Edgar Schein’s Career Anchors
There are eight career anchors themes and has shown that people identify primarily with one or two. The anchors can enable people to recognise their preferences for certain areas in their job which can help career planning e.g. a person with a primary theme of autonomy/ independence will seek to work under their own rules and be less likely to conform to organisational norms. People are generally more fulfilled in their careers when they can satisfy their career anchors and seek roles that are aligned with these.

1. Technical/Functional If your key Career Anchor is strongly placed in some technical or functional area, what you would not give up is the opportunity to apply your skills in that area and to continue to develop those skills to an every higher level. You derive your sense of identity from the exercise of your skills and are most happy when your work permits you to be challenged in those areas. You may be willing to manage others in your technical or functional area, but you are not interested in management for its own sake and would avoid general management because you would have to leave your own area of expertise.

2. General Managerial If your key Career Anchor is general managerial, what you would not give up is the opportunity to climb to a level high enough in an organisation to enable you to integrate the efforts of others across functions and to be responsible for the output of a particular unit of the organisation. You want to be responsible and accountable for total results and you identify your own work with the success of the organisation for which you work. If you are presently in a technical or functional area, you view that as a necessary learning experience; however, your ambition is to get to a generalist job as soon as possible. Being at a high managerial level in a function does not interest you.

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