Changing Demographics and the Shifting Nature of Careers: Implications for Research and Human Resource Development

Research on human resource development is needed to empirically document the changing nature of careers among successive generational cohorts of workers. This article offers a conceptual framework for examining shifting careers, which accounts for important demographic shifts occurring in the labor force. Our research framework provides a comprehensive set of career-related variables (including career expectations, experience, and outcomes) for investigation. We illustrate the need to consider confounding influences of other demographic shifts in the study of changing careers, using the Canadian context as an illustrative example. We further argue that generational differences may be confounded with gender, immigration, and socioeconomic effects, and therefore, all three effects need to be considered simultaneously with generation. We identify some of the challenges faced by organizations in adjusting to these shifts and conclude with directions for future research.