Simon’s story: an intimate history of career change

Abstract

Simon’s story is presented here; it tells of his change from his familiar world as a claims manager to an ambiguous world of consultants and projects. Simon recounts a kaleidoscope of emotions as his life is thrown into turmoil. In career terms it could be argued that Simon started and finished as a claims manager and therefore little in fact changed during the story. This would miss the fundamental changes in Simon from a motivated, confident and capable manager to timid and confused employee. Internally Simon was changed, externally no one noticed. A causal network is used to trace the patterns of connection through Simon’s narrative. This reveals his way of making sense of his experiences and allows his ontology of management and career to be explored. This leads on to a discussion of management implications.

Citation

Perren, L. and Morland, R. (1999), "Simon’s story: an intimate history of career change", Career Development International, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 244-250. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620439910270643