Career self-management in ascription culture

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate whether theories of career self-management, developed in the USA and Western countries, apply in cultures which are different, such as ascription cultures, giving an example of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Career self-management, here, is conceptualized based on independence and having control in organising career management through setting a strategy and collecting information about career opportunities to achieve personal goals. Although there is increasing emphasis on the ‘new’ career, very few studies offer systematic information about whether careers are perceived in the new or traditional form and which is more appropriate for people in developing countries (for example, the Kingdom of Bahrain). On the other hand, scholars argue that although there is a need for career self-management the notion, yet, lacks critical evaluation where the promoting or limiting factors to its enactment lack research, particularly in developing countries (for example, the Kingdom of Bahrain. The country chosen for study is the Kingdom of Bahrain because its culture is characterised as 'ascription' and no career self-management research has been conducted in this context. The study adopts a qualitative approach to uncover the research questions. The semi-structured interviews are designed to collect and analyse data for two organisations (i.e. EWA and GARMCO) where each organisation’s findings are compared with the other. To cover a fair population and sampling in a country small in size and population, two organisations in two sectors have been selected that are the main sectors in the Kingdom of Bahrain which consist of large workforce populations. Each organisation encompasses 19 managers from different departments and one Human Resources manager (total of 20 managers in each case). The forty managers from the two sectors are randomly selected, taking into consideration the managers’ occupations and functions.