Organizational Careers and Professional Expertise

Obsolescence of professional expertise is a constant threat to scientifically and technically trained professionals as a result of the rapid growth of new knowledge, combined with the possible deterioration of previously held knowledge. This paper examines the relationship between the process of obsolescence and different career patterns. Career histories of a national sample of professional engineers are utilized to examine the role of these career patterns in creating the conditions for obsolescence and in providing career adaptations once obsolescence occurs. Four age cohorts, differentiated on the basis of two types of obsolescence and compared at selected points in the career, demonstrate a positive relationship between obsolescence and limited technical activity, extensive administrative responsibility, application rather than research, and organizational situations involving relatively stable technologies. These findings suggest that knowledge obsolescence may be both consequence and cause of the organizational and professional career.