NEWS & INSIGHT
THE ROLE OF SERENDIPITY IN CAREER PROGRESSION
SCHOOL: Audencia Business School COUNTRY: France
Climbing a ladder is a commonly used metaphor for career progression, in which each rung is a promotion on the way to the top. But what happens when unexpected events get in the way of this clearly defined path? A new piece of research led by Audencia Business School’s Céline Legrand and Christine Naschberger, together with Yehuda Baruch (Audencia and Southampton Business School) and Nikos Bozionelos (Emlyon Business School) examines the role of chance events on careers. The research draws from 682 questionnaires completed by company managers in a major European capital. Among respondents, more than 60 per cent reported a significant chance event they believe impacted their career outcomes. Of this number, 77 per cent said their career was impacted by a positive chance event while 23 per cent reported a negative event. Positive events included fortuitous professional encounters that led to opportunities for career development in terms of further networking, coaching, mentoring or information about job openings. Negative events, meanwhile, ranged from restructuring, downsizing and the sudden closure of an organisation to internal issues, such as a toxic new manager.
However, negative events did not necessarily lead to a negative career impact – in around 70 per cent of cases, respondents said that their negative chance event ultimately yielded a positive impact on their careers. Examples included the adoption of a new career stance and a change of company/sector that proved beneficial for an individual’s career. The remaining 30 per cent reported that their negative event had led to a negative career impact. Examples here included difficulties in finding a job of similar standing, a blocked career path, an unfavourable change of role and the deterioration of employment conditions. Positive chance events yielded positive career outcomes, such as promotions to new career challenges, in approximately 97 per cent of cases. However, in three per cent of cases the positive event did in fact lead to a negative impact. Overall, the researchers found that occurrences of these chance events tend to be associated with long-term career benefits rather than career losses, suggesting that people should be open to the possibility of these events rather than fear them. EB
Ambition | JULY/AUGUST 2023 | 9
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