INLS 131:  Management for Information Professionals

Week 15: April 23-29, 2002
Personal Growth;
Career Development Plan

Assignments

We have moved in this course from a focus on the individual and the skills of a good manager to a wider focus on the work group and aspects of interpersonal communication, group dynamics, and leadership (with a particular focus on the skills needed to function successfully in virtual groups).  From here, we moved to an even larger focus on the organization as a whole, with special attention to the design of the organizational structure and the introduction and management of change.

This week we return to our beginnings. We will re-focus on the individual and examine personal growth and career development. The learning objectives for this last week are to:

• consider your personal life goals
• identify important career anchors for you
• use your self-knowledge and your knowledge of management to develop a career development plan.

You have one task to demonstrate your achievement of these objectives. This task will also serve as the final examination for the course.

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Final Paper: Career Development Plan

Please read Chapter 6. Your task is to apply some of the suggestions in this chapter and to fashion a career development plan. This will demonstrate your knowledge of the concepts we've studied in these past weeks. Please begin with a life goal inventory similar to (but perhaps not as elaborate as) that described on pages 119-125. Consider what are important career anchors for you. Then identify what your ideal job would be ten years from now and what kind of a work environment you would like to be a part of. Assess how realistic your goal is and what you will need to do to reach this goal.

Your plan will probably be somewhere between four and six pages long. Send it to me via email as an attachment by or before May 6.

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Hail and Farewell!

It's been a good class. Please add any final comments you may wish to make on the Evaluation (optional, of course, but I would be grateful for your observations). There is also a final course evaluation from Carolina Courses Online (linked below) that you are asked to complete.

Thank you one and all. I've enjoyed the class and your participation in it. I wish we could have a class party to celebrate your wonderful contributions. Have a good life! I'd be pleased if you choose to stay in touch.

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Carolina Courses Online Student Evaluation