Comentario Crítico

This section examines cultural barriers which constrain individuals' (for instance Bahraini managers') ability to enact career self-management in this context (for instance Kingdom of Bahrain).

Career barriers have received greater attention and considerable interest from career counsellors and scholars because of their ability to interfere with the process of turning career interests into alternative goals and goal-directed behaviour (Ituma and Simpson, 2009). Those authors argue that despite this increased interest, this area has not been matched with empirical work. Swanson and Woitke (1997) conceptualised career barriers as "events or conditions, within the person or in his or her environment, that make career progress difficult" (p. 434).

Gunz et al. (2000) have a dissimilar perspective in describing barriers as "labour market imperfections driven by the reluctance of selectors to allow certain kinds of people to make

given moves" (p. 50). Common to these views is the notion that a career barrier is any factor that limits career development (Ituma and Simpson, 2009). Career barriers (for example, Farmer, 1976; Harmon, 1977; Powell, 2000) are composed of two key types: 'person centred' which is internal situations that make the accomplishment of career goals complex (for example, lack of confidence, low motivation) and 'situation centred' which is external situations located within the socio-cultural environment that make the accomplishment of career goals complex (for example, lack of access to education, sex stereotype, racial discrimination).

Social cognitive theory built by Lent et al. (1994) explains the influence of career barriers on career development. These authors propose that personal, contextual and experiential factors can mediate the association between turning career interest into career options related behaviour. It has been argued that "people are less likely to translate their career interests into goals, and their goals into actions, when they perceive their efforts to be impeded by adverse environmental factors..." (Lent, Brown and Hackett, 2000, p. 38). Gunz et al. (2002) argue that career boundaries encompass two dimensions: a subjective (perceived barrier to career progress) and an objective (real barrier to mobility) and that boundaries can "be imposed by specialisation, industry, the firm, occupation, educational level, experience, geography, professional qualification, organisational membership and to a lesser degree (although nevertheless real), age, race, ethnicity, sex, and religion" (p. 62) which this thesis explores. Likewise, King et al. (2005) argue that careers are bounded by prior career history, occupational identity, and institutional constraints imposed by leaders or top management to job opportunities. Barriers other than those mentioned have also been discovered which challenge career mobility and development and encompass: Education obtainable (Gomez, Fassinger, Prosser, Cooke, Mejia and Luna 2001);

lack of social capital (Braddock and McPartland, 1987) and struggling to find a mentor (Friedman and Krackhardt, 1997). Ituma and Simpson (2009) argue that demographic factors such as women and ethnic minority workers also represent barriers faced by occupational groups and individuals in various national contexts.

2.5.7 Summary

The cross-cultural literature review is fragmented and has a shortage of empirical investigation and, accordingly, it requires a logical framework for exploration and examination. While doing

so, it is important to consider the ways in which career legitimises both career patterns and practices. This should be through the institutions of society and how this determines the culturally based attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and anticipations that individuals have about career (Thomas and Inkson, 2007). Most career theories are built to suit modern and industrialised societies and in attempting to validate such theories and practices outside the borders of modern societies, the interpretation widens because of many factors (i.e. hierarchical organisations, supporting bureaucracy status, separation of labour and professionalisation etc.).

In consequence, cultural influences on career should not be ignored when discussing any career theories and practices.

In general, research into national culture confirms the existence of differences between countries.

A number of studies have sought to address the various assumptions to identify the differences such as those adopted by Hofstede (1980). Within this body of research, Hofstede argues that his five assumptions validly apply to all countries in the world, these being: power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, weak vs. Strong uncertainty avoidance and long vs. short-term orientation. However, Hofstede's work received criticism by Gerhart and Fang (2005). They point out that Hofstede et al.'s (1990) findings indicating that organisational differences are larger than country differences in cultural values suggest the requirement to balance the focus on national differences with a focus on organisational differences in culture.

Gerhart and Fang (2005) argue that management practices that have emerged from the national culture should be considered and, although the national culture is important, the role of these policies requires putting them into a specific context including organisational culture. They add that any theories that exclude management discretion call for careful investigation. Hofstede's result was also critiqued by McSweeney (2002) who states that national cultural assumptions constructed by Hofstede are illogical and misleading. The argument put forward was that if those findings were correct, then they would have a significant impact on management practices across countries for the nation states' wealth, including European integration.

There is clear research evidence to indicate the existence of different dimensions that differentiate countries' culture such as those built by Schwartz (2008). His theory identifies three bipolar dimensions of culture that signify alternative resolutions to each of three problems faced

by all societies: embeddedness versus autonomy, hierarchy versus egalitarianism, and mastery versus harmony. A societal emphasis on the cultural orientation at an individual pole of a dimension classically accompanies a de-emphasis on the polar type with which it attempts to conflict.

Besides Hofstede's (1980) work relating to culture dimensions, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998) constructed a 'Seven Dimensions of Culture' model of differences in national cultures. The model encompasses the seven dimensions which depict how people of different national cultures communicate with each other. These seven dimensions encompass:

universalism vs. particularism; individualism vs. collectivism; affectivity vs. neutrality; specific vs. diffuse; achievement vs. ascription; sequential vs. synchronic and internal vs. external control.

The literature review reveals that there are cultural promoting and limiting factors that influence career self-management behaviours. First, there are many cultural promoting factors, for instance specialisation, experience, higher qualification, education obtainable, efficient labour market, sector diversity and so on. However, this study only discusses factors that may relate to the Kingdom of Bahrain context, such as higher qualification (King, 2000, 2003; 2004) and experience (Campion et al., 1994; Becker, 1993, Staw, 1986; Tharenou, et al., 1994; Ng, et al., 2005). Secondly, there are various cultural barriers that influence career self-management behaviours and set limits within and outside the firm. Career barriers will occur if states hinder individuals from turning career interest into career goals and goal directed behaviours and, ultimately, limit career development (Ituma and Simpson, 2009; Lent et al., 1994).

Career boundaries include subjective (perceived barrier to career progress) and objective (real barriers to career mobility) such as labour market imperfection (Gunz et al., 2000). Career barriers have two types: the first is person centred, for example, lack of confidence, low motivation; and situation centred such as lack of access to education, sex stereotype, racial discrimination (Farmer, 1976; Harmon, 1977; Powell, 2000). Secondly, the real career boundaries which caused by different factors such as specialisation, industry, the firm, occupation, educational level, experience, geography, professional qualification, organisational

membership and to some extent age, race, ethnicity, sex, and religion (Gunz et al., 2002). In addition, boundaries can be caused by prior career history, occupational identity, and institutional constraints imposed by leaders/top management to job opportunities (King et al., 2005). Other cultural factors could be education obtainable (Gomez et al., 2001); lack of social capital (Braddock and McPartland, 1987) and struggle to find a mentor (Friedman and Krackhardt, 1997). Demographic factors such as women and ethnic minority workers also represent barriers encountered by professionals in different national contexts (Ituma and Simpson, 2009).

The literature review presents evidence that there is lack of research on the effect of national culture on career which has been discussed in this section. Also national culture studies are required as a sort of replication to examine their validity in various contexts outside the USA and Western countries. Thus, this section reveals the deficiency of investigation of cultural factors that challenge individuals and prevent them from enacting career self-management behaviour not only in developing countries but even in developed countries.