The protean career is driven by the person and not the organization and will therefore often be re-invented over time. Allred et al. The idea is that by becoming proficient in these areas, an individual will be able to manage him or herself effectively. Household names such as IBM, 3M and Hewlett-Packard aim to foster this mindset of personal responsibility for career management by running development programs which emphasize skills relating to self and interpersonal knowledge. Some believe that they are pivotal if an individual is to assume responsibility for his or her career management in the 21st Century.
Research commonalities Previous work in the career field points towards several commonalities.
For instance, individuals do have ultimate responsibility for managing their careers, self-knowledge is required in order to become adaptable and flexible, and a process of continuous learning is necessary in order to meet the demands of change. In order to investigate the relationship between the skills discussed so far and effective career management, the authors conducted an extensive survey on subjects who had completed a management skills course. The subjects were questioned on three major 'metaskills' - self, interpersonal and environmental knowledge. The study examined how the skills mentioned so far could be learned in an academic setting, and how they could be related to effective career management. In order to do this, respondents to a questionnaire were asked about the impact a 28-week skills course on self and interpersonal knowledge had on their approach to career management.