Mid-life Transition Decision Processes and Career Success: The Role of Identity, Network and Shocks

Research by Holly Slay

Mid-life is a time of personal questioning and evaluation for many people, though often these individuals are at mid-career, established in their occupations, with experience and knowledge that are very valuable to their employers. Today almost half of employed persons are between the ages of 35-54, and represent the fastest growing segment of the workforce. With so many individuals at the point of both mid-life and mid-career, and with trends for this group showing that mid-career transitions are becoming more common, understanding the career decisions of this group becomes crucial.

The idea of mid-life crisis has been talked about to the point of cliché, yet little theoretical or empirical research exists to describe the process through which mid-life career transitions are made. Holly Slay, a Smith School PhD candidate in the department of management and organization, studies the way in which people at both mid-life and mid-career make career transitions. Slay proposes a process model of transition decision-making that is explained by the interactions of social networks, personal and career identity and career shocks in her paper, “Mid-Life Transition Decision Processes and Career Success: The Role of Identity, Network and Shocks,” with co-authors Ian Williamson, assistant professor of management and organization at the Smith School, and Susan Taylor, professor of management at the Smith School.

A person’s sense of identity is made up of a his or her values, beliefs and social roles such as gender or race. Career identity reflects not just the view of oneself but also an individual’s career goals and role as a working person.

“A physician may have a self-identity based on society’s perception of what a physician should be: compassionate, concerned, able to help others. If that physician is an in HMO situation and feels that she isn’t able to provide good care to her patients because of the structure of her HMO, then she may experience an identity discrepancy. She says ‘that’s just not who I am’,” says Slay. At that point, says Slay, the physician may consider a career transition: either an objective, measurable transition, such as leaving her position and pursuing another career, or a subjective transition, changing her expectations to relieve the perceived identity discrepancy.

Career shocks, defined as events that generate judgments and force decision-making about an individual’s career, play an important role in career transition decisions for mid-life and mid-career individuals. Career shocks can be negative events, such as an unexpected layoff or industry downturn, as well as positive events, such as a promotion or new opportunity.

In Slay’s model of mid-career and mid-life career transition, a career shock serves as feedback in the individual’s development of his career identity. The individual then reflects on the discrepancy between his ideal and actual career identity and as a result begins to consider career transitions.

It is at this point that social networks play a significant role in an individual’s decision whether to make a career transition. If a person’s social network confirms his career identity, affirming that the individual’s career uses his strengths, then the individual is more likely to remain in his career. If a person’s social network confirms his identity discrepancy, however, it reinforces a person’s belief that he is no longer suited to the job at hand, or that the job is no longer suited to his personal identity, and he is more liable to seek out a transition. Slay posits that the more diverse a person’s social network is in terms of participants’ jobs and employment types, as well as employers, the greater the range of career options that an individual may consider (i.e., from physician to chef).

Slay suggests that individuals either makes changes in identity or affirm their current career identity as a result of information acquired from observing or listening to their social networks as well as from the information provided by career shock. Career identity is shaped by others in a gradual process, while career shock results in a more discrete change process.

“This area of research will be important to employers because Baby Boomers represent 39 percent of the work population, and many of them are at that mid-career point. Employers who understand the thoughts and process that lead up to a career transition decision may be able to help their employees find a way to deal with identity discrepancy rather than lose the employee,” says Slay.

Slay’s paper was presented as part of a symposium titled, “Boundaryless and Protean Careers: Networks, Identity and Career Transition” which won the 2004 Best Symposium Award, Careers Division of the Academy of Management.