CBCP 01 - Contribution Based Career Progression

About the Author: Debi Prasad Mahapatra has over a decade of experience in Software Product Development and Software Service Consulting in the areas of Healthcare and Industrial Automation. He has worked on assignments across multiple countries and cultures. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. He has a Master’s degree in Computers. He has a diversified research interest in the areas of Organizational Behavior, Talent Strategy and Management, Competency Development, Sustainability, Organizational Transformation, Ideation and Innovation, Leadership Development, Entrepreneurship and Motivation etc. Currently, he is working in Siemens in India. He lives with his wife and daughter in Pune.

Summary: This paper tries to describe, prescribe and advocate a new(?) kind of Career Progression. It takes a closer look at the pattern(s) associated with the prevalent Career Progression instances. The patterns, in this context, have got two elements. 1. How exactly the Career Progression takes place in a specific instance. 2. The goals associated with that instance of career progression. The author believes that the prescribed mode | method of Career Progression is superior to the prevalent ones. As per this theory, Career Progression is not a goal. Career Progression is not an end. Career Progression, rather, is a byproduct of the value-delivery process. Career Progression is not attained in the form of vertical growth or horizontal growth in the context of professional career. Career Progression is really not confined to just vertical and horizontal growth.

Career Progression is about doing, and not attaining. Career Progression is about delivering, and not achieving! It is not about instant gratification. It is not about what one needs to do to attain a specific instance of Career Progression. It is more about what one can do well, what is required to be done and doing that, without the explicit expectation of an immediate tangible benefit to the “contributor”. Career Progression is not a reward. Career Progression happens simultaneously with enhanced value-delivery that benefits the organization. A smart organization appropriately rewards, in real terms, a person or employee for the enhanced value-delivery so done by the person (“Contributor”) in question. Career Progression IS the very act of DOING and DELIVERING!

Career Progression is not really about a Designation, Salary and an ‘Official’ Role. Moving to a 'position' (in the context of an organization), as such, is not an instance of Career Progression, either. A position is just a Platform | Tool | Channel for contribution and value-delivery. It is absolutely about what one does and the magnitude of value attached to what is done. To focus on this new form of Career Progression, the author first discusses four popular and prevalent forms of career progression. And, after building the background, the author talks about Contribution Based Career Progression - the new way of Career Progression. Philosophically, this new way of Career Progression is beyond the prevalent modes and methods of Career Progression. Contribution Based Career Progression (CBCP) is a paradigm that is easier to put into practice in an organization that believes in the philosophy of Sustainable Holistic Organization Development (SHOD). It is about a cultural compatibility in an organizational context. The more the organization, in question, is culturally compatible with this paradigm, the easier and more obvious the people will find it to pursue this paradigm (CBCP).

This concept is discussed here in the context of a typical business organization (corporate). Just a little shift in paradigm is what it takes to put this concept | theory into practice. And, that practice would apparently be suitable for business-organizations of any type and size. Here, we specifically focus on Professional Career and the progression in that. Career-Progression, in the form of ‘professional growth’, is achieved in many ways. In this context, we are going to discuss the following.

Automatic | Natural Career Progression
Assisted Career Progression
Accidental Career Progression
Acquired Career Progression
Contribution Based Career Progression

The above mentioned are various career-progression instances classified based on ‘how’ the progression is achieved and the associated ‘primary intention’ in each of those specific contexts. There can be many more instances and types. However, to focus on the point we are trying to discuss here, we would like to limit our list to just five of those. Let's take a closer look at each of those.  Next Page >>

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Contribution Based Career Progression - Part 1 by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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