Career management in school organisations: case study.

Drobot, Loredana ; Visan, Alina ; Rotaru, Ileana 等

1. INTRODUCTION

The concept of career has many meanings and for each individual the meaning can be different. Thus the career can represent (M. Vlasceanu, 1990, p.10):

--he attribute of an occupation or organization;

--the promotion--ascension in a hierarchy;

--the status of a profession--by using the career concept, we observe the difference between it and other occupations;

--the highlighted involvement of personal activity--the concept used in this sense has a negative connotation.

The stability of a model activity--the career supposes the succession of some similar or connected activities, those not connected would not represent a career.

Greenhaus (1987) describes the career as a reference to "the model of experiences connected to work"; he includes here some objective events (positions, posts, jobs) and subjective events concerning work (attitudes, values, expectations). Schein (1987) considers the career from the evolution of a person perspective in an occupation/organization (external career) and from the perspective of a person's perception regarding his/her work life (internal career).

Thus, the distinction between the two career aspects make reference to: individual factors (interests, values, aspirations) which are determining in the person's opinions regarding the engagement in an occupation/organization and external factors (instruction level, family, society, organizational pressure) with a role in career construction.

Career development supposes the identification of common experiences, challenges, problems, tasks to which most people are confronted during their lifespan.

The analysis of career development allows us to understand the mechanisms through which certain experiences are produced (e.g. the difficulties in adapting yourself for the first job, the causes of their repetition, etc).

Thus, career development determines us to keep in mind all career stages which are characterized by a set of relatively unique problems, themes and tasks.

Career planning refers to the actions initiated by a person in order to understand and control his/her own work life. The actions predominant in career planning determine the person to:

--become aware of himself/herself, of opportunities, constraints, opinions, consequences;

--identify the aims connected to career;

--to program work activities, education, experiences connected to development, etc.

The actions connected to career planning are achieved with the help of counselors, of the persons from the interior or the exterior of the organization. In the career planning the predominant role goes to the person her/herself.

Career management refers to the activities included in the process of preparation, implementation and monitoring of the career plans assumed by the individual singularly or together with the career systems of organizations.

In the process of career management the accent falls on the individual and the organization. Thus, if the accent is on the individual role then, the individual: explores the environment, acquires awareness and establishes the aims of career, develops a strategy to reach the purpose, implements the strategy, achieves advances in reaching the purpose and obtains feedback referring to the advance and evaluates his/her career.

If we highlight the role of organization in career management then the actions are predominantly achieved by the organization: informing sessions referring to promoting or evaluating procedures of performances, development programs such as work rotation, TIC training programs, etc.

2. CAREER MANAGEMENT IN SCHOOL ORGANIZATION. CASE STUDY

Identity represents the clear consciousness of a person's individuality, formed by the integration of self-perception and of the other people's perception about themselves .The identity is in a permanent construction and reconstruction, being structured from childhood, but in adolescence it becomes conspicuous. When the cognitive and social interaction abilities are mature enough the person can reflect on his/her own career.

Vocational identity combines aspects connected to the understanding of personal interests, values, abilities, competences for a certain type of activities, interaction styles and work mediums.

School organization is a special type of organization having common but also different characteristics as compared to other organizations. The characteristics which differ from those of other organizations are "it teaches and produces learning".

According to our accumulated experience we consider that in school organization, the career management is centered on the organizational role and less on the individual's or the teacher's actions.

The Romanian education, strongly centralized during tens of years, adapts difficultly to the decentralization measures. Likewise, bureaucracy in education limits the personal time of teaching staff for thinking and choosing the optimal trajectories of personal development.

The education legislation solicits that the teaching staff attend training programs in order to acquire a number of 90 professional credits during a period of 5 years. Thus, even if on the professional market there are training programs interesting for the teachers and these are not credited, due to the limited personal time, then teachers renounce attending. Another problem is the absence in schools of persons specialized in career counseling of didactic staff; the role of directing towards the training courses is exercised by the didactic person responsible with training (not paid).

A limited solution, on short and medium term (1-2 years) in increasing the offer of professional training programs for didactic staff, is represented by the projects with non-reimbursable financing, but, the target group is reduced as compared with the demand and necessities of training. From the analysis of the training needs, the diagnoses achieved at school level have observed that the teachers are centered only on some courses, the interest being determined first of all by their specialization.

The interest stimulation for the didactic staff's training is achieved according to: the length of the training program, the program type, location, number of credits and the last one is the personal development. Maybe, the providers of professional training should have in view when conceiving these programs, especially the psychological and vocational component of professional development. In order to check the mentioned hypothesis we have created an experimental design for a school in the neighborhood of a residence town.

The Sample is composed of 28 titular teachers from a Romanian-Croatian bilingual high-school. The distribution of the sample is the following: 18 women teachers and 10 men teachers with the average age of 42.

3. METHODS USED

The selected school has constituted one part of the target group of a PHARE project with non-reimbursable financing, achieved in 2007-2009. On the occasion of the monitoring visits organized periodically we have administered Scale of self-efficiency (S.E.S), translated and adapted in Romanian by Ramona Moldovan. The scale of self-efficiency is composed of 10 items rated from 1 to 4; it is administered in the variant pencil-paper individually or in group.

Self-efficiency is related to the employment decision in different departments and it is important in choosing the professional line.

The teachers in the target group have already chosen a professional line but the motivation for a career development must be "aroused". We consider that a reduced level of self-efficiency determines a reduced mobilization in selecting and attending the training programs, in career management. At the beginning of the didactic career, the self-efficiency is increased, but in time when obtaining the didactic degrees, the interest diminishes. That is the reason why we insist on the psychological component of the personal development in the training programs.

Self-efficiency also influences the resources allotted to the demarche of solving a task. The individuals with an increased level of self-efficiency will optimally allot the resources in difficult situations as compared to the individuals with a reduced level of self-efficiency even if they have similar aptitudes.

4. PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

The processing of data at the Scale of Self-efficiency has determined the following distribution:

* 20 teachers have had results between 30 and 33;

* 5 teachers have had results between 26 and 29;

* 3 teachers have had results bigger than 25; The standard for scale SES specifies that:

* class 3 with the values 30 and 33 is the class with the medium level of self-efficiency;

* class 2 with the values between 26 and 29 represents the class with a low level of self-efficiency;

* class 1 with values bigger 25 is the class with very low level of self-efficiency.

It would have been interesting if the study had been achieved in comparison to other schools from the rural area but we assume the limits of this study.

We have observed that the predominance of medium values recorded constitutes a favorable result which proves the teachers' interest training, attendance of courses.

The discussions with the headmaster and the managerial team of the school express the desire to control the professional career even outside the walls of the school "extra muros". The traditional Croatian specific and its perpetuation motivate the teachers towards the career development. Self-efficiency contains the desire to improve oneself, the school organizational development and the development of the Croatian community. The specific of the community is the main engine of the career development.

The desire of career development was also pointed by:

* solicitations to participate to other training programs;

* conceiving some projects which should promote the Croatian traditions;

* the desire to achieve inter-cultural exchanges.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS

The study is limitative but it offers suggestions for the conception of some training programs destined to the Croatian community in the area.

The medium and increased self-efficiency is an important element for the teachers' motivation to attend the training programs. It must be preserved during the entire career not only in the moment of choosing it.

School as an organization has its own peculiarities which must be taken into account in the design and planning of social and educational policies. The tradition of the community imprints a special specific to school as an organization.

The themes approached through training programs must aim the aspects referring to the cultivation of competences of pupil's counseling and of the persons who are in charge of the pupil's education out of school.

It was observed that the training programs elude this component being centered only on the organization role and less on the individual role in the career development. It is this component that must be developed.

The career management of teachers has personal but also common characteristics with the career management in other organizations. Nowadays, for our Romanian schools, we propose that the persons responsible for the professional development of teachers should attend training courses in order to develop this component.

6. REFERENCES

Drobot, Loredana (2008). Social Pedagogy, Pedagogical Printing House, Bucharest, ISBN: 978-973-30-2057

Greenhaus, J, (1987). Career Management, Hinsdale, IL: The Dryden Press

Paun, E (1999). School as Socio-pedagogical Organisation, Polirom Printing House, Iasi

Schein, E. H (1987). Individual and careers, in: J. Lorsch, Handbook of Organizational Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Vlasceanu, M. (2002). Career Management, Communication.ro Printing House, Bucharest