Current thinking on contemporary careers: the key roles of sustainable HRM and sustainability of careers

Abstract

This paper approaches the sustainability of careers, departing from contemporary views on sustainable Human Resource Management (HRM) and key concepts in the current career literature. Recently, the notion of sustainable careers has gained attention as a key perspective on contemporary careers and is assumed to be critical for the resilience of individuals in an increasingly complex and unpredictable career environment. Viewing careers as an ecosystem in which several actors (individual, organization, labor market) are involved, this paper reviews current thinking on sustainable HRM to elaborate our thinking on sustainable careers. We highlight pertinent challenges for realizing continuity in careers that are: Firstly, becoming increasingly longer and less predictable; secondly, in general, less bounded to one organizational context and characterized by new ways of working; thirdly, putting an increased responsibility on the individual career actor; and finally, that have moved from a socially shared view on the meaning of career success as steady progression to a focus on personal meaning. We conclude that further research is important for understanding how different actors within the career ecosystem can help to ensure that the conditions for sustainability are met in view of creating a more resilient career system.