Describe the steps involved in a typical career-planning system.

Answers will vary. In general, most career-planning systems involve the following steps:
1. In the individual assessment phase, individuals need to analyze carefully what they perceive to be their own abilities, competencies, skills, and goals. Many organizations provide employees with forms or questionnaires to help them develop this information.
2. At the same time, HR managers should be developing a potential career path an employee may take up the corporate ladder. Shell's career-path model, for example, is available to managers on the firm's corporate intranet.
3. Communication is also an important part of this process. For example, an organization may know the paths that are most likely to be followed from one position to another and be able to gauge the probability or likelihood that a specific individual will follow this path or a prescribed path for a promotion to another position. But if this information is not communicated to the individual employee, then it is of little or no value to anyone. At the same time, the organization must also integrate its performance-management system with its career-management system. A person should not expect to progress automatically from one job to another along a certain path but instead recognize that this movement will be determined in part by his or her performance effectiveness.
4. The final step in effective career planning is career counseling. As the term suggests, career counseling involves interaction between an individual employee or manager in an organization and either a line manager or an HR manager. This counseling session typically involves frank and open dialogue with the goal of making sure that the individual's assessment and the organization's assessment of the individual's role and prospects in the organization are congruent.