The boundaryless career reviewed by performativity

Abstract

Changes in career began to be widely discussed in the academic production of various areas of knowledge, particularly since the 70s. Be in psychology, management or sociology, the transformation of large organizations opened ground for various theories that presented new realities of work and new perspectives for career development. Among these various theories, the Boundaryless Career theory was one that gained more fame, permeating the academic and business world and been widely discussed to date. However, authors such as Ricardo & Guest (2010) indicate the lack of support for the theoretical model of Boundaryless Career, since quantitative data point to the lack of correspondence between what is presented by the theory and the reality of the universe of work.

The objective of this paper is to reinforce the critical analysis of Ricardo & Guest with quantitative data for the period between 1994 and 2012 and then answer the following question: what can explain the nonsense that a highly accepted and widespread theoretical model doesn’t find empirical support? To this end, the concepts of performativity and calculative agents proposed by Callon (2005) were used so that one can thus analyze the Boundaryless Career not through its relation to the "truth," but the success in equip individuals in their everyday calculations. Hence, it is expected to transcend the criticism of the theory and inaugurate a new analytical perspective to the field of study of career.

We conclude that the relevance of the Boundaryless Career takes place for six main reasons: (1) a simplified presentation of the work context facilitates the calculation in an unpredictable global scenario; (2) there was empirical support for the theory in the period it

was launched; (3) there is a general subjective perception, as scholars have written, of being "without borders" in contemporary times; (4) the institution in which the main author of the Boundaryless Career, Michael Arthur, works holds credibility in academia; (5) the coherence between the Boundaryless Career’s basis and the HR’s discourse; (6) HR practices based on the Boundaryless Career are shaping reality towards theory.

Based on the analysis above, we put the Boundaryless Career at greater assessment than the correspondence or not with reality. Thus, by making explicit the blind spots of the theory, this article illuminates the general relation between career theories and practice.