Career Counseling in Organizations

Industrial Era

The dawn of 20th-century North America witnessed a continued decline in the agricultural-based economy as the Industrial Revolution advanced. The burgeoning economy, with its need for selection and assignment of personnel to an ever-expanding array of jobs, promulgated the first vocational programs. With the influx of immigrants and veterans into the labor force following World War I and World War II, corporate giants such as Ford Motor Company, R. H. Macy and Company, and Western Electric's Hawthorne Plant initiated industrial-based programs with a mental health emphasis. Psychiatrists, personnel or industrial psychologists, as well as social workers commonly staffed the vocational programs of this era.

Information-Service Era

Toward the middle of the 20th century, the industrial era peaked as an information-based and then a service-based economy emerged by the final quarter-century. Unprecedented geopolitical, socioeconomical, and biotechnical advances culminated in the restructuring of the North American corporate landscape (e.g., divestitures, mergers-acquisitions, downsizing, and outsourcing jobs offshore).

The postindustrial economy brought with it an increased focus on workers' mental health. Corresponding to growth in individual psychology, there was added appreciation for the role of individual career choice in contrast to employer selection of individuals. Consequently, to the litany of career service providers, were added occupational psychiatrists, vocational-career psychologists, and employment-career counselors.

Organizational Settings

The career specialties were not the exclusive domain of business and industry. A number of governmental entities shared the mission of counseling for career development, or career management—the preferred term of reference outside of the educational arena. These included military bases, with an emphasis on the translation of military to civilian occupations, as well as rehabilitation settings, which focused on the employment needs of persons with physical and/or mental disabilities. Correctional facilities and the U.S. Employment Service carried the charge of facilitation of skill acquisition, as well as securing continuous employment.

Beyond corporate and governmental agencies, there were civic or public settings where career counseling occurred. Prevalent among these were mental health and/or substance abuse centers. These settings targeted mediation of the effects of psychological and substance abuse issues on employability.

Professional Identity

Providers of career counseling in organizations are divisible into two general categories: professional counselors and nonprofessional counselors. Professional counselors, those possessing counseling and/or counseling-related graduate degrees, licenses, and certifications, most often have as their primary professional identity, counselor or psychologist. As such, their main professional affiliations are the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the American Psychological Association (APA). Career, as a professional specialty, may be indicated by membership in ACA and APA divisions promoting careerism:

Career practitioners who deliver counseling and/or counseling-related activities but who are not professional counselors/psychologists may carry the following titles: career development facilitator, career adviser-specialist, career management consultant (outplacement), employment-workforce development specialist, job-search trainer, job developer, and career [Page 1462]coach. Those paraprofessional counselors frequently hold membership in the following professional affiliations: Association of Career Professionals International, Society of Human Resources Managers, American Society of Trainers and Developers, Career Planning and Adult Development Network.

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