credible websites (Grossman & Leach, 2008) . On the other hand, the interpretivist research philosophy helps acquire subjective meanings from a social phenomenon that can only rely on detailed information and reality associated with the research area. For instance, Wang & Wanberg (2017) demonstrates some elements of interpretivist research philosophy and interpretivism epistemology by relying on journal articles that researched career transition over 100 years. Based on the research, career transition involves five stages, namely career stage, decision-making, adjustment, relational, and identity. Alternatively, Lee et al. (2011) conducted a study to assess careers' evolution among people using a factual strategy due to reliance on actual data collected from a convenient sample. The research involves statistical analysis.

Stages of Career Transition

Career transition involves a range of stages, whether an individual undergoes the stage as planned or unplanned. In this section, the paper seeks to understand various factors that influence career transition among employees.

Career stage 

The career stage begins after recruitment, and when an individual has to acquire an employment opportunity to work in an organization. According to McKinlay (2002), the recruitment procedure takes different forms, including the use of personal contacts and apprentices that employers seek to strengthen the relationship with. The career stage involves a range of practices and levels, including establishment, advancement, maintenance, and withdrawal. Hence, after recruitment, an employee can progress to other employment stages by ensuring that they observe all the organizational values and become productive towards achieving the purpose and objective of an organization. In such a scenario, the employees are likely to acquire promotion where one operates at a higher rank within the same organization. An employee can maneuver through all the four stages of career development without a need to engage in career transition until after retirement. However, some factors like job dissatisfaction can disrupt the process, and an individual might have to transition either through firing or turnover, marking the beginning of career transition. It is essential to note that individual factors can influence job satisfaction among individuals and facilitate career transition. For instance, women are likely to transition from one job to another to land in a work environment that is suitable for them to meet both family and workplace responsibilities (O'Neil & Bilimoria, 2005). Other factors that can trigger a need to engage in career transition include competency, motivation, and discrimination. 

Decision-making 

The decision-making process determines whether an individual is willing to engage in another career or stick to the present. Deciding on transitions one's career follows a wide range of factors, including job insecurity, dissatisfaction, and gender-related issues. Ahn et al. (2017) argue that intrinsic rewards are likely to influence employees' decisions to engage in career transition. For instance, if an employee perceives that by changing the profession, more income will be generated, chances of abandoning the current career are high. Similarly, gender identity among women significantly influences the decision of members of society to take part in a career transition. Women are likely to achieve positions associated with their femininity and restricted from attaining ranks that men quickly get through. Such a paradigm is expected to cause discomfort among women, making women advance their careers, resulting in dissatisfaction and a basis for career transition (LaPointe, 2012). Furthermore, pursuing life goals is an ongoing process that involves decision making among the participants. Therefore, career transition consists of deciding to start all over again in a different career to achieve life goals. However, employees need to manage factors that facilitate their decisions to turnover a job because if uncontrolled, it can influence other jobs in the future. 

Adjustment 

The adjustment phase is also known as the adoption stage because the individual makes changes that make career transition efficient. Individuals might have to alter their values and identity aimed at creating a suitable working environment. Additionally, the employee must also create a conducive cognitive environment by eliminating stressors and develop skills useful in stress management (Savage & Flemmen, 2019) . The human capital theory helps to explain how employees develop the capability to create or improve their working environment to achieve the best results from their engagement (Fleming, 2017) . Employees have the urge to establish a sense of flexibility in their workplaces, fail to develop some dissatisfaction towards their job, and consider a career transition. For instance, truck drivers in countries like the U.K, U.S., and New Zealand transition from their careers and join the manufacturing industry because they consider the sector more conducive to flexibility than transportation (Fleming, 2017) . Nevertheless, the drivers must demonstrate their determination towards career development aimed at achieving a conducive work environment. For instance, skill development is a critical aspect that facilitates individuals towards the attainment of a suitable career. The presence of relevant skills for the individual also plays an essential role in ensuring that employees can meet their goals and mission of the company (Davey, 2020) . Hence, as part of their adjustment plan, employees undergoing a career transition must ensure that they have relevant skills to meet particular interests within the organization. For example, the projection shows that career transition increases work-related and job-related pressure after the change, and effectiveness in managing these issues determines the level of satisfaction in the new profession (Rigotti et al., 2014) . Accordingly, an individual must create a strategy that will help achieve a significant career transition by preparing on the likely stressors and preparing in advance on ways to manage them.

Relational 

Relational perspective depicts that choosing a different career from what one engages in currently results from social influence. The presence and practicing globalization among organizations increased the number of employees sent for official assignments in other countries. Consequently, the trends in career transitions borrow from social relations that individuals create across the globe. Hirsh (2016) explains the current trend on subjective career aspect, which refers to how people tell stories about their careers trigger some interest among other people who wish to associate with similar narratives. The concepts contradict the objective aspect that creates the basis of the current foundation. 

Identity 

Scholars developed the perspective aimed at evaluating the influence of career transition in an individual's identity. An individual must adopt values and practices acceptable to the new profession, requiring altering one's identity. For instance, when an individual transitions from a manager to a supervisor in another institution, it might be difficult to relate to the new status. Different generations have varying perceptions about the changes in their jobs (Mayrhofer et al., 2020) . For instance, baby boomers developed some entitlement feelings when executing their duties because they did not comply with social norms (Zabel et al., 2016) . On the contrary, millennials value work-life and commit themselves to execute the required organizational duties. Consequently, while it might be difficult for the baby boomers to adopt a new identity, millennials would readily embrace it. Moreover, gender inequality and discrimination play a critical role in determining an employee's role, depending on one's gender (Loretto & Vickerstaff, 2015) . Accordingly, if the assigned roles and responsibilities contradict an individual's perspective about gender-related roles, identity conflicts ensue.

Conclusion

Career transition involves a complex procedure even though individuals have to experience the process, whether planned or unplanned. Different theoretical perspectives emerged explaining what career transition entails and what it intends to achieve. Among these theories include social cognitive career theory and theory of work adjustment. Decision-making is an essential elements towards career transition since it marks the beginning of the process. Furthermore, different scholars established triggers that lead to career transition, including job dissatisfaction, subjective effect, firing, rewards, and retirement. However, employees must ensure that they understand the associated stressors with job transition and prepare in advance to prevent a conflict. Employee identity is one of the aspects of employees are likely to change due to career transition. The generation in which an individual belongs has an essential role in determining the reaction that one will have towards job transition. Baby boomers are entitled to their feelings and perceptions they create towards change and they are unlikely to embrace identities that seem to demean them. However, Generation X is more committed towards work and can readily accept any identity as long as they acquire satisfaction with their new jobs. Based on the above analysis, employees ought to mentally prepare for the transition since it is unavoidable and might be straining to the individual.

References

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