Career counseling in a volatile job market: Tiedeman's perspective revisited.

Using Tiedeman's approach, a primary emphasis is placed on assessing a client's subjectivity. This is considered essential because perceptions and choices contribute so much to the level of intentionality with which one engages in a career trajectory. Specifically, counselors are encouraged to examine the unique aspects of a client's career decision making, how that decision making has affected self-understanding, and how the client tolerates and experiences uncertainty and unexpected working conditions.

Tiedeman's (1961) model can be used to help counselors conceptualize the complexity of a client's career decision-making process. For example, counselors are encouraged to assess parallel streams in career-related interests. Clients might find it helpful to manage streams that are in conflict, once they are identified. During the assessment phase of counseling, efforts can be made to clarify differences between parallel streams and leisure interests.

Difficulties with the decision-making process can be differentiated from common circumstantial problems. Goulet and Singh (2002) suggested that some clients who are having trouble committing to a career path may be having difficulties with issues such as job involvement and fear of losing a job. If there are problems with decisions, these problems can be understood better by noting whether a client is recycling, moving in a nonlinear fashion between the phases, or engaged in a reversal of phases. If problems are circumstantial, the phases provide an indication of where the client may have "left off" with the decision-making process prior to the circumstantial interruption.

Interventions

Tiedeman's (1961) model lends itself easily to the counseling process because of the "decision making" nature of the stages. Using Tiedeman's perspective, a counselor can be comfortable engaging the client in many different phases of career development. A client can move from a maintenance phase to an exploratory phase without the counselor believing that the client is going backward or losing ground. In this way, counselors can empower clients who may not be following a traditional career development path.

Interventions using Tiedeman's concepts can be useful for clients struggling with unforeseen career challenges or for those anticipating possible difficulties in the future. Interventions that create hope, flexibility, resourcefulness, and adaptive cognitive processes are more effective. Such interventions can assist clients to step back, gain new perspectives, and review decisions in conjunction with contextual factors (Pelsma & Arnett, 2002). Learning to deal with adversity and using the opportunity to learn more about oneself and the world of work can greatly benefit a client's outlook. Counselors can adapt the cognitive phases to the individual and explore career past, current career path, and future career expectations.

Last, using the model to normalize transitions and new directions can validate current circumstances and lay a foundation for hope. Tiedeman's (1961) model can assist in normalizing career situations for clients by allowing for change and growth across a life span during which values and priorities may change. According to Miller-Tiedeman and Tiedeman (1990), "if things go well, we have little cause to differentiate" (p. 312), implying that change and challenges facilitate personal growth. When life takes an unexpected turn, adaptability promotes growth from these experiences. Reframing hardships as opportunities is an invaluable tool when dealing with a job market that is unstable or fragile.

Research

The model lends itself well to those engaging in research to track multipotentiality (Sajjadi, Rejskind, & Shore, 2001) and decision-making problems. Tiedeman's (1961) model is one of the few career development theories that provides a conceptual framework for understanding multipotentiality issues in the career development of gifted students, multiskilled individuals, and clients with broad interests. Research designed to track how these parallel interests are managed over time can make use of Tiedeman's phases as descriptive indicators.

The model also provides a developmental window into decision-making processes that are often explored by social cognitive approaches. For example, relationships between Tiedeman's developmental phases and self-efficacy and outcome expectations have rarely been explored. Tiedeman's perspective can help researchers understand how clients with low self-efficacy are shifting from one decision-making phase to the next. Outcome expectations may also be related to specific Tiedeman phase patterns. By using Tiedeman's (1961) model, researchers can explore these variables using analyses that are more sensitive to clients' developmental context.

Tiedeman's perspective, as with most theories, has its limitations. It can be quite challenging and stressful for clients to weather the storms of constant job changes and economic adversities. Caution is advised with clients who have consistent difficulties committing to a career path or to an employer. There may be underlying issues to address within the context of career and life circumstances that are contributing to a pattern of instability. A drastic career path change is not always in the best interest of the client. Although Tiedeman's (1961) model offers a unique and adaptive approach, counselors may wish to use discretion with the application of this model with some clients.

Another limitation of the model is its assumption that choice is central to career development while ignoring other variables such as oppression dynamics. Society creates barriers of many kinds for some clients. Cultural hardships are an important factor to consider because they affect career decisions. However, given that counselors competently attend to multicultural variables in career counseling (Hershenson, 2005), Tiedeman's perspective can be empowering. In this model, a client's evolving dream and vision for his or her future plays a central role as he or she seeks to understand self in a social context.

Conclusion

Although Tiedeman's (1961) model is complex, it is conceptually accessible for the practicing career counselor. Counselors are well aware that career development in the 21st century is rarely uniform and predictable. The idea of nonlinear movement, flexibility, and individual development that Tiedeman's model explores makes it an excellent resource for counselors helping clients contend with a volatile labor market.

It is essential that career counselors have empowering methods available to help clients develop their intentionality and more fully understand their career decision-making process. In addition to dealing with so many factors that influence and inhibit career decisions as highlighted by other career theories, practitioners using Tiedeman's (1961) model can also attend to the choice process directly in ways that other approaches ignore. Tiedeman argued over the years that, in the end, an individual has the potential and the right to become self-authoring in his or her career pursuits. Tiedeman was one of the first postmodern thinkers who saw the career counselor as a professional uniquely qualified to assist in this endeavor.

Unlike other theoretical perspectives, Tiedeman's (1961) model addresses career development patterns that are much more compatible with current occupational trends. Areas of potential employment and job loss adjust and shift with the changing economy and industry demands. Understanding the economic forces influencing employment and unemployment is crucial along with tools to encourage personal resourcefulness and resiliency. Perhaps Tiedeman's approach is the vessel that can help clients successfully navigate these concerns.

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