Psychological Success and the Boundary less Career

Abstract

Definitions of work, non work activities, and careers are changing in America, Japan, and parts of Europe. A decade-and-a-half of corporate downsizing and broad-based deindustrialization has seen employers reduce staffs, shut down facilities, and make more use of consultants and the contingent workforce. As a result, notions of cradle-to-grave job security have been shattered, along with the psychological contract binding people to companies (DeMeuse and Tornow, 1990; Rousseau and Wade Benzoni, 1995). Leisure time is decreasing in the United States (Schor, 1991), and recent surveys find over half of the nation’s workers pining for more time with family and friends (Galinsky and Friedman, 1993). It seems working people are struggling to manage the boundaries between work and other parts of their lives, while trying to preserve some semblance of a career in the face of an uncertain future.