Business Career Personal: Modern Management Models Of Russian Banking Organizations

Abstract

The traditional methods of labor efficiency growing such as rationalization and automation of business processes, search of talents, often do not lead to increase in competitiveness of human resources in the conditions of high uncertainty and dynamism of the Russian social and economic environment, formation of the modern «transparent» world market. It is necessary to create conditions for the employee’s constant striving to consciously formation long-term superiority over competing employees and to increase each own professional competence through the business career in order to be competitive on the labor market. The purpose of this research consists in identification of the organizational and economic patterns of business career caused by differences in the competitive position of banking organizations. During the research the staff’s business careers of the fifteen federal and regional banks listed on the Russian market for last six years have been analyzed. The results of the research show that the type and intensity of a business career determine the mechanisms of localization and approval of the competitive advantage of both the employee and the banking organization in the market situation. The knowledge of business career has allowed us to identify the presence of a socio-economic conflict between professional career and organizational (intra-and inter-organizational). The ways of conflict solution about business career generate strategic alternatives of the interaction professional and organizational types of career, aimed to maintaining and increasing the competitiveness of human resources of the banking organization.

Keywords: Banking organizationstaff competitivenessbusiness career

Introduction

For many years the business career of an employee has been in the focus of Soviet, Russian and foreign science as an object of study. Scientific interest in the process under consideration within its scale, intensity and factors is not accidental. It clearly manifests many important processes of social mobility of the labor force, which constantly occur and reflect the dynamism of the labor market.

Business career is presented as a complex, open and holistic system, illustrating the highest degree of unity of three interrelated substances in the scholarly literature

First, business career becomes a factor in achieving personal success and outperforming other competing employees who are pursuing identical goals (Sotnikov, 2015; Hassell, 2017; Masie, 2017). The result of personal success and outperforming competing employees in the social life stream is the preservation and elevation the quality of working life achieved by the employee. It is associated «with an increase of wages, the level of official rights and duties, the degree of autonomy and responsibility» (Milyaeva, 2016).

Secondly, business career appears as a function of social mobility (Eryomina & Toderash, 2016; Sillaste, 2004; Hall & Mirvis, 1995; Savickas, 1992).

Social mobility manifests itself as a systemic phenomenon that reflects the objective side of an individual’s socialization process (the content and directions of socio-economic, educational, cultural policies, as well as functions, principles, objectives in the management of society, legislative, regulatory, organizational, behavioral and other conditions of social being) and subjective (the complex of basic personal qualities that also determine the content and direction of social mobility) (Shpektorenko, 2013).

Thirdly, a business career is presented as an activity of positioning an employee in a hierarchical stratified system of division of labor (Belyatskiy, 2010; London & Moon, 1987; Noe, Noe, & Bachuber, 1990; Bersin, 2015; Schein, 1986). To our best knowledge employee’s positioning on the labor market can be personal-professional, representing the localization (fixation) and consolidation a certain status (position) and role of the employee in the professional field of activity, according with his knowledge, skills and attitudes. Also, it can be status-official, finding the social and material achievements in specific non-organizational and intra-organizational realities, perceived as an objective status set and clearly defined positions, roles, states of financial well-being, etc.

Thus, the modern concept of a business career is associated with the realization that career’s freedom generates competition, which poses a problem for everyone to achieve personal success and outstrip other employees-competitors who aspiring identical goals. Overcoming the employee's quality of professional life and its elevation is the result of achieving personal successes and surpassing employees-competitors in the stream of social life. Business career becomes a priority (leading) factor in the competitiveness of human resources in the labor market.

Problem Statement

The vector of re-industrialization of the Russian economy is associated with a changing of the paradigm of the banking sector development. Such changes imply the improving quality of banking assets against the intention to expand the banking business through aggressive marketing technologies, the product concept against the customer-oriented ideology. The most important economic problem of the creation competitive personnel of commercial banks is determined by fundamental transformation of values, worldview and ideological settings all over the world. It is impossible to improve the quality of assets, reduce the scale of dubious operations in troubled banks in the short term, prevent a full-scale crisis of confidence against the background of an unstable economic situation without professionally trained and loyal staff.

In this context, a business career represents a process of competitive positioning of an employee in the market system of division of labor. It contributes to the preservation or improvement the quality of working life on the basis of labor mobility in the changing conditions of intra-organizational and non-organizational realities.

In essence, a business career (Figure 01 ):

• models the system of principles for achieving the desired quality of working life in the condition of labor mobility;

• specifies the conditions and forms of labor mobility, which allows to support or improve the competitive position on the labor market;

• determines the parameters of competitive positioning in the labor market that contribute the improvement of the quality of working life.

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Constant changes in legislation, unstable market conditions, severe competition, rapidly growing consumer preferences of employers expand the range of business career strategies that combine different options for employee relocation, depending on the ratio of the three substances of a business career. The simplified stereometric model of business career (Figure 1 ) clearly shows us the variability of its strategies, among which it is necessary to distinguish the increasing (in sectors 1, 2, 3, 4) and preserving (in sectors Q_wl, М_l, P_lm) the competitiveness of the employee.

Sector 1 is the combination of two substances of a business career such as «quality of working life» and «labor market positioning». This business career dyad determines the strategy of a market contender for the leadership. Such situation is typical for employees, seeking to improve the quality of working life through the reinforcement of the competitive position in the labor market, based on the actual conditions of socio-economic development of the households, organizations, regions, etc.

Sector 2 is the combination of the «quality of working life» and «labor mobility» substances. This dyad defines a professional niche strategy. It characterizes the career of those employees, who achieve to improve the quality of working life in particular segment of the labor market through the development, and usage of their professional skills, awareness of the importance of their professional competence and pride in it, high motivation in the results of their work in one way or another.

Sector 3 is the sector of the intersection of “labor mobility” and “labor market positioning” substances. This business career dyad determines the strategy of a market follower. The career of the employees, who form this segment, is characterized by the necessity for creative involvement in management and production, in searching of reserves for their development, not only by high requirements for qualification and performing discipline. For these employees, the importance of functional flexibility in job, focus on expanding and enriching such job, reinforcement its creative aspects is very high.

Sector 4 is a combination of all three substances of the business career triad namely “quality of working life”, “labor mobility”, “labor market positioning”. This segment unites the careers of those employees, who harmoniously and totally implement the personality-professional and status- official positioning on the labor market, thereby ensuring the guaranteed success of a business person. The competitive leadership strategy characterizes this segment.

Sector Q_wl is a segment of substance «quality of working life». This substance determines the avoiding direct competition strategy. Such strategy focuses the career of an employee on maintaining the achieved quality of working life, certain pliability to the stricter requirements of the employer in the name of preserving the job and all existing and future benefits associated with it.

Sector М_l is a segment of substance «labor mobility». It implies the implementation of the rotated specialist strategy, who is a professional in his field, but he is easy enough for training to another job in his own organization. The career of employees in this segment is focused on the diversification of knowledge, skills, abilities, which create an opportunity for their adaptability to changes in technique and technology, culture of behavior. It makes employees flexible in alteration production and market conditions, demand fluctuations.

Sector P_lm is a segment of substance «labor market positioning». This segment is characterized by the peripheral professional strategy. The employees, who are professionals in their field, have the necessary, but not organization-specific skills, use such strategy. This segment unites the careers of those employees, for whom the main thing is to preserve the sovereignty of social status and role, a certain autonomy and independence in the professional activities.

Thus, a career is a dialectical system. The emergence, formation and resolution of inherent contradictions between substances (quality of working life, labor mobility and labor market positioning), which allow the employee to have a sustainable competitive advantage in the labor market is the driving force and source of development of business career.

In this context, there is a growing need to understand the general nature and underlying causes of the processes of organizing, developing and destroying a business career, considering the competitive position of a banking organization and the possibility of transforming its strategies. Theoretical and methodical comprehension the mechanism of a business career as a metamodel of competitiveness of bank personnel will make it possible to understand the parameters of the condition and characteristics of a business career strategy to form the strategic potential of the banking labor market.

Research Questions

Despite the significant contribution of several scientists to the development of certain, especially socio-psychological, aspects of the investigated scientific problem, there is a currently shortage of conceptual researches of business career as a socio-economic mechanism for the formation of the competitiveness of banking personnel. In this context, there are the questions for conducting the present study:

• What types of business career and to what extent can they achieve a higher level in the competition of banking personnel on the labor market in changing environment?

• What are the possible strategic alternatives of a business career to maintain a competitive position on the labor market, considering the development strategy of the banking organization?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the research is to develop the organizational and economic foundations of the business career of banking personnel as a mechanism for improving competitive positions in the labor market: (A) to identify the determinants of business career allowing to achieve a higher level of competition on the labor market in changing conditions; (B) to analyze the various strategic alternatives of business career by building two-dimensional matrixes that allow to estimate the prospects of a particular method of positioning bank personnel on the labor market. The organizational and economic regularities of business career studying, conditioned by the differences in the competitive position of banking organizations, allows us to identify and forecast the favorable opportunities and dangers that may arise when achieving competitive advantage in the labor market.

Research Methods

Data collection procedure

The statistical data of the all-Russian statistical reporting, analytical reviews, statistical reporting and primary personnel documents of commercial banks, legislative documents regulating activities in the banking sector of the economy, information of periodicals, the global Internet information system, along with the results of the author’s questionnaire survey of bank employees were the information and empirical base of the research.

The fifteen federal and regional Russian banks are the object of observation.

The research consisted of several levels.

The first level assumed to obtain indicators of assessing objectively rational career activityю. Thus, on this level the career system as a holistic complex of resources to achieve a higher level in the competition of bank personnel in the labor market was investigated (Figure 02 ). The main method of the research is the study of statistical data. The study was conducted by the quota multistage sampling (basic characteristics: the location of the organization, the corporate strategy, the number of bank staff).

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It is noted that over the period 2010–2015 was observed a growing career activity of bank employees in the process of the country's economy stabilized after the 2008 crisis. At the same time, the dynamics of activity strongly depends on the development strategy of a banking organization: an entrepreneurial strategy provides the greatest opportunities for a business, a cyclical strategy and a profitability strategy provide the smallest one, a dynamic strategy of growth and a liquidation strategy – the moderate opportunities (Figure 02 ).

The program of the second level research was formed on the basis of the first level. The second level details and studies the subjectively irrational career activity: personal expectations of the employee regarding to material wellbeing, self-affirmation, self-esteem, public recognition, economic independence, success, power, etc. These expectations were associated with self-assessment not only of the need-motivational sphere, but also socio-economic, organizational conditions of self-positioning in life and work.

The questionnaire survey was the main research method, using on this level (Table 01 ). The study was conducted by the quota multistage sampling (basic features: the corporate strategy, the functional responsibilities of the employee and the work experience of the employee in a banking organization).

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During the research, it was noted that career is a process of a job-official positioning in organizational reality for most bank’s employees: achieving superiority over other people (70.1%), a way to success, a prominent position in society, in the professional field (68.3%), recognition of merit in labor (52.1%).

Also rather typical for bank’s employees is the perception of career as a personal-professional positioning in the organizational environment: professional growth of employee competence (57.8%), which does not conflict with his lifestyle (43.2%) in order to carry out professional activities as non-standard, creative, innovation (45.4%), fully realize the labor potential (55.6%) and increase their value and reputation in the organization (53.4%).

The career for an employee is often perceived as a way to meet mercantile needs such as achieving material wellbeing (67.8%), improving working conditions (40.5%), creating favorable interpersonal relations in a working collective (44.7%), guarantees of permanent job and stability of position (44.6%).

It is not difficult to notice that a business career is associated with achieving some personal success in the form of more or less clearly defined positions, statuses, roles, perceived as a result of maintaining or improving the quality of working life by getting a sense of superiority over other employees. At the same time, there are differences in the understanding of the content of a business career among employees depending on the corporate strategy (Table 02 ).

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Thus, in banks with a strategy of dynamic growth employees are most often considered the career in the context of job-official positioning (67%). For these employees, the career appears as a series of transitions from one job (position) to another, promoting to the dynamics of influence, power, authority, status in the organizational environment. Career advancement, functional expansion in the organization is harmonized and accelerated through the training of new technologies, requalification and preparation for the start of a new career.

The career is а mastering a variety of skills and competencies that complement and develop them for the bank employees with entrepreneurial (61%) and cyclical (54%) strategies. For them the career path is directly related to personal-professional positioning. Often, such employees are «fixated» on the training aspect of a career and make the typical mistake, considering training as an end in itself, and not as a tool for improving intra-organizational positioning and increasing their competitiveness.

Employees in banks with a profitability strategy (47%) and a liquidation strategy (52%) often perceive their careers as a way to protect their own status and incomes, associated with their activities in the organization. These employees are quite loyal to the organization. Their main problem is that they risk to achieve the so-called “career plateau” or “career downshifting”, the situation, when employees professionally “outgrow” their official positions.

Findings

Economic expediency of the business career of employees

Business career is the highest criterion of qualification assessment and self-motivation to achieve sustainable (organizational or personal) competitive superiority over other competing employees with the least career's investment-

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. Career's investment is a long-term investment of capital in the positioning of an employee for the purpose to preserve or overcome (elevate) the achieved quality of working life.

The economic expediency of an employee's career is determined by comparing the values of marginal income MR and marginal investment MC, associated with the dynamics of the quality of working life, determined by the competitiveness of the employee (including investment in personal МС1 and corporate МС2 types of competitiveness) (Figure 03 ).

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As can be seen from Figure 03 , the employees seek to acquire a certain share of the domestic labor market and secure it for themselves in the situation

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. The employee is focused on reimbursement of costs, associated with the achievement of a career position in the labor market as any owner of economic resources.

The employee seeks to get a target profit from his positioning in the situation

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. Just in this case, the employee receives personally-significant benefits from the improvement of competitive advantages, allowing increase their total income and improve the quality of working life. At the same time, an additional increase in the competitiveness of an employee leads to a lower rate of growth of his marginal income according to the law of diminishing returns.

The employee receives income from a career in accordance with his competitiveness in the situation

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. This situation makes it possible to fill the formula «from each according to his ability, to each according to labor» with real content.

The employee considers investing in a professional career as a way to improve status-official positioning in the labor market in the situation

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.

The employee is focused more on the dynamics of positioning his influence, power, authority, status in the professional environment in a specific out-organizational and intra-organizational reality in the situation

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.

Economic-organizational compromise between professional and organizational, inter-organizational and intra-organizational careers

Within the scientific research in banking organizations, it was found that a business career appears as a way to achieve competitiveness in the labor market. For that purpose, it uses, firstly, the mechanism of an employee’s professional career, creating conditions for professional development and assuming continuous reproduction of competitive advantages throughout the working life of each employee. Secondly, it uses the mechanism of the intra-organizational career associated with the job-official positioning of the competitive advantages of the employee in a stratified system of division of labor, taking into account the out-organizational and intra-organizational realities. Thirdly, it uses the mechanism of inter-organizational career, focused on the transition of an employee from one organization (branch) to another with in order to changing the professional or official position, as well as changing the level of competitiveness of the organization itself or its territorial location.

At the same time, the processes of formation, development and destruction of the professional and organizational (intra-organizational and inter-organizational) careers obey different laws being in internal unity and interpenetration. Therefore, they do not coincide in time and direction of changes, which leads to the deployment of economic and organizational conflict between them (Figure 04 ), which contribute to a change in the competitive position of employees and banking organizations in the labor market. Ideally, the resolution of this conflict is aimed on protecting the intellectual capital of a banking organization from stagnation in business activities, on identifying new opportunities for its development.

Using the dynamic growth strategy, dialectic coordination of opportunities for professional and intra-organizational career is achieved. The employee gets a unique opportunity to realize his potential and enrich his experience and thereby speed up his movement up the career ladder. The employing organization minimizes their risk through the appointment of a specialist, who is carrier of a corporate culture, managed to prove himself as a responsible and successful, and therefore get a predictable result from career of this employee.

In the context of using the cyclical corporate development strategy of the bank, the focus is on a professional career. Such strategy allows the employer to improve the skills of loyal employees, diversify their competencies by accumulating and using new forming competitive advantages, maximize their contribution to the organizational development of the bank and adapt to the changing environment with the lowest economic and social costs due to the multi-functionality of labor. In turn, there is a real opportunity for employees to improve their competitive position in the labor market, expand the prospects for career advancement and increase incomes from employment, master the new market segment of employers.

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The achievement of a compromise between an inter-organizational and intra-organizational career in entrepreneurial and liquidation strategies for the development of banking organizations, as well as a profitability strategy is conditioned to the desire to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the labor market by stimulating the employees a fairly frequent change the job position by moving from one organization to another or the level of the company while maintaining the official position.

The achieving a compromise with a cyclical development strategy of banking organization is designed to guarantee the employer continuity in business management, to ensure its safety by appointment loyal, proven employees, who know the specifics of business and organization, on the main positions, and encourage them to professional growth.

With a dynamic growth strategy, the subjects of the domestic market of banking labor form a competitive space, which naturally leads a business career to a state of self-development and self-correction and contributes to the fullest satisfaction of the socially diverse interests of economic actors in working life quality, based on competition the laws of competition.

Thus, the business career performs like a dialectical system. Its driving force and source of development is the processes of emergence, formation and resolution of the inherent conflict between professional and organizational, inter-organizational and intra-organizational careers.

Conclusion

The business career is a dialectic system, the driving force and source of development of which is the processes of emergence, formation and resolution of inherent contradictions (conflicts) between professional and organizational (intra-organizational and inter-organizational) careers. The resolution of these contradictions is aimed at maintaining or improving the competitive position of the bank in the labor market. In this context, four strategic alternatives should be distinguished, depending on the organizational development strategy of the bank: A – marketing, B – technocratic, C – adaptive, D – humanistic (Table 04).

Marketing strategic alternative business career (A) is typical for banks with a dynamic growth strategy. It focuses on the dialectical coordination of opportunities for professional and organizational careers. The employee gets a unique opportunity to realize his potential and enrich his experience and thereby accelerate his movement up the career ladder. The employing organization minimizes the risk with the appointment of a specialist to the position. The career is rationally connected with the business strategy and is built with the high importance of objective criteria for assessing professionalism, quality of employee education, creativity and communication skills.

Technocratic strategic alternative business career (B) is typical for banks adhering to the liquidation development strategy. It orients to the interests of the employer and provides the activity of an employee, aimed at achieving social and professional status for the sake of status itself or the process of movement in the organizational system of division of labor for the process itself. The function of its goal is performed either by a certain position or by the activity itself upon receipt this position. This orientation is associated with fierce competition for more favorable conditions of professional activity. The career in the technocratic model is made not only by the professional experience and activity of the employee, but also by protectionism.

Adaptive strategic alternative business career (C) is typical for banks with an entrepreneurial strategy. It allows banks to react on the processes occurring in the external environment, reaching a compromise between the personal and professional positioning of employees and the status-official positioning to meet consumer demand for labor. It presupposes the creation of conditions for an employee to master related professions, mastering work performed by his colleagues, higher or lower along the hierarchy, and, consequently, for mechanical movement of employees from one workplace to another inside and outside the organization, considering the requirements of changing workload.

Humanistic strategic alternative business career (D) has spread in banks that adhere to a profitability strategy and a cyclical strategy. The humanistic orientation is expressed in the consideration of the social and professional environment in terms of benefits, especially for employees, which is manifested in their desire to meet personal needs (including maintaining health, ensuring their material stability) through self-improvement, training new technologies, retraining, acquisition life experience acquired through vocational qualification and geographic mobility, change of social circle, lifestyle in general. The interests of individual employees prevail over the interests of the organization.

Based on the above, the business career, being filled in modern conditions with new socio-economic content, appears as a mechanism for the interaction of professional career and organizational (intra-organizational and inter-organizational), contributing to a change in competitive position on the labor market in order to most effectively meet the interests of working life. Knowledge of strategic alternatives of business career allows us to provide a comprehensive impact on the competitive advantages of employees, identify specific functions and regulatory capabilities of each type of positioning to improve the competitive position, their connection with other personnel phenomena and processes, monitor the dynamics of the relationship of the quality of working life and competitiveness of each individual employee, the organization’s personnel and the economically active population in general.

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