Career Jobs are Dead

After almost two decades of restructuring and downsizing, the expectation of secure careers within corporations is a thing of the past, especially for managers. The defining feature of the new relationship is that all aspects of employment—careers, compensation, development—are now governed by the market, driven by management practices that have brought the competitive pressures of product markets inside the firm. These changes do not necessarily make jobs bad, although they do shift much of the risk of doing business onto employees. The shift away from traditional models of internal development and lifetime employment places new responsibilities on employees and on society. It also raises new challenges for employers who must now deal with a market-driven workforce.