Introduction to This Issue

Abstract

The Career Planning and Adult Development Journal has enjoyed a significant place capturing the wisdom of coaches, career development specialists, human resource officers and organizational leaders for over 27 years. Its respect for practitioners, opportunity to identify trends and promising practices, and timeliness complements the role of academically based and referred research journals. One of the Journal's noticeable advantages is its openness and ability to capture the practitioner's voice. Its wisdom honors the realization that practice can lead to theory. This special contribution connects readers to areas often overlooked within the career development literature.Readers of this special issue on Career Development in Corporations have an opportunity to look over the shoulders of career development specialists bringing leadership to corporations from within corporate offices, or as consultants bringing group or individual interventions into organizations. Each article's author(s) report on the power of career development principles. The natural tension between organizational and personal goals, as well as needs and opportunities are identified within each article. Each article illustrates career development's increasing value in advancing workforce learning, self-directed learning and career management, continuous performance improvement, and the importance of building the business case for career development within corporations.Collectively the ten articles provide an introduction and set of foundation principles to individual contributors, a form of benchmarking to consultants, and a set of promising practices to managers and leaders considering employing career development as a strategy to increase alignment, engagement and program improvement within organizations.Mimi Brent and Adela Perez, lead General Motors global career development initiatives which provides innovative career development resources to more than 70,000 early, mid and late career employees at nearly 400 locations on six continents to recruit and retain the world's best talent. Their article Career Development at GM: Accelerating Careers through Core Values and Conversations speaks to employee feedback calling for more career resources accessible from a central location, as well as visible career paths to help employees design their careers. Recognizing different needs, depending on where employees are within their career, is critical to helping others "grow up, across ad in place" when both growing one's career and the employee's role as the main pillar of career development is acknowledged. GM's career development efforts are discussed candidly in the article and reflect their core values (related to customers, relationships and excellence) as they relate to career development. Customers: What have I done for my customers lately? Relationships: Whom do I know? Whom do they know? Excellence: What is my personal brand?Writing about his work with a national broadcasting organization Steve Graham makes the important connection of workforce learning, using certified external career coaches and designing a career map as keys to engagement, reducing turnover and career development. Within his article Workforce Learning in the Broadcast Industry: A Resource to Career Development Graham speaks about the benefit of using the Keirsey Temperament Sorter and having new hires complete the StrengthsFinder assessment. He reports how managers use the data to help in the alignment of core responsibilities, growth plans, and overall approach to managing the employee.Gerard Camacho, a developer of the Centre for Career Development department within a health care organization and certified coach, offers an on-boarding process within A Skill-Gap Development Model within the Healthcare Arena: A Comprehensive Approach to Professional Development. Camacho contends that a multi-functional integrated approach to professional development is emerging and necessary within the healthcare arena. …