PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES PAPER

Professional Knowledge and Abilities Paper

Professional Knowledge and Abilities Paper

Introduction

Career success and person-environment fit have received significant attention in studies of the workplace especially in American Express. This is due to the general recognition that these concepts have important implications for individual behaviors and work outcomes and both affect the implementation process of the psychological employment contract. The psychological contract is generally defined in terms of a set of “individual beliefs, shaped by the organization, regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organizations” (Allen, 2004, 127).

One specific aspect of this contract between American Express and its employees has to do with the degree of person-environment fit (Allen, 2004, 127)). Person-environment (PE) fit is defined as the compatibility that occurs when individual and work environment characteristics are well matched (Alvesson, 2000, 1101). Research on person-organization fit indicates that organizational values for American Express are a good predictor of job choices and that individuals preferred jobs or careers in organizations which displayed values similar to their own (Alvesson, 2000, 1101).

Professional Knowledge and Abilities Paper: Case of American Express

The concept of the intelligent career introduced also by DeFillipi and Arthur (1994) presented a different behavioral view in which self-knowledge or self-awareness is fundamental. It involves the development of three “ways of knowing”: knowing-why, knowing-how, and knowing-whom. Knowing-why has to do with an individual's work motivation (in a particular occupation or industry), the construction of personal values and interests, and the identification with the employing firm's culture. Knowing-how has to do with an individual's career-relevant skills, abilities and competencies available to support current role behaviors. Knowing-whom refers to an individual's set of interpersonal relationships within and outside current work behavior available to support career opportunities and employability. As (Alvesson, 2001) indicated “why, how, and whom are primarily individual assets of motivation, skills and relationships.” In brief, the intelligent career places a great deal of emphasis on individual competencies and role behaviors, and on the connections between these competencies (application of the different forms of knowing) and organizational employment processes and practices.

The concept of post-corporate career offered by (Anackwe, 2000) presents somehow a different behavioral view in which vision or self-identity is fundamental. The concept suggests that career paths are horizontally and not vertically evolving over time as individual and organizational career realities are changing in the “post-corporate world”.

According to (Anackwe, 2000), current and future careers focus on “horizontal links that transcend geographical and organizational boundaries” and as such links continue to grow, individuals who have scarce skills and competencies will have more opportunities in establishing their professional or entrepreneurial career. As careers become increasingly “intelligent” (Anackwe, 2000, 566), the traditional vertical career paths have been replaced by post-organizational careers in which individuals' careers are rapidly advancing through professional or industry-based identity than by upward organizational-based identity.

The underlying assumption of this approach is that American Express should take a professional or entrepreneurship role in managing their own careers and pursue career strategies that fall in line with ...