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Introduction
A definition of career success commonly referred to in the contemporary literature is "the experience of achieving goals that are personally meaningful to the individual, rather than those set by parents, peers, an organization, or society" ([49] Mirvis and Hall, 1994, p. 366). According to this definition, workers of all types have careers, each of which can be viewed as successful in one way or another. But if this is true, then why do so many people feel unsuccessful? Research into the career experiences of blue-collar workers, for instance, revealed that they often feel they do not even have a career, let alone a successful one ([32] Guest and Sturges, 2007; [35] Hennequin, 2007).
It appears that the career success construct, somehow, evokes an objectified image of career in people - an image with which they may or may not identify. The central argument in this paper is that careers are often subject to reification, i.e. the tendency to see social constructs as real and fixed, rather than as complex, dynamic social realities that can be (re)interpreted and (re)shaped in different ways. Despite the fact that careers are not "real", however, they are reality-defining for a large part of the workforce ([23] Evetts, 1992).
Career theory, in general, has been criticized for overemphasizing individual agency while neglecting contextual issues ([11] Brown, 2002; [23] Evetts, 1992). This paper aims to address this gap by presenting a detailed examination of how the different contextual forces contributing to the reification of careers (i.e. history, culture and ideology) have impacted on the social reality of career and the definitions of career success held by different relevant actors. It then goes on to identify several research questions that need to be tackled in future research in order to advance our knowledge and understanding of career success in context. The paper concludes with specific implications for careers research and practice.
Career success across historical contexts
The shift to a post-industrial economy
The evolution of the global economy (although not taking place at the same pace in every part of the world), from an agricultural over an industrial to a post-industrial society, has without a doubt strongly contributed to the current-day image of what career and career success mean.
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