Bernes, Kerry
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- ItemA Synergistic Model of Organizational Career Development: Bridging the Gap Between Employees(Life-Role Development Group Limited, 2000) Bernes, Kerry B.This dissertation argues that, as our global economy becomes increasingly competitive, organizations will be forced to adopt a more comprehensive, future-oriented, and integrated approach to managing their human resources. Unfortunately, the era of restructuring, downsizing, and rightsizing has made this increasingly difficult. Other changes in the world of work (such as the shift from long-term working arrangements to temporary contract work; the less frequent use of concepts such as career paths, career hierarchies, and promotion from within; the increased outsourcing of non-essential tasks; and flattened hierarchies) have collectively put pressure on existing models of organizational career development. After critiquing current models of organizational career development, it is suggested that existing models have begun to lose their usefulness and that a new model of organizational career development needs to be created. Essentially, it is argued that there are two main problems with current models of organizational career development. First, there is a lack of emphasis on how personal visions and organizational visions can be used to facilitate both individual and organizational goals. Second, the existing models lack interactive and balancing processes to equilibrate changing individual and organizational needs. To address the above problems, a comprehensive model of organizational career development is proposed. To emphasize the role of personal and organizational visions, the constructivist literature on career development and the management literature on organizational vision and mission statements are synthesized and incorporated into the proposed model. Themes from systems theory provide the framework for the proposed model of organizational career development. Systematically parallel employee and organizational concepts and tasks are depicted for each level of the model. Balancing/interactive processes are utilized to bring the employee and the organization into closer alignment, thereby avoiding the situation of treating career development and organizational development as separate entities. A comprehensive framework for applying the model is also provided. Finally, an outline for validating the proposed model of organizational career development is suggested.
- ItemOccupational Aspirations of Students in Grades Seven to Twelve(2005) Bernes, Kerry B.; Bardick, Angela D.During adolescence, individuals begin to plan for their future career by considering a number of occupational choices. Counsellors, parents, and educators may be better able to assist adolescents in their exploration of occupational options, help them seek career-related information, and obtain support for their career plans by developing a greater understanding of adolescents’ occupational aspirations. The purpose of this research was to examine the occupational aspirations and the rationales students provided. It is anticipated that the outcome of this research may be used to assist future career program planning for junior and senior high students. This paper presents a review of the literature related to adolescent occupational choice, followed by a description of the research conducted with 3,562 junior high students and 2,941 senior high students in Southern Alberta utilizing the Comprehensive Career Needs Survey (CCNS; Magnusson and Bernes, 2002), and a discussion of the results.
- ItemBuilding Future Career Development Programs for Adolescents(2004) Bernes, Kerry B.; Magnusson, Kris C.;Heuristically, adolescent career development programs may provide significant outcomes on personal, social, economic and national development levels. Unfortunately, however, very little research has been done on what is and what is not working within existing adolescent career development programs. Instead, adults continue to develop multiple resources that lack integration for adolescents, most notably, without the input from the students themselves (Hiebert et al., 2001). Unfortunately, the field appears to suffer from a lack of integration, wherein efficacy data on current programs is generally scarce and significant longitudinal data is absent. Creating a sense of integration, evaluating the results of current career development programs and creating longitudinal studies to gather objective data on the long- term impact of these programs appear to be critical missing ingredients. Without this research, we will never uncover the critical ingredients that are needed to support significant personal, social, economic and national development. Worse yet, the field may continue to go on to develop one product after another until it fragments so significantly that it fails to attract any further resources for development. In other words, the writers believe that too many resources are going into new products without any efficacy data to support them, currently or on a longitudinal basis, and that without some integration and objective support for their use, the field may fail to be financially supported in a future wherein financial resources are allocated upon the basis of results, not heuristic value.
- ItemAre They Nuts? When Psychopathology Interferes with Career Issues(2002) Bernes, Kerry B.This article is written to help career practitioners better understand mental health problems, or psychopathology from a career case-study perspective. After an introduction to the core concepts of psychopathology, three case studies of increasing complexity will be discussed to illustrate the effects that mental health problems have on a person's career.
- ItemA Description of Career Development within Canadian Organizations(1996) Bernes, Kerry B.; Magnusson, Kris C.This study explored the scope and nature of career development services within organizations. One human resource/personnel department representative in each of the 30 largest organizations in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, was interviewed. The Career Development Questionnaire provided the framework for the structured interviews. Participants outlined their conceptualizations of organizational career development, described the outcomes organizations hoped to achieve through the use of career development services, listed the services provided by their organizations, and rated the effectiveness of each service. Although the descriptions and the intended outcomes for career development services were consistent, specific services were not aligned with specific goals. This finding highlighted the need for practitioners to ensure they align services with their goals and for researchers to evaluate the effects of career development services on the basis of their specific intentions. Overall, results suggest that career development within organizations is still practiced in a part-time and informal manner.