Using The Kaleidoscope Career Model To Create Cultures Of Gender Equity

Scholarship on professional careers have been dominated by linear, male-based models. These models do not accurate represent women’s careers or fully explain men’s careers given today’s boundaryless environment. The kaleidoscope career model (KCM) was developed from research on more than 3000 individuals and captures the complexities of both women’s and men’s careers. Like a kaleidoscope that produces changing patterns when rotated and its glass chips fall into new arrangements, the KCM describes how individuals arrange the various aspects of their lives to create a kaleidoscope career. Just as a kaleidoscope uses three mirrors to create infinite patterns, so individuals vary their emphasis on any one of three KCM parameters _ authenticity, balance and challenge _ when making decisions. This chapter illustrates the use of the KCM to promote greater gender equity in organizations and provides specifics on how organizations can create cultures that assist employees in fulfilling their needs for authenticity, balance and challenge.