Explaining company-level influences on individual career choices: towards a transitional career pattern? Evidence from belgium

Although current career literature continues to build on the new career concepts that reflect a shift from ‘traditional’ towards ‘transitional’ career patterns, recent research presents a different reality. In Belgium, among other countries, the traditional career pattern remains the dominant picture on the labour market. This study seeks to explain this discrepancy between theory and practice by focussing on the meso-organizational influences on career choices of individuals. Drawing on Schmid’s model of a transitional labour market, this qualitative empirical research explores the factors at company level that individuals point to as obstructing or facilitating career transitions. Results show that the existence of obstructing determinants at company level is one of the reasons why the ‘transitional career’ hasn’t become reality on the Belgian labour market yet. Implications for practitioners and policy makers are discussed.