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International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011




    Mid-Life Crisis, Transition and the Propensity to Embark Upon
                           Entrepreneurship

                                     Murray Hunter1



                                       ABSTRACT

       This paper looks at mid-life crisis and transformation. According to
       Erikson, people go through life and often find regret, remorse, and
       depression about their achievement and existence in life. The potential for
       transformation occurs when people evaluate their self concept and find
       disappointment with what they see. People cope with this disappointment
       by living out the fantasies and typologies defined and described by
       O’Conner as the Farmer, the Nurseryman, the helper, the writer, and the
       drop-out. Finally this paper hypothesizes that mid-life crisis is not
       confined to one period of life and this transformation can occur during any
       period of life.



Through the passage of life, people go through periods of regret, remorse, and
depression about their achievements and existence. Economic conditions over the
last 40 years have challenged the concept of traditional employment. Today
secure jobs and long term employment is less common than in the immediate
post war and industrial development years (Bridges 1980). Downsizing,
retrenchments, layoffs and bankruptcies are more common than ever before,
creating trauma crisis and a vacuum in peoples’ lives.

People develop their own self concept through their careers (Super et. al. 1996).
Working is a form of self-expression which brings satisfaction, happiness,
frustration and stress in a person’s life. A person’s career is an important anchor
in their life, providing the basis of their own self identity. People express who
they are through their skills, competencies, position, status and values. This
career anchor is an important sphere of influence on a person’s choices and
decisions (Schein 1978, P. 125).



1
  MURRAY HUNTER, Associate Professor, School of Business Innovation and
Technopreneurship, University Malaysia Perlis, murray@unimap.edu.my
International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011


Abrupt career termination, job dissatisfaction, remorse about “what one has
failed to achieve” in a person’s life leads to a “personal crisis” and as a
consequence, a transition is required. According to Erikson (1968), a person also
goes through a number of stages during their life where their identity,
achievements and self worth are questioned. These periods whether caused by
external trauma or internal self doubt and questioning lead to very strong
emotional states challenging a person’s reason and meaning of existence.

Personal crisis has its beginnings in adolescence where a career choice was
made, that was not to a person’s liking. They wanted to please their parents and
fulfill their father’s unmet dreams by proxy. They had taken on their father’s
values in their early years without really questioning whether these values are
consistent with their own self identity. In later adult life a person realizes the
mismatch between their own ideals and what they are actually doing (Levison
1978). This comes as a shock, as they realize time is running out and instead of
doing something that has meaning to them, they are trapped in a job that brings
dissatisfaction and resentment. Change is very difficult because of financial and
family commitments; they are a prisoner of their own making, locked in the
treadmill of life that is taking them nowhere. This can create great anxiety,
depression and panic.

Up to middle age people usually focus on the external aspects of life which
attracts the trimmings of career success in way of career, position, prestige, status
and a reasonable standard of living for all those around them. However this is
usually at the cost of the inside which is empty and neglected. Life has little
meaning or emotional identity. His sacrifice of the inner self for the external
world has been a costly one and a sense of grief sets in. This realization can
spring a set of behavioral changes as defence mechanisms against grief. This may
be hostility towards his wife and children and in extreme cases result in
separation and divorce. One response is to try and return to their youth and buy a
sports car and take up new interests as a way to deny their emptiness.

Another reaction to the feeling of emptiness is the creation of fantasies and
daydreams to help a person escape any inner feelings of depression. Melbourne
psychologist Dr. Peter O’Conner (1981) found a number of recurring themes in
these fantasies. Each of these fantasies represent inner struggles, represented as
“if only I” aspirations. Each fantasy may provide some hints of how an
individual can solve them, if the underlying needs can be seen.

The Farmer Fantasy is where a person visions himself controlling a farming
domain where he exists with the rhythm of nature and produces crops with his
own hands. There is a yearning for some feeling of integration with the land with
the life as a farmer, owning, living and working the land. This fantasy represents
a desire to go back to natural simplicity where satisfaction comes from producing
things with his own two hands. Contrary to the hard work a farm demands this


238
International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
                                                                Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011


fantasy is also seen as an escape or freedom from the perceived shackled present
life. The farm fantasy can also be seen as a seeking of purity and morality that
has been missing. The farmer fantasy according to O’Conner (1981, P. 60) is the
most common of all the fantasies.

The Nurseryman Fantasy is similar to the farmer fantasy with a greater
emphasis on creation, growth and nurturing. This fantasy relates to man’s need to
promote the growth of living things and escape the harsh realities of everyday
life, where there are many demands upon him. He has worked hard to provide
things for himself and his family in his earlier life at the cost of fulfilling his
inner needs. This fantasy is a wish for inner growth, which has been lacking.
There is also a need for self-care, intimacy and nurturing. Once these needs are
realized, a person can change their lifestyle to seek what is needed. This fantasy
is common in professional people.

The Helper Fantasy is about wanting to help others in some form of social
work. This desire often comes after years of sacrificing the wellbeing of their
family while in the pursuit of material wealth. Although the desire to help others
is genuine, unconsciously this is a way of paying reparations for the neglect of
their family in the past. A little deeper there may be a yearning for a relationship
where they can care for and be cared for by someone. Just like the nurseryman,
adjustments to lifestyle can be made to allow more time for relationships. Those
who don’t find intimacy go on to undertake some social work. This fantasy is
common in self made, high energy, and successful people.

The Writer (or creative) Fantasy is about having the opportunity to be creative
in some way. This could be the desire to write a novel, become a sculptor, a
musician, a painter, potter or other creative activity. There may be a yearning to
create some great piece of creative work, if only they could devote all their time
to this activity. They see this as the key to ridding themselves of their despair and
unhappiness. This fantasy tends to appear in intellectuals who have ignored the
spontaneous and irrational side of themselves. So this fantasy is about
rebalancing oneself so that there is time to just ‘be oneself making sandcastles by
the sea”. People are sometimes prevented from being themselves out of fear their
behavior will not fit into the view that they believe people have of them. They
may also fear failure which prevents them from picking up a brush, guitar or
spade. This fear is denying their personal growth and psychic balance as a human
being, keeping them out of touch with their creative and emotional side.

The Dropping-out Fantasy is a way of perceived escapism from grieving. This
is quite a common reaction where simply dropping out is a form of regression to
adolescence where one just runs away from the problem to make it go away. This
fantasy may be symbolized by wanting to live on an island, a mountain,
backpack through Asia or go into the outback of Australia, etc. Dropping out is
about trying to find one’s misspent youth again, but any relief will only be


                                                                                       239
International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011


temporary as the crisis will only catch up with the person again sometime in the
near future.

If the dropping out fantasy is reframed from dropping out from something to
dropping into something, the process can be a constructive one. A complete
reassessment of goals and priorities, seeing what their real identity could be, may
lead to doing something like opening a motorbike tour operation through the
Himalayas, a scuba diving tour in the Great Barrier Reef or Andaman Sea, etc.
Such a change may carry considerable risk but at the same time be something
that the person always wanted to do, and thus be considered a move forward.

These fantasies can all be seen as typologies not too dissimilar to Jung’s
archetype personalities. They are about what we aspire to be. There may be small
cultural variations, but the fantasies represent some yearning or desire for
change. Failure to change will lead to inertia of failure and emotional death. The
feeling of ‘time running out’ becomes an excuse for doing nothing, most likely
leading to inner anger and disappear and eventual bitterness for the rest of their
lives. However, many see the rest of their life as an opportunity and resurrect
themselves as the ‘hero’ that they once aspired to be. They battle with their own
logic and rationality, where often rationality prevents the fulfillment of
aspirations dismissing them as silly. There may be a fear of letting their emotions
take over, thus transforming them into a realm that they have never experienced
and thus fear. They deny their inner self.

If this is overcome, there will be change in existing relationships, the taking up of
new activities or the commencement of self employment with a sense of spiritual
guidance influencing their future path. Therefore it is not uncommon to see
people changing jobs in their late thirties and early forties. Thus the chosen
activities, whether it is a new job, a desired business activity or some form of
social entrepreneurship should more closely reflect their skills, competencies and
aspirations than what they were doing before their crisis. However taking up new
activities and keeping oneself busy with a new hobby or venture will not solve
this crisis if their fundamental fear is not faced and challenged. The inner world
will remain empty and void with a feeling of continual regret and emptiness.
In these cases opportunity does not come completely from perception of the
external environment but is also part of one’s inner psych and suppressed self. To
them any opportunity and subsequent exploitation becomes a persona of how
they want to see themselves.

Women encounter their personnel crisis differently to men in many respects. A
woman’s early work life is basically concerned with looking after the needs of
others at their own expense. After a number of years of having to balance work,
childcare and family life, women look for new challenges in life and will move
on from their existing careers if it is not meeting their needs (Marshall 1994).



240
International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
                                                                Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011


Women want to spend more time on relationships that are important to them and
seek activities that reflect their own true values (Borysenko 1996).

Women during midlife appear to adopt new cognitive perspectives about their
views on family, career progress and responsibilities (Borysenko 1996). This
cognitive shift usually provides a new positive frame on things where success is
defined in new ways. Women tend to develop a more focused holistic perspective
about their life’s goals as they see there is no time to waste after their children
have grown up and become independent and their own parents have aged
(Gordon and Whelan 1998). Women see midlife as an opportunity to become
involved in the world and want to make their contribution. As child care is no
longer an issue, they seek to pursue both intellectual and financially rewarding
challenges. Women look for challenge, the chance to live up to their true talents
and abilities, which can lead to radical career change midlife. Within this frame
opportunity and its exploitation becomes an expression of talents, abilities and
aspirations as they would like to see themselves.

The phenomenon of personal crisis is not restricted to midlife. Situational
changes will influence people to react and respond to newly perceived
circumstances (Collin 1990). Crisis can occur at anytime during life, particularly
when some form of trauma occurs. Trauma can occur through retrenchment or
injury. Trauma may also be the result of a slow build up of job stress, career
burnout, increasing or decreasing family responsibilities, a desire for control over
one’s destiny, or lack of challenge in a person’s job. This may trigger changes in
work and life values, which lead people to question and re-evaluate their life
decisions, behaviors (Kanchier & Unruh 1989) and careers (Doering et. al.
1983), according to these new values.

Change can also occur due to a number of other factors. During a career a person
may feel that they have reached a plateau where they have mastered their current
job (Hall 2002, P. 122). This can lead to the questioning of a present work
situation (Leong & Boyle 1997) where greater challenges are sought. Many
people realize that they are looking for job achievement rather than job
advancement (Zabusky & Barley 1996). There may be some realization that
salary, position, status and prestige may be at the expense of their values and
psychological needs, leading to a re-evaluation about their own self concept and
beliefs about themselves (Fiske & Taylor 1991). This may lead to a shock which
proves either positive or negative. They may see themselves as how others see
them which violate their own sense of basic values, leading to shock and
confusion. Consequently change becomes necessary to pursue their career goals
according to their newly found values, rather than external measures of success.
This may result in a want to fulfill a dream, gain control of their working life,
autonomy, quality of work-life, flexibility, or work within a specific ethical
framework of prime importance in their life. People may simply want to revive
passion in their work. These feelings and wants are conscious rather than the


                                                                                       241
International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
  Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011


  unconscious fears that occur through a midlife personal crisis. People see change
  as a ‘spiritual response’ to what they perceive outside and feel within (Gibbs
  2005). Factors triggering transition are shown in Figure 1.
   
                                                     Retirement          Frustration       New career
      Lack of intrinsic rewards
      Traumatic event 
      Feeling of mastery 
      Major shifts in attitudes to work                                                                           Retirement          Hobby       New career     


  Employment   Unemployment  Education                       Midlife (Facing limit of career)            
                                                                    Re‐appraise the past                     
                                                            What is the meaning of what has 
                                                                         happened?                             
                                                                 Is the person integrated?                 
                                                               Is career leading anywhere?              
                                                          The beginning of the end of their lives                                   Late Life                              
                                                             Dilemma about work positions                             What is the meaning? – time is 
          Early Crisis (Identity)            
                                                             achieved mastery in midcareer                                        running out                           
           Adolescent identity              
                                                          Conduct a midlife career review with                                  Children gone                         
               Career path                     
                                                                   regret as the outcome                                 Job going – what will I do?              
               Finding job                     
                                                          May desire radical or incremental life                    Am I satisfied? (or just going through 
         Best physical condition 
                                                                          changes                                                the motions) 


                   18‐22                                                      37‐43                                                      50‐60s 
                                                                                                                                                           Age 

          Pre‐transition                  Early‐transition             Midlife‐transition                                  Late life‐transition 

                                            Figure 1. Factors Triggering Transition


  Table 1. Traditional and Current Outlooks towards Career and transition.

Traditional Outlook                         Current Outlook
Loyalty for job security                    Performance for continuous learning and
                                            marketability
One or two firms during lifetime            Multiple firms during lifetime
Firm specific skills                        Transferable skills
Success measured by salary, promotion and Success is about psychologically meaningful
skills                                      work
Organization      responsible  for   career Individual responsible for self career
development                                 development
Milestones aged related                     Milestones learning related
Authority based on position                 Authority based on knowledge
Specific tasks, functions                   Functions based on knowledge, expertise
External motivations, salary, position and Intrinsic motivations, job and task satisfaction
status

  There has been a rise in job mobility in recent years due to financial need to
  continue working (Mirvis & Hall 1996) and a decrease of loyalty to organizations
  (Bridges 1994). People are staying longer in the workforce. The growing
  importance of professional social networks is also adding to increased job


  242
International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
                                                               Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011


mobility and options of self employment (Saxenian 1996). High self confidence
from a feeling of self mastery and strong social networks tends to make
perceived market opportunities seem more viable to a person, leading to high
rates of self employment in post industrial societies. Consequently contemporary
outlooks about career differ greatly from more traditionally accepted outlooks
over the last decades as shown in Table 1.

REFERENCES

Borysenko, J. (1996). A Women’s Book of Life: The Biology, Psychology, and
   Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle, New York, Riverhead Books.

Bridges, W. (1980).Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, Reading, MA.,
    Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Bridges, W. (1994). The end of the job, Fortune, 19th Sept., pp. 62-74.

Collin, A. (1990). Mid-life career change research, In Young, R. A. and Borgen,
    W. A. (Eds.), Methodological approaches to the study of career, New York,
    Praeger Publishers, pp. 197-220.

Doering, M., Rhodes, S. R. and Schuster, M. (1983). The Aging Worker:
   Research and Recommendations, Beverly Hills, Sage Publications.

Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis, New York, Norton.

Fiske, S. T. and Taylor, S. E. (1991). Social Cognition, New York, McGraw-Hill.

Gibbs, N. (2005). Midlife Crisis? Bring it on!, Time, Vol. 165, No. 20, May 16,
   pp. 52-60, 63.

Hall, D. T. (2002). Careers in and out of Organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA.,
    sage Publications.

Kanchier, C. and Unruh, W. R. (1989). Factors influencing career change,
   International Journal for the advancement of counseling, Vol. 12, pp. 309-
   321.

Leong, F.T. L. and Boyle, K. A. (1997). An individual differences and approach
   to midlife career adjustment: An exploratory study, In: Lachman, M. E. and
   James, J. B. (Eds), Multiple Paths of Mid-Life Development, Chicago, The
   University of Chicago Press, pp. 411-451.

Levison, D. (1978). The Season’s of a Man’s Life, New York, Knopf.



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International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship
Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011


Marshall, J. (1994). Why women leave senior management jobs, In: Tanton, M,
   (Editor). Women in Management: A developing presence, London,
   Routledge, pp. 185-202.

Mirvis, P. H. and hall, D. T. (1996). Career development for the older worker, In:
   Hall, D. T. (Ed.), The career is dead –long live the career, San Francisco,
   Jossey-Bass, pp. 15-45.

O’Conner, P. (1981). Understanding the Mid-Life Crisis, Sydney, Sun Australia.

Saxenian, A. L. (1996). Beyond Boundaries: Open Labor markets and learning at
   Silicon Valley, In: Arthur, M. B. and Rousseau, D. M. (Eds.), The
   Boundaryless Career, New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 23-39.

Schein, E. H. (1978). Career Dynamics, Reading, MA. Addison-Wesley.

Super, D., Savickas, M. L. and Super, C. M. (1996). The life-span, life-space
approach to careers, In: Brown, D. and Brooks, L. (Eds.), Career Choice and
Development, 3rd Edition, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, pp. 121-178.

Zabusky, S. E. and Barley, S. R. (1996). Refining success: ethnographic
   observations on the careers of technicians, In: Osterman, P. (Ed.), Broken
   Ladders, New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 185-214.




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Mid life crisis, transition and entrepreneurial opportunity

  • 1. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 Mid-Life Crisis, Transition and the Propensity to Embark Upon Entrepreneurship Murray Hunter1 ABSTRACT This paper looks at mid-life crisis and transformation. According to Erikson, people go through life and often find regret, remorse, and depression about their achievement and existence in life. The potential for transformation occurs when people evaluate their self concept and find disappointment with what they see. People cope with this disappointment by living out the fantasies and typologies defined and described by O’Conner as the Farmer, the Nurseryman, the helper, the writer, and the drop-out. Finally this paper hypothesizes that mid-life crisis is not confined to one period of life and this transformation can occur during any period of life. Through the passage of life, people go through periods of regret, remorse, and depression about their achievements and existence. Economic conditions over the last 40 years have challenged the concept of traditional employment. Today secure jobs and long term employment is less common than in the immediate post war and industrial development years (Bridges 1980). Downsizing, retrenchments, layoffs and bankruptcies are more common than ever before, creating trauma crisis and a vacuum in peoples’ lives. People develop their own self concept through their careers (Super et. al. 1996). Working is a form of self-expression which brings satisfaction, happiness, frustration and stress in a person’s life. A person’s career is an important anchor in their life, providing the basis of their own self identity. People express who they are through their skills, competencies, position, status and values. This career anchor is an important sphere of influence on a person’s choices and decisions (Schein 1978, P. 125). 1 MURRAY HUNTER, Associate Professor, School of Business Innovation and Technopreneurship, University Malaysia Perlis, murray@unimap.edu.my
  • 2. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 Abrupt career termination, job dissatisfaction, remorse about “what one has failed to achieve” in a person’s life leads to a “personal crisis” and as a consequence, a transition is required. According to Erikson (1968), a person also goes through a number of stages during their life where their identity, achievements and self worth are questioned. These periods whether caused by external trauma or internal self doubt and questioning lead to very strong emotional states challenging a person’s reason and meaning of existence. Personal crisis has its beginnings in adolescence where a career choice was made, that was not to a person’s liking. They wanted to please their parents and fulfill their father’s unmet dreams by proxy. They had taken on their father’s values in their early years without really questioning whether these values are consistent with their own self identity. In later adult life a person realizes the mismatch between their own ideals and what they are actually doing (Levison 1978). This comes as a shock, as they realize time is running out and instead of doing something that has meaning to them, they are trapped in a job that brings dissatisfaction and resentment. Change is very difficult because of financial and family commitments; they are a prisoner of their own making, locked in the treadmill of life that is taking them nowhere. This can create great anxiety, depression and panic. Up to middle age people usually focus on the external aspects of life which attracts the trimmings of career success in way of career, position, prestige, status and a reasonable standard of living for all those around them. However this is usually at the cost of the inside which is empty and neglected. Life has little meaning or emotional identity. His sacrifice of the inner self for the external world has been a costly one and a sense of grief sets in. This realization can spring a set of behavioral changes as defence mechanisms against grief. This may be hostility towards his wife and children and in extreme cases result in separation and divorce. One response is to try and return to their youth and buy a sports car and take up new interests as a way to deny their emptiness. Another reaction to the feeling of emptiness is the creation of fantasies and daydreams to help a person escape any inner feelings of depression. Melbourne psychologist Dr. Peter O’Conner (1981) found a number of recurring themes in these fantasies. Each of these fantasies represent inner struggles, represented as “if only I” aspirations. Each fantasy may provide some hints of how an individual can solve them, if the underlying needs can be seen. The Farmer Fantasy is where a person visions himself controlling a farming domain where he exists with the rhythm of nature and produces crops with his own hands. There is a yearning for some feeling of integration with the land with the life as a farmer, owning, living and working the land. This fantasy represents a desire to go back to natural simplicity where satisfaction comes from producing things with his own two hands. Contrary to the hard work a farm demands this 238
  • 3. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 fantasy is also seen as an escape or freedom from the perceived shackled present life. The farm fantasy can also be seen as a seeking of purity and morality that has been missing. The farmer fantasy according to O’Conner (1981, P. 60) is the most common of all the fantasies. The Nurseryman Fantasy is similar to the farmer fantasy with a greater emphasis on creation, growth and nurturing. This fantasy relates to man’s need to promote the growth of living things and escape the harsh realities of everyday life, where there are many demands upon him. He has worked hard to provide things for himself and his family in his earlier life at the cost of fulfilling his inner needs. This fantasy is a wish for inner growth, which has been lacking. There is also a need for self-care, intimacy and nurturing. Once these needs are realized, a person can change their lifestyle to seek what is needed. This fantasy is common in professional people. The Helper Fantasy is about wanting to help others in some form of social work. This desire often comes after years of sacrificing the wellbeing of their family while in the pursuit of material wealth. Although the desire to help others is genuine, unconsciously this is a way of paying reparations for the neglect of their family in the past. A little deeper there may be a yearning for a relationship where they can care for and be cared for by someone. Just like the nurseryman, adjustments to lifestyle can be made to allow more time for relationships. Those who don’t find intimacy go on to undertake some social work. This fantasy is common in self made, high energy, and successful people. The Writer (or creative) Fantasy is about having the opportunity to be creative in some way. This could be the desire to write a novel, become a sculptor, a musician, a painter, potter or other creative activity. There may be a yearning to create some great piece of creative work, if only they could devote all their time to this activity. They see this as the key to ridding themselves of their despair and unhappiness. This fantasy tends to appear in intellectuals who have ignored the spontaneous and irrational side of themselves. So this fantasy is about rebalancing oneself so that there is time to just ‘be oneself making sandcastles by the sea”. People are sometimes prevented from being themselves out of fear their behavior will not fit into the view that they believe people have of them. They may also fear failure which prevents them from picking up a brush, guitar or spade. This fear is denying their personal growth and psychic balance as a human being, keeping them out of touch with their creative and emotional side. The Dropping-out Fantasy is a way of perceived escapism from grieving. This is quite a common reaction where simply dropping out is a form of regression to adolescence where one just runs away from the problem to make it go away. This fantasy may be symbolized by wanting to live on an island, a mountain, backpack through Asia or go into the outback of Australia, etc. Dropping out is about trying to find one’s misspent youth again, but any relief will only be 239
  • 4. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 temporary as the crisis will only catch up with the person again sometime in the near future. If the dropping out fantasy is reframed from dropping out from something to dropping into something, the process can be a constructive one. A complete reassessment of goals and priorities, seeing what their real identity could be, may lead to doing something like opening a motorbike tour operation through the Himalayas, a scuba diving tour in the Great Barrier Reef or Andaman Sea, etc. Such a change may carry considerable risk but at the same time be something that the person always wanted to do, and thus be considered a move forward. These fantasies can all be seen as typologies not too dissimilar to Jung’s archetype personalities. They are about what we aspire to be. There may be small cultural variations, but the fantasies represent some yearning or desire for change. Failure to change will lead to inertia of failure and emotional death. The feeling of ‘time running out’ becomes an excuse for doing nothing, most likely leading to inner anger and disappear and eventual bitterness for the rest of their lives. However, many see the rest of their life as an opportunity and resurrect themselves as the ‘hero’ that they once aspired to be. They battle with their own logic and rationality, where often rationality prevents the fulfillment of aspirations dismissing them as silly. There may be a fear of letting their emotions take over, thus transforming them into a realm that they have never experienced and thus fear. They deny their inner self. If this is overcome, there will be change in existing relationships, the taking up of new activities or the commencement of self employment with a sense of spiritual guidance influencing their future path. Therefore it is not uncommon to see people changing jobs in their late thirties and early forties. Thus the chosen activities, whether it is a new job, a desired business activity or some form of social entrepreneurship should more closely reflect their skills, competencies and aspirations than what they were doing before their crisis. However taking up new activities and keeping oneself busy with a new hobby or venture will not solve this crisis if their fundamental fear is not faced and challenged. The inner world will remain empty and void with a feeling of continual regret and emptiness. In these cases opportunity does not come completely from perception of the external environment but is also part of one’s inner psych and suppressed self. To them any opportunity and subsequent exploitation becomes a persona of how they want to see themselves. Women encounter their personnel crisis differently to men in many respects. A woman’s early work life is basically concerned with looking after the needs of others at their own expense. After a number of years of having to balance work, childcare and family life, women look for new challenges in life and will move on from their existing careers if it is not meeting their needs (Marshall 1994). 240
  • 5. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 Women want to spend more time on relationships that are important to them and seek activities that reflect their own true values (Borysenko 1996). Women during midlife appear to adopt new cognitive perspectives about their views on family, career progress and responsibilities (Borysenko 1996). This cognitive shift usually provides a new positive frame on things where success is defined in new ways. Women tend to develop a more focused holistic perspective about their life’s goals as they see there is no time to waste after their children have grown up and become independent and their own parents have aged (Gordon and Whelan 1998). Women see midlife as an opportunity to become involved in the world and want to make their contribution. As child care is no longer an issue, they seek to pursue both intellectual and financially rewarding challenges. Women look for challenge, the chance to live up to their true talents and abilities, which can lead to radical career change midlife. Within this frame opportunity and its exploitation becomes an expression of talents, abilities and aspirations as they would like to see themselves. The phenomenon of personal crisis is not restricted to midlife. Situational changes will influence people to react and respond to newly perceived circumstances (Collin 1990). Crisis can occur at anytime during life, particularly when some form of trauma occurs. Trauma can occur through retrenchment or injury. Trauma may also be the result of a slow build up of job stress, career burnout, increasing or decreasing family responsibilities, a desire for control over one’s destiny, or lack of challenge in a person’s job. This may trigger changes in work and life values, which lead people to question and re-evaluate their life decisions, behaviors (Kanchier & Unruh 1989) and careers (Doering et. al. 1983), according to these new values. Change can also occur due to a number of other factors. During a career a person may feel that they have reached a plateau where they have mastered their current job (Hall 2002, P. 122). This can lead to the questioning of a present work situation (Leong & Boyle 1997) where greater challenges are sought. Many people realize that they are looking for job achievement rather than job advancement (Zabusky & Barley 1996). There may be some realization that salary, position, status and prestige may be at the expense of their values and psychological needs, leading to a re-evaluation about their own self concept and beliefs about themselves (Fiske & Taylor 1991). This may lead to a shock which proves either positive or negative. They may see themselves as how others see them which violate their own sense of basic values, leading to shock and confusion. Consequently change becomes necessary to pursue their career goals according to their newly found values, rather than external measures of success. This may result in a want to fulfill a dream, gain control of their working life, autonomy, quality of work-life, flexibility, or work within a specific ethical framework of prime importance in their life. People may simply want to revive passion in their work. These feelings and wants are conscious rather than the 241
  • 6. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 unconscious fears that occur through a midlife personal crisis. People see change as a ‘spiritual response’ to what they perceive outside and feel within (Gibbs 2005). Factors triggering transition are shown in Figure 1.   Retirement          Frustration       New career Lack of intrinsic rewards Traumatic event  Feeling of mastery  Major shifts in attitudes to work Retirement          Hobby       New career      Employment   Unemployment  Education Midlife (Facing limit of career)             Re‐appraise the past                      What is the meaning of what has  happened?                              Is the person integrated?                  Is career leading anywhere?               The beginning of the end of their lives     Late Life                               Dilemma about work positions             What is the meaning? – time is  Early Crisis (Identity)             achieved mastery in midcareer             running out                            Adolescent identity               Conduct a midlife career review with  Children gone                          Career path                      regret as the outcome                    Job going – what will I do?               Finding job                      May desire radical or incremental life  Am I satisfied? (or just going through  Best physical condition  changes  the motions)             18‐22  37‐43  50‐60s              Age  Pre‐transition  Early‐transition  Midlife‐transition  Late life‐transition  Figure 1. Factors Triggering Transition Table 1. Traditional and Current Outlooks towards Career and transition. Traditional Outlook Current Outlook Loyalty for job security Performance for continuous learning and marketability One or two firms during lifetime Multiple firms during lifetime Firm specific skills Transferable skills Success measured by salary, promotion and Success is about psychologically meaningful skills work Organization responsible for career Individual responsible for self career development development Milestones aged related Milestones learning related Authority based on position Authority based on knowledge Specific tasks, functions Functions based on knowledge, expertise External motivations, salary, position and Intrinsic motivations, job and task satisfaction status There has been a rise in job mobility in recent years due to financial need to continue working (Mirvis & Hall 1996) and a decrease of loyalty to organizations (Bridges 1994). People are staying longer in the workforce. The growing importance of professional social networks is also adding to increased job 242
  • 7. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 mobility and options of self employment (Saxenian 1996). High self confidence from a feeling of self mastery and strong social networks tends to make perceived market opportunities seem more viable to a person, leading to high rates of self employment in post industrial societies. Consequently contemporary outlooks about career differ greatly from more traditionally accepted outlooks over the last decades as shown in Table 1. REFERENCES Borysenko, J. (1996). A Women’s Book of Life: The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle, New York, Riverhead Books. Bridges, W. (1980).Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, Reading, MA., Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Bridges, W. (1994). The end of the job, Fortune, 19th Sept., pp. 62-74. Collin, A. (1990). Mid-life career change research, In Young, R. A. and Borgen, W. A. (Eds.), Methodological approaches to the study of career, New York, Praeger Publishers, pp. 197-220. Doering, M., Rhodes, S. R. and Schuster, M. (1983). The Aging Worker: Research and Recommendations, Beverly Hills, Sage Publications. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis, New York, Norton. Fiske, S. T. and Taylor, S. E. (1991). Social Cognition, New York, McGraw-Hill. Gibbs, N. (2005). Midlife Crisis? Bring it on!, Time, Vol. 165, No. 20, May 16, pp. 52-60, 63. Hall, D. T. (2002). Careers in and out of Organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA., sage Publications. Kanchier, C. and Unruh, W. R. (1989). Factors influencing career change, International Journal for the advancement of counseling, Vol. 12, pp. 309- 321. Leong, F.T. L. and Boyle, K. A. (1997). An individual differences and approach to midlife career adjustment: An exploratory study, In: Lachman, M. E. and James, J. B. (Eds), Multiple Paths of Mid-Life Development, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, pp. 411-451. Levison, D. (1978). The Season’s of a Man’s Life, New York, Knopf. 243
  • 8. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011 Marshall, J. (1994). Why women leave senior management jobs, In: Tanton, M, (Editor). Women in Management: A developing presence, London, Routledge, pp. 185-202. Mirvis, P. H. and hall, D. T. (1996). Career development for the older worker, In: Hall, D. T. (Ed.), The career is dead –long live the career, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, pp. 15-45. O’Conner, P. (1981). Understanding the Mid-Life Crisis, Sydney, Sun Australia. Saxenian, A. L. (1996). Beyond Boundaries: Open Labor markets and learning at Silicon Valley, In: Arthur, M. B. and Rousseau, D. M. (Eds.), The Boundaryless Career, New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 23-39. Schein, E. H. (1978). Career Dynamics, Reading, MA. Addison-Wesley. Super, D., Savickas, M. L. and Super, C. M. (1996). The life-span, life-space approach to careers, In: Brown, D. and Brooks, L. (Eds.), Career Choice and Development, 3rd Edition, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, pp. 121-178. Zabusky, S. E. and Barley, S. R. (1996). Refining success: ethnographic observations on the careers of technicians, In: Osterman, P. (Ed.), Broken Ladders, New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 185-214. 244