Asian Reversalism: An Alternative Approach to Career Development

In recent years, Western models of career planning have typically promoted the “fast track,” an accelerated approach to career development (CD) that encourages new recruits to advance quickly through their company’s functional and managerial hierarchies in pursuit of high positions of rank and authority (Hall & Moss, 1998; Reitman & Schneer, 2003). The model is especially attractive to novice, yet talented, employees who seek to accelerate the upward movements and paths of their careers. However, is rapid upward career movement the optimum way for employees and their organizations to consider the issue of CD? The aim of this chapter is to challenge both the linear direction and the anticipaLed speed of the fast-Lrack approach.