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To address the implications for career of today’s changes in the organisation of work and labour markets, managers and counsellors need appropriate concepts, theories and methodologies. Career scholars may no longer be well placed to help. The paper notes how the range of perspectives they bring to their understanding of career fragments the field of study. Moreover, the dominant assumptions and approaches in the field are inappropriate to deal with what is taking place in it, and are being challenged by developments in the “new sciences”. The paper suggests that, to respond to these challenges, career scholars of all kinds need to engage in dialogue as they examine their assumptions and conceptualisations, and develop new research approaches. Practitioners must engage with these changes as researchers, exploring new qualitative methods, and individuals need support from their managers as they construct new identities.

The significance of the mentor in organisations has been clearly established in the management literature. Having first defined mentoring and described the roles of mentor and protégé, the distinction between “essential” and “instrumental” mentoring is noted. The reasons for the present interest in this topic is discussed and the purposes for which formal mentoring programmes are established are indicated. The several steps to be take in setting‐up a programme are outlined, some of the problems which might be encountered are identified and what such a programme might achieve is indicated.

Our changing society and troubled economy are making many new demands of work organisations, so that human resource managers are having to deal with new issues and explore ways of dealing with old ones. One aspect of organisational life which is so affected is career development. A recent review of the latest thinking on it noted some of these new questions and proposed the inclusion of lateral as well as “onward and upward” moves within an accepted view of career development. This article offers an even wider view of career development through its recognition of the significance of the subjective career.

This article draws attention to our rudimentary knowledge of managers’ competence, against the background of the rhetoric currently being employed, for example, in the Management Charter Initiative. Its aim is to unravel some of the existing confusions about the meaning of “competence”, by identifying and briefly examining some of the epistemological, philosophical and methodological issues which require attention before we proceed further in this field of study.

This paper outlines some typologies of managerial and professional development. It then examines some aspects of the informal structure of an organisation and the significance of the role of mentor within that structure. It proposes that the mentor oversees the adaptation of the individual to the needs of the organisation and thus influences the pattern of managerial development. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this for management development programmes and suggests some areas which call for further research. During a review of the literature concerned with career development there occurred several references to the question of the adaptation of the individual to the organisation. This is a matter of significance in understanding both the individual's career development and the organisation's practice of management development. Although the literature review was concerned with a relatively narrow field and there are, therefore, probably other relevant and important issues which are not raised below, it uncovered several research findings which are of particular significance for the practice of management development. They have been noted and are discussed in this paper.

This paper will argue that one explanation for the continuing interest in and application of mentoring programmes in organisations is that mentoring contributes significantly to the meaning‐making process within an organisation. Approaching the transformation of organisations from a social constructionist perspective, ‘the organisation’ is interpreted as a continuing process of organising; that is, a process of continuous and shared meaning‐making through interactions among organisational members. Responding to rapid and massive changes in the workplace, organisations are constructed and reconstructed through the development of new and appropriate meanings: mentoring is being harnessed in formal programmes to facilitate the ongoing meaning‐making process.

Identifies the traditional western assumptions made about the individual and, from a social constructionist perspective, notes how they derive from their historical and social context. Argues that work organizations have played a significant role in both the western conceptualization and the very formation of the individual. Notes some of the changes now taking place in organizations, and speculates whether they could modify this conceptualization and formation significantly, and, if so, what the implications of the new individual could be for organizations and society.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).