Employees must constantly expand their knowledge and skills to compete in today’s rapidly changing business environment. Modern organizations are expected to provide development opportunities to employees. To do this, organizations must understand development’s relationship to training and career management. Development implies learning that is not necessarily related to the employee’s current job. Instead, it prepares employees for other jobs or positions in the organization and increases their ability to move into jobs that may not yet exist.
Development also may help employees prepare for changes in responsibilities and requirements in their current jobs, such as changes resulting from new technology, work designs, or customers. In contrast, training traditionally focuses on helping employees improve performance of their current jobs. Many organizations have focused on linking training programs to business goals. In the past, workers and employees might think of a career as something a person pursues at one company, rising through the ranks.
Today, however, the more common model is that of a protean career, one that a person frequently changes based on changes in the person’s interests, abilities, and values and in the work environment. For the employee, success in a protean career requires continuous learning, coupled with a willingness to embrace change, even moving across the boundaries that separate functions and industries. For the employer, this means either adding value to the employee’s career experience or watching that employee leave to pursue a better opportunity elsewhere.
