]See, for example

^]See, for example, Michael B. Arthur and Denise M. Rousseau, eds., The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organizational Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Michael B. Arthur, Kerr Inkson, and Judith K. Pringle, The New Careers: Individual Action and Economic Change (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999); Douglas T. Hall, ed., The Career Is Dead Long Live the Career: A Relational Approach to Careers (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996) and Career Development in Organizations; Charles B. Handy, The Age of Unreason (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1990) and The Hungry Spirit: Beyond Capitalism: A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World (New York: Arrow Books, 1998); Elizabeth P. McKenna, When Work Does Not Work Anymore: Women, Work, and Identity (New York: Dell Publishing, 1998).

^[4]On experiential learning, see for example David A. Kolb and Mark S. Plovnick, “The Experiential Learning Theory of Career Development,” in Organizational Careers: Some New Perspectives, ed. John Van Maanen (New York: Wiley, 1976), 65–87. On identity as possibility, see Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius, “Possible Selves,” American Psychologist 41, no. 9 (1986): 954–969.

^[5]Edgar H. Schein, “The Individual, the Organization, and the Career: A Conceptual Scheme,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 7, no. 4 (1971): 401–426.

^[6]While most researchers would agree that our social selves change a lot and that basic personality does not, there remains much disagreement on the extent of identity change. Schein’s work, for example, indicates that “career anchors” do not change much by midcareer, even in the face of dramatic external change. In his studies (see Edgar H. Schein, Career Anchors: Discovering Your Real Values, rev. ed. [San Diego, CA: University Associates, 1990]), he finds that major changes are the result of a work situation that no longer allows or rewards the dispositions, values, and preferences that brought the person there in the first place. A different school of thought, however, holds that changes in the individual himself or herself are equally important motives for career change. Researchers in this camp show that values and preferences can and do change as a result of an individual’s own maturation and personality development, reducing the “fit” in the old work situation (see for example Kolb and Plovnick, “The Experiential Learning Theory of Career Development”; and Osherson, Holding On and Letting Go).

^[7]See Karl E. Weick, The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2d ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979); John H. Yost, Michael J. Strube, and James R. Bailey, “The Construction of the Self: An Evolutionary View,” Current Psychology 11, no. 2 (1992): 110–121.

Taken From: Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career