Introduction

We are currently witnessing continuous changes in the nature of the relationship between individual employees and the organisations that employ them. This shift has come about in response to the fundamental changes in society, such as the democratisation of work life, which has brought together values such as variety and autonomy (Gratton & Ghoshal, 2003). All these changes have led to a gradual transition from an era in which employees' responsibilities were those of loyalty, attendance, satisfactory performance and compliance to authority, to a time in which people are exhorted to be entrepreneurs, innovators, enactors of change and excellent performers (Schalk & Rousseau, 2001).

In the face of renewed competitive pressures and the need for greater flexibility and skills, companies can no longer promise lifelong employment, and as a consequence, the traditional career advancement model with its assumption of predictable, upward mobility has become less common (Heckscher, 1995; Cappelli, 1999). This model is increasingly being replaced by more diverse career paths that are unpredictable, disorderly and primarily involve horizontal mobility (Colakoglu, 2006). Therefore, careers must be recast as boundaryless (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996), protean (Hall, 1996), portfolio (Handy, 1994), and as an adventure in personal growth and development that is more suited to the entrepreneurial, post-bureaucratic, post-corporate world (Kanter, 1989; Heckscher & Donnellon, 1994). These new career orientations, which arose as an alternative paradigm to the traditional view of careers, assume that there is a certain lack of guidance in terms of the structuring of an individual's career development. They have placed a great deal of responsibility on individuals for developing their own careers and for actively managing their personal human capital. Thus, the employee becomes a less malleable resource for the company and a more mobile investor of his/her human capital. The term human capital refers to employees' productive resources that create value for themselves and for the organisation of which they are part (Gratton & Ghoshal, 2003).

This paper has several purposes. Firstly, it critically reviews the existing literature on personal human capital and related issues. Secondly, by drawing on the knowledge gleaned from the critical review of existing literature, this paper tries to design a theoretical methodology (the PHCN – Personal Human Capital Navigator), which is aimed at managing personal human capital for professional excellence. Finally, the paper draws a number of conclusions.

Fundamental changes in the relationship between employers and employees in the knowledge economy

'The career is dead, long live the career' declared Hall (1996), illustrating the sweeping changes in the relationship between the individual and his/her employing organisation.

The arguments are familiar: in the face of increasing globalisation and other competitive pressures, and in the search for maximum flexibility and response to the turbulence and uncertainty of the new economy, organisations have started to adopt leaner, flatter and more customer-driven structures (Parasuraman et al., 2000). These structures have fewer managerial levels and more cross-functional teams. Therefore, the structures that supported traditional linear careers have been replaced. This traditional career was associated with long-term, full-time employment with a single employer, and a series of interconnected positions characterised by increasing levels of prestige, authority and pay within a hierarchy (Tolbert, 1996).

Today's organisational restructuring creates a rather hostile environment for the traditional corporate career (Inkson, 1997). The long-term company employment model depends on a number of factors. As Inkson (1999) remarks, these factors may have served us well in the past, but they have become increasingly anachronistic (see Table 1).

Table 1 - Company careers vs current conditions.

Full table

In the light of these transformations, job security has significantly diminished and the psychological contract, which represents employees' perceptions of the mutual obligations between employees and employers, has also been altered (Sullivan, 1999; Greenhaus, 2002). Under the old, relational contract, employees exchanged loyalty and commitment for job security (either long-term or lifetime employment). However, under the new, transactional contract, employees exchange expert performance and just-in-time knowledge for a job in which they can learn and practise new skills for future employability (Rousseau, 1989; Hall & Mirvis, 1995; Rousseau & Wade-Benzoni, 1995; Altman & Post, 1996).

The notion of the new career differs from the traditional notion, in the sense that the responsibility for career management has shifted from the employer to the employee (Stickland, 1996; Sullivan, 1999; De Vos et al., 2006). As Gratton & Ghoshal (2003) observed, in previous generations the conventional practice was for the employee to play the part of the innocent and the employer that of a sophisticate. Today this relationship has been reversed: the innocent plays the sophisticate. This places the responsibility for the development of the self in the hands of the possessor. Increasingly, individuals control the development of their careers and their destinies, instead of passively relying on the organisation to undertake this task.

Career self-management is generally described in terms of individual independence from organisational career management systems, and a reliance on oneself. Inherent to the notion of career self-management is the proactive attitude of the individual employee towards his/her career (Kossek et al., 1998). This involves both a self-analysis of talents, capabilities and career ambitions, and concrete actions (e.g. networking, self-nomination, creating opportunities) that are undertaken to realise these ambitions (Noe, 1996; Sturges et al., 2000, 2002). As a consequence, new career concepts have emerged, such as the boundaryless career (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996) and the protean career (Hall, 1996), which emphasise the role of the individual as the primary actor in managing his/her own career.

DeFillippi & Arthur (1996) give a succinct definition of the boundaryless career as a 'sequence of job opportunities that go beyond the boundaries of single employment settings'. Moves across organisational boundaries involve not only a change of employer, but also a change of industry, occupation and geographic location. Individuals are also expected to experience periodical shifts between different forms of employment, such as being either a core or temporary employee, working part time or full time, and finding oneself in organisational employment, self-employment or unemployment (Arthur et al., 1999).

Arthur & Rousseau (1996) propose that the principal features of such careers are job mobility across multiple employers, personal responsibility for directing one's own career development and the development of social networks to shape and sustain that career. The key competencies become 'knowing why' (personal motives and values that one attaches to work), 'knowing whom' (social relationships that somehow affect one's work processes and one's social life) and 'knowing how' (the resources one brings to one's work) (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1996).

Researchers and practitioners have suggested that success in a boundaryless career requires a different mind set to success in a traditional career. This different mind set or approach is called the protean career. The term derives from the god Proteus, who possessed the uncanny ability to morph in order to adapt to oncoming threats. Hall first noted the emergence of the protean career in 1976, as he saw the beginnings of a shift away from the organisational career to this new orientation, which he defines as follows: The protean career is a process which the person, not the organization, is managing. It consists of all of the person's varied experiences in education, training, work in several organizations, changes in occupational field, etc. The protean person's own personal career choices and search for self-fulfilment are the unifying or integrative elements in his or her life. The criterion of success is internal (psychological success) not external. (Hall, 1976, p. 201). Psychological success means attaining outcomes that are highly valued when measured against one's own personal goals, as opposed to externally defined goals. The protean core values are freedom and growth. Mobility is high, and the main criteria for success are subjective (psychological success) vs objective (position, salary) (Hall, 1976). The differences between the profiles of the organisational career and the protean career are summarised in Table 2.

Table 2 - Elements in the protean career.

Full table

These career concepts all include the notion of self-management of an individual's resources and capabilities, which involves the employee having a proactive attitude towards his/her career (Kossek et al., 1998). Such concepts are generally described as individual independence from organisational management career systems and reliance on oneself.

To summarise, Inkson (1999) uses an interesting parallelism. He states, from the perspective of the traditional paradigm, that 'if career is a sculpture, then the individual is the clay and the company is the sculptor' (Bell & Staw, 1989, in Inkson, 1999). Under the new career paradigm, the company is peripheral, 'I sculpt my own career, thank you. All my employer provides is the studio and the stone'.

Defining personal human capital

A macroeconomic perspective recognises human capital as the driver of national economic activity, competitiveness and prosperity (OECD, 1996). Career development can improve the efficiency of labour markets and education systems, support key policy objectives ranging from lifelong learning to social equity, and enable people to build human capital and employability throughout their lives (OECD, 2003).

The organisational perspective refers to human capital as 'the source of innovation and strategic renewal' (Bontis, 1998). Gupta & Roos (2001) added that 'core intellectual capital' comprising competence, intellectual agility and attitude are the potential of synergies for the value creation. Competence includes skills and education, while attitude represents the behavioural element of the employee's work. Intellectual agility enables one to change practices and to think of innovative solutions to problems. On the individual level, human capital is defined as a combination of four elements: (i) genetic inheritances; (ii) education, (iii) experience and (iv) attitudes about life and business (Hudson, 1993). The development of human capital is dependent on an individual's ability to identify and manage learning needs, learn and optimise the use of learning through career planning, job search skills and managing work life balance.

In this paper, we define human capital as employees' productive resources that create value for themselves and for the organisation of which they are part. Drawing on Gratton & Ghoshal (2003), we believe that people possess three kinds of resources, which collectively constitute their individual human capital (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Constitutive elements of personal human capital.
Source: Gratton & Ghoshal (2003).

Full figure and legend (21K)

Intellectual capital refers to fundamental individual attributes, such as cognitive complexity and the capacity to learn, together with the tacit and explicit knowledge, skills and expertise that an individual builds over time. Social capital refers to the networks of relationships that provide access to the resources that the members of the network possess or have access to. Emotional capital refers to self-confidence based on the self-esteem, courage and resilience that individuals need to convert their knowledge and relationships into effective actions.

These different elements of human capital (HC) are highly interrelated. It is the combination of elements, the feedback loops and connectivity that brings the advantage: Social capital, in the form of extensive, fluid and reciprocal relationships with people, help individuals to develop intellectual capital by accessing the knowledge and skills those people possess. Emotional capital brings the integrity and self-awareness to build open and trusting relationships which underpin the creation of social capital. The learning propensity of intellectual capital can be a driver for self-development, resulting in self-awareness of emotional capital. And within this reinforcing feedback loop, the self-knowledge built though open and meaningful relationships further enhances self awareness and self-esteem (Gratton & Ghoshal, 2003).

Conceptualising professional excellence

Career success is commonly defined as the positive psychological or work-related outcomes or achievements one accumulates as a result of work experiences (Judge et al., 1995). From this definition, career success can be viewed from both objective and subjective perspectives (Van Maanen & Schein, 1977). As Hall & Chandler (2005) remark, Hughes asserted that the subjective career is most pertinent from the vantage point of the individual, as he evaluates different facets of his career (Hughes, 1958; Van Maanen & Schein, 1977). In this subjective perspective, career success is in the eye of the beholder and reflects the importance of a person's own set of values, attitudes and goals in judging his or her career success. In contrast, Hughes highlighted the criticality of the objective career when considering the vantage point of society and an external perspective that 'validates' the tangible facets of an individual's career, such as income, promotions, hierarchical job level and job mobility (Hughes, 1958; Van Maanen & Schein, 1977; Hall & Chandler, 2005).

Exploration of the subjective career was and continues to be timely, given the fundamental shift that has occurred within the career context (Hall & Mirvis, 1995; Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). Traditional career success was consistent with the hierarchical, position-oriented organisations in which objective indicators of career success such as a person's upward and linear progression through a single organisation or occupation, income differentials, rank and job retention were relevant to 'captive' individuals as they navigated their careers (Colakoglu, 2006). The current literature suggests that in the era of boundaryless careers the consideration of subjective career success has become particularly important because boundaryless careers do not follow a normative template characterised by a predictable and orderly career path as in traditional careers (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). Boundaryless career paths are idiosyncratic and disorderly, due to periodic shifts between different forms of employment (e.g. core vs temporary, part time vs full time or self-employment) and periodical disruptions and discontinuities experienced in one's career (Colakoglu, 2006). Moreover, as opposed to an upward, linear route to advancement in traditional careers, the route to advancement in a boundaryless career may include many lateral or seemingly downward moves crossing organisational and/or occupational boundaries (Arthur et al., 1999). As Colakoglu (2006) remarks, compared to traditional careers, boundaryless careers include more heterogeneous career path that are unique to each individual (see Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Career success within the context of the boundaryless careers.
Source: Own elaboration.

Full figure and legend (37K)

A review of literature on personal human capital and related issues

Recent literature has found that the concepts of boundaryless career and protean career are useful and representative of current new career patterns. It has emphasised the fact that career researchers must use boundaryless and protean career assumptions if they wish to conduct meaningful research (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). However, work drawing on these new career orientations has been mostly conceptual rather than empirical. This literature has focused mainly on explaining the conditions under which boundaryless careers emerge and the changes the boundaryless career brings into the lives of individuals (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). Nevertheless, we have a very limited understanding of how individuals can face the challenges of the future in a proactive manner.

A review of literature indicates that this problem has been identified by various researchers and practitioners. However, suggestions for future research do not centre on problem solving from an individual's perspective, but rather on new research topics and on aspects such as job mobility (King, 2005), career counselling (Gibson, 2004), and gender studies (Valcour & Tolbert, 2003), among others.

The existing models only partially approach the problem:

• Firstly, they do not reveal an integrative perspective, as they focus on the HC components separately (i.e. intellectual capital, social capital (Carnegie, 1938) or emotional capital (Boyatzis et al., 2002; Bar-On, 1997).
• Secondly, they have a psychological rather than a strategic approach, as they are mainly self-esteem models (Covey, 1990), centred on personal growth and development.

Given the presumed impact of boundaryless/protean careers on people's professional success and on their lives, and due to the limited theoretical and practical research on the issue, this paper aims to develop and test a model that should help individuals to strategically manage their personal human capital and thus achieve professional excellence.

Designing the PHCN methodology

Using knowledge from the critical review of existing literature, this paper attempts to design a practical methodology for managing personal human capital to achieve outstanding results.

Our research methodology was based on the following scientific research methodologies: firstly, we mainly used the design methodology described by Daniel Andriessen (2004); secondly, we built on Dubin's methodology (Dubin, 1978) to develop the theoretical model; and, finally, the case method (Yin, 2002) was applied for the empirical research and to validate the model. Daniel Andriessen (2004) distinguishes between the traditional approach of practising IC research as an explanatory science and the new approach of practising IC research as a design science. The explanatory sciences, such as the physical sciences and the major sections of the social sciences, create theories that describe, explain and predict the world. In contrast, the purpose of the design sciences, such as the engineering sciences, medical science and modern psychotherapy, is to diagnose situations, define the problem and design practical methods for improving the situation. Based on Andriessen (2004), we use the reflective cycle to generate design knowledge about the PHCN. Figure 3 shows a more detailed overview of the reflective cycle. The methodology is not described in detail in the paper, as we consider the user has easy access to it.

Figure 3.

The reflective cycle.
Source: Andriessen (2004).

Full figure and legend (140K)

Dubin's (1978) detailed theory-building method was chosen as the most appropriate research method for designing the PHCN model. It was selected for various reasons (Chermack, 2004): (a) it is the most comprehensive method available; (b) it ensures that the researcher-theorist constructs a theoretical model based on conceptual and logically connected ideas; (c) it requires the translation of the theoretical model into a testable hypothesis about how the theory works in practice; (d) it requires that the theoretical model be tested to claim that a theory exists; (e) it provides a demand for empirical research by identifying a hypothesis.

The theoretical model and its propositions were empirically tested using the case method. Dubin's (1978) detailed theory-building and the case method (Yin, 2002) are not exhaustively described in this paper, as it is considered that the reader is able to readily access these papers.

Units of the PHCN model

Dubin (1978) stated: In principle there are no limitations on the selection of the units to be employed in a theoretical model. The theorist has unlimited opportunities to employ units of his or her choice. Once he or she has made a selection, the constructed models must conform to the limitations set forth in the previous section for employment and combination of units (p. 78). This flexibility in determining the units of the theory gives the theorist complete control of this part of the process.

The PHCN model's units are (a) personality traits, (b) values, (c) attitudes, (d) strategic plan (strategy formulation/professional business formula and strategy implementation/successful business recipe), (e) personal human capital, (f) benchmarking and (g) coaching.

Gordon Allport (1937) defines personality as 'the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment'. Drawing on this definition, Robbins (2003) describes personality as the sum of the total number of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others, pointing out that it is most often described in terms of the measurable traits that a person exhibits. Personality traits are defined as the personality characteristics that an individual exhibits in a large number of situations. The more consistent the characteristics and the more frequently they occur in different situations, the more important that trait is in describing the individual. Trait approaches are relevant to the PHCN, in that individuals possess stable personality characteristics that significantly influence their attitudes towards and behavioural responses to organisational settings. In other words, people with particular traits tend to be relatively consistent in their attitudes and behaviour over time and across situations (House et al., 1996).

An individual's personality traits, values and attitudes must be taken into consideration before formulating a professional strategy. Individuals must access their deepest needs and values in order to determine what Jung called their vocatus, that is, to become themselves as fully as they can.

As Gratton & Ghoshal (2003) point out, analytic frames such as the Myers Briggs instrument, and tools such as receiving detailed feedback, have a role to play in developing personal awareness. However, these data can only be accessed if the person has a reflective mind set, in which feelings and emotions are acknowledged. Accessing values and preferences requires the development of the feeling function and the self-reflection that arises from this function. This is achieved by listening more closely to one's feelings and those of others, acknowledging the feelings one has about a situation, and creating periods of self-reflection to promote this inner dialogue.

This inner reflection leads to personal strategy formulation, which takes into account all of the aforementioned personal constraints/determining features. A starting point to successful strategy formulation consists in the performance of a conscious and rigorous matching analysis; by examining the correlations between individual intrinsic characteristics (personality traits, values, attitudes and competences) and labour opportunities within the context of the knowledge economy, as whether implicit or explicit, the ultimate goal of successful career choice is to achieve high person–environment fit (Osipow, 1990). Thus, personal strategy formulation can crystallise into a successful business formula (Viedma, 2003), when the individual establishes his or her goals and personal mission together with his or her strategic objectives.

The notion of career choice as a process of 'matching' people and occupations is a predominant theme in a number of highly regarded career decision-making approaches. Whether referred to as person–environment fit, implementation of the occupational self-concept or congruence, the theories that emphasise this 'matching' phenomenon are characterised by the position that optimal career outcomes arise from the fit between individual characteristics and the rewards and demands of the job. In general, such theories traditionally emphasise the importance of abilities as the major determinant of job success, and interests, needs and values as the major factors affecting job satisfaction. Two widely cited theories that employ the concept of fit are Holland's Theory of Vocational Choice (1985) and Super's Life-Span Life-Space Perspective (1990).

Besides aiming at helping individuals to achieve professional excellence and outstanding results, the PHCN methodology addresses the fundamental issue of meaningful life work. Achieving meaningful life work is a process that involves aligning one's work with one's true essence or core self. It is an ongoing process that involves self-reflection to discover the deep passions within and then exploring how to bring those passions or interests to bear in meaningful ways in work (Clark, 2000).

As Grant (1998) states, a key common ingredient in all business success stories is the presence of a well-formulated and effectively implemented strategy. Thus, strategic plan must include both personal strategy formulation and its implementation. As Barney (2002) remarks, the definition of strategy as a firm's theory on how to compete successfully, emphasises the imperfect information and incomplete knowledge that always surrounds choice and implementation. This also applies at an individual level. The knowledge worker defines and implements his or her theory on how to compete successfully in a context characterised by rapid changes and omnipresent uncertainty, in which the only way to gain a sustainable competitive advantage and achieve professional excellence is based on the conscious and systematic process of managing his or her personal human capital. We adopt the strategy definition as a theory, in line with Barney (2002). To have an impact on performance, an individual theory on how to compete successfully cannot remain an idea alone. Instead, this idea must be translated into action. Superior performance resulting in value creation is a natural consequence of an individual's success in introducing a unique business formula onto the market (Viedma, 2003). This emphasis on implementation, which crystallises into a successful business recipe, is thus important to the PHCN methodology.

Strategy implementation involves objectively evaluating the real level of the personal human capital. The ideal situation is then predicted, in order to establish which actions should be undertaken to close the gap between real and ideal level. Elements such as benchmarking and coaching support the strategy implementation process.

The theoretical methodology developed to assess personal human capital is summarised in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

The PHCN model.
Source: Own elaboration.

Full figure and legend (69K)

The main steps in the practical application of the PHCN are as follows:

1. Developing the professional business formula: This is achieved by defining the personal strategic vision, taking into consideration the intellectual, social and emotional dimensions.
   Purpose and mission are related to the essence of the human being and the individual, giving him or her a sense of a meaningful life in the personal, family, social and/or professional environment.
   Strategic objectives are the result of reflection and personal introspection. This process of self-reflection is centred on pursuing one's natural talents, in order to build meaning and to create more emotionally satisfying lives. However, it must be complemented by a deep and objective analysis of the external environment, in which the person develops his or her social, family or professional relationships. The successful development of the business formula involves incorporating professional and personal objectives into a meaningful whole. Therefore, it is important to align economic incentives with one's convictions and passions. Once both the internal and external elements have been analysed, the strategic professional objectives can be established. These should be realistic and measurable.
2. Analysis and assessment of core competences and essential abilities:
   1. Determine and analyse core competences that make up the human capital.
   2. Once the strategic objectives have been established, the individual has to define and identify the core competences or abilities in each component of his or her human capital that are essential to achieving the strategic objectives.
   3. Assessment/evaluation of the previously determined core competences. For each core competence, it is important to determine its degree of importance in achieving the strategic objectives, its real existing level (RL) and its desired level (DL).
   4. Subsequently, the current average mark is computed, for the RL and the DL.
   5. Once the gap between the DL and the RL has been determined, the next step is to assess the key actions that should be undertaken in order to fill in the gap.
   6. The time element is also important, as it allows an effective plan to be drawn up. Thus, it is important to prioritise the actions and determine the implementation time.
3. Performance appraisal: This phase is used to control and verify the work in process and establish any required corrections or adjustments to the action plan. It also gives some feedback on the previous phases.

Conclusions

The new business scenario in the knowledge economy requires a change of perspective from the traditional career model, in which the individual was the clay and the company the sculpture (Bell & Staw, 1989). New career models, which are recast as boundaryless (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996), protean (Hall, 1996) and portfolio (Handy, 1994), involve the adventure of personal growth in which the individual rather than the organisation becomes the sculptor of his or her professional career and destiny. This is achieved through having the courage to build and develop personal human capital (Gratton & Ghoshal, 2003). Work plays a central role in each individual's life journey and represents a major opportunity to create meaning, through discovering what Jung called the vocatus. This involves pursuing one's natural talents and passions and building a more emotionally satisfying life.

A review of the literature shows that research on new career orientations has been more conceptual than empirical. The problem of new career orientations has been identified by various researchers and practitioners. However, the literature reveals that we still only have a limited understanding of how individuals are able to proactively face the challenges of the future.

Thus, this paper aimed to provide a practical methodology – the PHCN – to serve as a compass for safe navigation in the rough seas of the current business world. This methodology is based on the following principles:

• All business success stories are the result of a well-formulated and effectively implemented strategy (Grant, 1998).
• Personality traits, values and attitudes must be taken into consideration before formulating the strategy, as individuals must access their deepest needs and values in order to discover their vocatus. They must pursue their own convictions and passions, which open the door to a meaningful life.
• Successful strategy formulation is the result of a process of self-reflection and personal introspection. This is complemented by an objective analysis of the external environment. These processes crystallise into the creation of a professional business formula . In order to have an impact on performance, an individual theory on how to compete successfully cannot remain as an idea alone. Instead, this idea must be translated into action. Superior performance that leads to value creation is the natural consequence of an individual's success in introducing a unique business formula onto the market (Viedma, 2003). This creates a successful business recipe .
• Key elements such as coaching and benchmarking support the strategy implementation process. A coach gives individual feedback, insight and guidance, helping the individual to modify or redefine the initial strategy. Benchmarking allows successful existing ideas to be improved upon, by using the best competitor's business perspective to develop fresh, robust and new business formulas.

The methodology was empirically tested by means of 50 self-applied case studies. Future research should be centred on validating the proposed methodology by applying it to a representative number of professionals. Subsequently, using the feedback obtained from the practical application, we will be able to further improve the PHCN model.

References

1. Allport GW (1937) Personality: A Psychological Interpretation. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, NY.
2. Altman BW and Post JE (1996) Beyond the social contract: an analysis of the executive view at twenty-five larger companies. In The Career is Dead – Long Live the Career (HALL DT, Ed), pp 46–71, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
3. Andriessen D (2004) Making Sense of Intellectual Capital: Designing a Method for the Valuation of Intangibles. Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, UK.
4. Arthur MB and Rousseau DM (1996) The boundaryless career as a new employment principle. In The Boundaryless Career (ARTHUR MB and ROUSSEAU DM, Eds), pp 3–20, Oxford University Press, New York.
5. Arthur MB, Inkson K and Pringle JK (1999) The New Careers: Individual Action & Economic Change. Sage, London.
6. Barney JB (2002) Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage, 2nd edn, Prentice-Hall: New Jersey.
7. Bar-On R (1997) The Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): Technical Manual. Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, Canada.
8. Bell NE and Staw BM (1989) People as sculptors vs sculpture: the roles of personality and personal control in organizations. In Handbook of Career Theory (ARTHUR MB, HALL DT and LAWRENCE BS, Eds), pp 232–251, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
9. Bontis N (1998) Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models. Management Decision 36(2), 63–76. | Article |
10. Boyatzis R, Goleman D and Rhee K (2002) Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the emotional competence inventory (ECI). In Handbook of Emotional Intelligence (BAR-ON R and PARKER JDA, Eds), pp 343–367, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
11. Cappelli P (1999) Career jobs are dead. California Management Review 42(1), 146–167.
12. Carnegie D (1938) How to Win Friends and Influence People. Simon and Schuster, New York.
13. Chermack TJ (2004) A theoretical model of scenario planning. Human Resource Development Review 3(4), 301–325. | Article |
14. Clark SC (2000) Work/family border theory: a new theory of work/family balance. Human Relations 53(6), 747–770.
15. Colakoglu NS (2006) The relationship between career boundarylessness and individual well-being: a contingency approach. Ph.D. Dissertation, Drexel University.
16. Covey S (1990) Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon & Schuster, New York.
17. De Vos A, Dewettinck K and Buyens A (2006) Organizational vs individual responsibility for career management: complements or substitutes. Working Paper, Universiteit Gent.
18. DeFillippi RJ and Arthur MB (1996) Boundaryless contexts and careers: a competency-based perspective. In The Boundaryless Career (ARTHUR MB & ROUSSEAU DM, Eds), pp 116–131, Oxford University Press, New York.
19. Dubin R (1978) Theory Building, (Rev. Ed), Free Press, Macmillian, New York.
20. Gibson P (2004) Where to from here? A narrative approach to career counseling. Career Development International 9(2), 176–189(14). | Article |
21. Grant RM (1998) Dirección Estratégica. Conceptos, Técnicas y Aplicaciones. Civitas, Madrid.
22. Gratton L and Ghoshal S (2003) Managing personal human capital: new ethos for the "volunteer" employee. European Management Journal 21(1), 1–10. | Article |
23. Greenhaus JH (2002) Career dynamics. In Comprehensive Handbook of Psychology (BORMAN WC, ILGEN DR and KLIMOSKI RJ, Eds) Ch. 20 (Vol. 12). Wiley: New York.
24. Gupta O and Roos G (2001) Mergers and acquisitions: through an intellectual capital perspective. Journal of Intellectual Capital 2(3), 297–309. | Article |
25. Hall DT (1976) Careers in Organisations. Goodyear, Pacific Palisades, New York.
26. Hall DT (1996) The Career is Dead. Long Live the Career. Jossey Bass, San Francisco.
27. Hall DT and Chandler DE (2005) Psychological success: when the career is a calling. Journal of Organizational Behavior 26(2), 155–176. | Article |
28. Hall DT and Mirvis PH (1995) Careers as lifelong learning. In The Changing Nature of Work (HOWARD A, Ed), pp 323–362, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
29. Handy C (1994) The Empty Raincoat: Making Sense of the Future. Hutchinson, London.
30. Heckscher CC (1995) White-Collar Blues: Management Loyalties in an Age of Corporate Restructuring. Basic Books, New York.
31. Heckscher C and Donnellon A (eds.) (1994) The Post-Bureaucratic Organization. New Perspectives on Organizational Change. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
32. Holland JL (1985) Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Careers 2nd edn, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
33. House RJ, Shane SA and Herold DM (1996) Rumors of the death of dispositional research vastly exaggerated. Academy of Management Review 21(1), 203–224. In Robbins, S. P. (2003), Organizational Behaviour, 10th edn, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. | Article |
34. Hudson W (1993) Intellectual Capital: How to build it, enhance it, use it. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
35. Hughes EC (1958) Men and Their Work. Free Press, Glencoe.
36. Inkson K (1997) Organizational forms and the restructuring of careers. In Advancement in Organizational Behaviour (CLARK T, Ed), Ashgate Press, Louth, UK.
37. Inkson K (1999) The death of the company career: implications for management. University of Auckland Business Review 1(1), 10–21.
38. Judge TA, Cable DM, Boudreau JW and Bretz RD (1995) An empirical investigation of the predictors of executive career success. Personnel Psychology 48, 485–519. | Article | ISI |
39. Kanter RM (1989) When Giants Learn to Dance. Simon and Schuster, New York.
40. King Z (2005) The 'bounded' career: an empirical study of human capital, career mobility and employment outcomes in a mediated labour market. Human Relations 58(8), 891–1007. | Article |
41. Kossek EE, Roberts K, Fisher S and Demarr B (1998) Career self-management: a quasi-experimental assessment of the effects of a training intervention. Personnel Psychology 51, 935–962. | Article |
42. Noe RA (1996) Is career management related to employee development and performance? Journal of Organizational Behavior 17, 119–133. | Article |
43. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1996) Measuring What People Know: Human Capital Accounting for the Knowledge Economy. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris.
44. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (2003) Career guidance and public policy: Bridging the gap. Retrieved 10 January 2004, from http://www.oecd.org.
45. Osipow SH (1990) Convergence in theories of career choice and development: review and prospect. Journal of Vocational Behavior 36, 122–131. | Article |
46. Parasuraman S, Greenhaus JH and Linnenhan F (2000) Time, person-career fit, and the boundaryless career. In Trends in Organizational Behaviour (COOPER CL and ROUSSEAU DM, Eds), Vol. 7, pp 63–78, Wiley, West Sussex, UK.
47. Robbins SP (2003) Organizational Behaviour, 10th edn, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
48. Rousseau DM (1989) Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 2(2), 121–139. | Article |
49. Schalk R and Rousseau DM (2001) Psychological contracts in employment. In Handbook of Industrial, Work & Organizational Psychology (ANDERSON N, ONES DS, KEPIR SINANGIL H and VISWESVARAN C, Eds), pp 133–142, Sage Thousand Oakes, CA.
50. Stickland R (1996) Career self-management – can we live without it? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5, 583–596. | Article |
51. Sturges J, Guest D and Mackenzie Davey K (2000) Who's in charge? Graduates' attitudes to and experiences of career management and their relationship with organizational commitment. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 9(3), 351–371. | Article |
52. Sturges J, Guest D, Conway N and Mackenzie Davey K (2002) A longitudinal study of the relationship between career management and organizational commitment among graduates in the first ten years at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior 23(6), 731–748. | Article |
53. Sullivan SE (1999) The changing nature of careers: a review and research agenda. Journal of Management 25(3), 457–484. | Article |
54. Tolbert PS (1996) Occupations, organizations, and boundaryless careers. In The Boundaryless Career (ARTHUR MB and ROUSSEAU DM, Eds), pp 331–349, Oxford University Press, New York.
55. Valcour PM and Tolbert P (2003) Gender, family and career in the era of boundarylessness: determinants and effects of intra- and inter-organizational mobility. International Journal of Human Resource Management 14(5), 768–787(20). | Article |
56. Van Maanen J and Schein E (1977) Career development. In Improving Life at Work (JACKMAN JR and SCHUTTLE JL, Eds), pp 30–95, Goodyear: Santa Monica, CA.
57. Viedma JM (2003) In search of an intellectual capital general theory. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management (EJKM) 1(2), 213–226.
58. Yin R (2002) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 3rd edn, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

About the authors

José M. Viedma is a Doctor of Industrial Engineering, a graduate in Economics and Professor of Business Administration at the UPC, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain. He teaches on the subject of knowledge management, intellectual capital management and organisational learning. He has held top executive positions in computer services and management consultancy firms. He is the president of 'Intellectual Capital Management Systems', a founding partner of 'M.A. Fusiones y Adquisiciones' and an independent director of 'Intelace-ie'. His current field of research and interest is focused on knowledge and intellectual capital management and he has consulted and developed management frameworks and systems worldwide on those matters.

Mihaela Enache is an Assistant Lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Her major research interests are related to human capital, career competencies, protean and boundaryless career orientations, and their impact on individual career outcomes such as psychological success and performance.