Blog 5

One theory that peaked my interest in chapter six of the Brown (2016) text was chaos theory. Chaos theory stems from mathematics and one of the main assumptions of the theory is that butterfly effect, that even a small effect can produce a large outcome (Brown, 2016, p. 113). Prior to this class, I had heard of the butterfly effect and have always thought that it was a viable idea. I believe that the smallest thing or decision can end up having a great effect and influence multiple people. There have been many times in my life that I have made a small decision, or someone that I know has made a small decision, that seemed to spiral out and have a greater impact than that one small action. One example that comes to mind in relation to career development is when someone at the workplace decides to skimp on a job responsibility. As a result, another employee gets blamed for the job not getting done. This leads the individual who is blamed to assess why they continue to work in a place that they feel unsatisfied in and get faulted for the inactions of others. This person then decides to seek out career counseling. They begin to explore other career paths and decide to leave the job that they are unsatisfied at, leaving the company short a strong worker, but another company gains an asset. This example is at a smaller level, but it could end up having large results for both companies because of the difference that one person can make. Brown (2016) points out that maybe a better way to think about the butterfly effect is to “think of it as a tipping point” (p. 113). This is how I have always thought of it; one single action, inaction, or event can be the final breaking point. Another of the assumptions in this theory is “Feedback about the system to the participants in an open system makes it more unpredictable” (Brown ,2016, p.  113). Brown (2016) posits whether or not this assumption is counterintuitive; I believe that it is not. Human behavior can be and is unpredictable in many circumstances. When someone gets feedback about something that they are a bigger part of or that has to deal with them, positive or negative, they are going to have a reaction. This cycles back to the butterfly effect in that the smallest action (reaction in this case) can have a large reaction.

 Bloch (2005) builds a theory from chaos theory by identifying eleven characteristics of adaptive entities and then applying them to a career development (as cited in Brown, 2016, p. 114). She believes that people move freely among career pathways and individual’s careers and lives range from orderly to chaotic (Brown, 2016, p. 114). I would agree with this because a career is a huge part of someone’s life; if one part of a person’s life is chaotic it can send the other parts out of line as well. Furthermore, many people explore multiple career paths before deciding on one to maintain for a long period of time – even after someone has been in the same career for a long time, they may decide to make a shift as well.

References

Brown, D. (2016). Career information, career counseling, and career development. Boston, MA: Person Education, Inc.