Career boundaries and boundary-crossing by public sector employees: The case of Greek public education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a boundary-focused analysis of career patterns in Greek public education. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive, interpretive design from the naturalistic paradigm was chosen for the study, based on narratives of 27 public education employees who used decision-making models for outlining their career plans. Findings This study depicted career-related boundaries and intentions of employees to develop their career within their domain or crossing particular boundaries, namely, the public-private boundary, the public education to higher education boundary, the occupational and other less salient boundaries. Research limitations/implications The delimitation of the study on public education employees studying for a postgraduate diploma might limit the scope of inter-occupational mobility. Practical implications This study highlights the subject of the first degree as the most critical determinant of career development, and identifies the role of structural constraints, especially of promotion systems, in bounding graduate careers. Originality/value This study developed a typology of career paths of public education employees and associated them with the identification of two main employee profiles, related to the subject of their first degree.