The ultimate goal of every corporation on this planet is to remain profitable and succeed in whatever goals the organization may have set for themselves. Economists and management theorists around the world have their own theories regarding how this should be accomplished but at the heart of some of them is the concept of human capital growth and its ability to act as the ultimate competitive advantage. One of the pioneers of the concept of human capital, Gary Becker, defines it as “the knowledge, information, ideas, skills, and health of individuals (Becker, 2002)”. He continues by stating that human capital is “by far the most important form of capital in modern economies”. It is hard …show more content…
Giving direction to an individual is a powerful action and can shape the rest of that person’s life. As such, identifying what direction they should take is almost as important as any other aspect of career development. Determining weaknesses and strengths whether they are inherent traits or are ones that can be trained to a higher standard, can be a very humbling experience, but if done properly will lay the foundation for future growth and development (Chang, Feng, & Shyu, 2014). Therefore, self-assessment should be considered the starting point for a regular strategic or operative planning process within the company and will ensure improvement (Zink & Schmidt, 1998).
In general, individuals perceive themselves in a way that differs greatly from what may be the actual truth. That fact is why self-assessment tools are so important to the career-planning program. These misconceptions allow the human resource manager to glean into the thought processes of an individual in a way that external assessments can be ineffective. There are many different techniques for self-evaluation, but in general, they should involve the employee identifying perceived strengths and weaknesses, short and long-term …show more content…
This is much like telling someone to complete a task but not tell them what the task is. Therefore, in an effort to maximize an employee’s potential, individual counseling is necessary for effective career development. In a recent article describing the importance of career counseling the authors state “(c)areer counseling puts theory into practice and focuses on all aspects of career development (Pipkins, Rooney, & Jaunarajs, 2014)”. This is the point when all of the information gathered in the self-assessment is gathered together and the human resource manager builds a plan with the employee to further their