Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This cross-disciplinary text is designed to appeal to a diversity of social science scholars. The central focus is on new ways of viewing the career, or how working lives unfold over time. Fresh views from psychology, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, organization theory, economics, and political science are among those represented in the twenty-five chapter anthology. The design of the handbook in three parts - current approaches, new ideas, and future directions - is intended to engage the reader in the debate from which new and better career theories can be developed.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of contributors
• Preface
• Part I Current Approaches to the Study of Careers: Introduction to Part I
• 1 Generating new directions in career theroy: the case for a transdisciplinary approach
• 2 Trait-factor theories: traditional cornerstone of career theory
• 3 Careers, identities, and institutions: the legacy of the Chicago School of Sociology
• 4 The utility of adult development theory in understanding career adjustment process
• 5 Developmental views of careers in organizations
• 6 Exploring women's development: implications for career theory, practice, and research
• 7 The influence of race on career dynamics: theory and research on minority career experiences
• 8 Asynchronism in dual-career and family linkages
• 9 Transitions, work histories, and careers
• 10 Career system profiles and strategic staffing
• Part II New Ideas for the Study of Careers: Introduction to Part II
• 11 People as sculptors versus sculpture: the roles of personality and personal control in organizations
• 12 Work, stress, and careers: a preventive approach to maintaining organizational health
• 13 Re-visioning career concepts: a feminist invitation
• 14 Reciprocity at work: the separate, yet inseparable possibilities for individual and organizational development
• 15 Career improvisation in self-designing organizations
• 16 Organization career systems and employee misperceptions
• 17 Blue-collar careers: meaning and choice in a world of constraints
• 18 A political perspective on careers: interests, networks, and environments
• 19 Rites of passage in work careers
• 20 Pin stripes, power ties, and personal relationships: the economics of career strategy
• 21 Rhetoric in bureaucratic careers: managing the meaning of management success
• 22 The internal and external career: a theoretical and cross-cultural perspective
• Part III Future Directions for the Development of Career Theory: Introduction to Part III
• 23 Understanding individual experience at work: comments on the theory and practice of careers
• 24 Propositions linking organizations and careers
• 25 Careers and the wealth of nations: a macro-perspective on the structure and implications of career forms
• Indexes

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

For scholars in the field, this handbook is likely to become the reference source of choice regarding career theory. Edited by three well-regarded university professors, this work includes 25 original articles written by scholars spanning a variety of social science disciplines. These chapters are combined into three sections or parts, the first of which provides an overview of the current "state of the art" career theory encompassing perspectives ranging from psychology and sociology to adult development and organizational systems. Whereas Part 1 examines the current state of career theory, Part 2 introduces a variety of new concepts for thinking about careers as well as a variable level of analysis moving from individual, to group, to organizational, to societal, and finally global analyses as the section unfolds. Part 3 effectively integrates the perspectives provided in Parts 1 and 2 and suggests some future directions for the development of career theory. The field of career development is of growing importance, both as an academic discipline and as an important component of heightened practitioner emphasis on human resource management. This handbook provides a much needed infusion of new thinking to the field, thereby benefiting both its theoretical foundations and providing some additional perspectives within which future career practice can flourish. Academic and professional collections. T. Gutteridge Southern Illinois University--Carbondale