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Analysis of Career Knowledge Element

In Michael Imber's (1995) article, "Organizational Counterproductivism in educational administration," he suggests that the standard and traditional career knowledge that most people possess is not really the knowledge that matters when it comes to obtaining, and working successfully at, a job in education. As he points out, there is "a wide gap between educational administration as an academic discipline and educational administration as a field of practice" (Imber, 1995, p. 114). When he questioned people on their understanding of theory and how they would apply it to their jobs, their answers were vague, indicating that the way they did their jobs was essentially unrelated to any organizational or educational theory but was more related to common sense and their own insights. As he explains, "No one said, 'I believe in contingency theory, so my approach is to...'" (Imber, 1995, p. 114).

In like manner, I have deduced that an important element of career knowledge is not so much what you know as who you know. Social ties have proven far more powerful in terms of the ability to get a job in educational administration than good grades, graduating from a noted school, or even demonstrated ability. I know this because social networking is how I landed my own job. Although I was qualified for the job, my qualifications were not the deciding factor, as I am acquainted with other equally qualified individuals who are still looking for this type of job but who for one reason or another lacked the social networking skills or contacts that I was privileged to have. Nardi, Whittaker, and Schwarz (2000) wrote a book entitled It's not what you know, it's who you know: Work in the information age, which details the same concept as it exists in the technology arena. Moreover, the concept of gaining employment and promotion via who you know rather than what you know is gaining exposure. Hewitt (2003, p. 27) pointed out that...

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Analysis of Career Knowledge Element. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:40, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2001160.html