Career Dynamics in a Global World

Book excerpt: Career Dynamics in a Global Worldtakes on a major question in the global research and practice of career development and adopts a distinctive approach in response. The authors address the question of how and to what extent a predominant influence of Western thinking about careers interferes with our understanding of careers in other parts of the world. The approach involves identifying career topics for further exploration, recruiting teams of Indian and Western scholars on each topic to share their insights, and laying out those insights to help both careers researchers and practitioners see their significance. As a result, in this remarkable collaboration the reader is invited to compare views on self-awareness and careers from traditional Indian Ayurvedic and alternative Western perspectives, alongside contrasting Indian and Western reports on women stepping off their career ladders, the motivation of social entrepreneurs, the careers of IT workers, MBA holders and management scholars and other topics. Career and cross-cultural researchers and career and HR practitioners will be fascinated by the comparative analysis of career dynamics.