Adult‐Development Perspective for Managing Professionals

Abstract

This paper is a study of an area of human behavior important to many professionals: career stages. This paper attempts to address how understanding career stages from a total life perspective can better equip professionals in personal‐career management, and managers responsible for career development. A partial literature summary on adult development from the adult psychology field is provided, including a model of adult development. This is followed by a summary of career‐stage models, including a career‐stage model for engineering and construction professionals. These two models, one from adult‐development theory and one from career‐stage theory, are combined into a new model developed by this research: an adult career development matrix. This research uses 12 phases (in a