new jobs this week On EmploymentCrossing

506

jobs added today on EmploymentCrossing

24

job type count

On EmploymentCrossing

Healthcare Jobs(342,151)
Blue-collar Jobs(272,661)
Managerial Jobs(204,989)
Retail Jobs(174,607)
Sales Jobs(161,029)
Nursing Jobs(142,882)
Information Technology Jobs(128,503)

Career System of a Large Corporation

5 Views
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.
This article describes the career system of a large corporation. Its aim is to investigate how the organizational career system responds to the conflict between opportunity and structural inequalities, particularly to the specific issues raised by the conflict between human capital and structural theories. Since the data obtained contain indicators of actual jobs over historical periods of increasing and decreasing economic demand, dynamic structural issues (similar to those raised by Thurow and Granovetter) may be tested. In addition, analyzing these data longitudinally permits the study of the dynamics of careers and, in particular, of how individuals' early job attainments may affect their subsequent careers.

The study of a single corporation permits more fine-grained analyses of more detailed data than have generally been available. The present data, the complete personnel records of a large corporation over a 13-year period, provide an unusually rich and complete set of information about the earnings, status, and job attainments of all the employees in an organization over substantial portions of their careers. By having longitudinal data, this study can analyze the shape of individuals' career lines over long periods of time, the career timing of promotions, and the timing of effects of various factors. Moreover, comparisons over the historical period covered (1962-1975) permit analyses of how increasing and decreasing organizational growth affect career lines.

Do early attainments affect later career outcomes? This question raises a perennial issue in the study of careers: What is the relationship of individuals' first jobs to their later career outcomes? Studies using employees' perceptions have tried to address this question, but the results have been ambiguous. Although orderly features of an individual's career can often be noted, the basis of orderliness in one career may be quite different than the basis of orderliness in another; and in some careers, orderliness cannot be discerned by any stretch of the imagination (Wilensky 1961). Blau and Duncan (1967) find regularities within broad and abstract categories, but studies of earnings find very little relationship between starting salaries and later earnings. March and March (1977), examining the careers of a single occupational group in great detail, characterize the pattern they find as "almost random careers."



Structural theories, particularly internal labor market theory, con-tend that early jobs are strong determinants of later career attainments. Human capital theory stresses that careers are determined by individuals' investments through their first decade, and it implies more flexibility than structural theories portray.

Does age affect career advancement? Human capital theory ignores age; it interprets time in terms of experience. However, economists do customarily use age to compute a variable they call "previous experience," which is posited to have a positive effect on earnings (net of tenure).

In contrast, sociologists have long considered age as a status characteristic. Research suggests that age is a socially significant status in society (Neugarten 1973; Riley 1976; Dannefer 1982), and, as such, it may have consequences for employees' careers in organizations. Observers of organizations have noted that informal norms seem to exist about age and, in particular, that a relatively young age (30-40 years) tends to be considered the cutoff point for an employee to be considered for career advancement in some organizations (Chinoy 1955; Martin and Strauss 1959; Lawrence 1983, 1984). If age is an important influence on organizational careers, then economic analyses of employees' earnings within firms (Weisbrod and Karpoff 1968; Wise 1975a; Halaby 1978; Medoff and Abraham 1980) may have misconceptualized the' meaning of their age-derived experience variables. Only a few studies have analyzed age effects per se (Klevmarken and Quigley 1976; Bartlett and Jencks 1978), and they find that it has important negative effects.

While much of the earlier research on the relationship of age and promotions was based on employees' perceptions, the present study examines these questions with personnel records of individuals' actual career moves. Moreover, by examining the issue across time periods of increasing and decreasing organizational growth, we can test the durability of the observed patterns and the extent and ways that they change. Finally, by studying these issues in a single organization, this research discovers patterns which suggest the normative rules that might have generated them, and it can compare these outcomes with the ways that key managers de-scribe the promotion system.

Does job composition influence the compensation jobs offer? While human capital theory posits that employees' human capital determines their earnings, structural theory emphasizes the structural influences of jobs on earnings. In actual practice, large organizations often use compensation systems which set pay not only by individuals' contributions, but also by the contributions jobs require from individuals in terms of qualifications, tasks, and working conditions.

What are the effects of human capital and structural /actors on the career attainments of a cohort over time? Unlike the previous questions, most of which can be answered by simple descriptive analyses, the test of these two theories requires analysis of the relative effects of various factors, and multivariate analysis is required for such an examination. While human capital theory contends that human capital attributes have gradually emerging influences on earnings, structural theories contend that age and other status factors also have effects, that their effects occur primarily at the outset, and that their effects are most apparent on job attainments. Consequently, the theories differ in three respects: which attributes have influence, when they have their influences, and what kind of attainment is affected.

How do these patterns change over periods of increasing and decreasing growth? Ultimately, the test of the durability of structure requires analyses over historical periods. A dynamic structural model is proposed which explains the selection process in terms of the relative balance of supply and demand. Though resembling economic theory, this theory differs from economic theory in positing structural limitations on the responsiveness of career patterns. Two sets of hypotheses are proposed to describe these structural constraints.



One set of hypotheses-called the developmental hypotheses-contend that individuals' careers become increasingly enmeshed in the career structure over time, so that they become increasingly less responsive to external forces as they unfold. The other set of hypotheses-the selectivity hypotheses-contend that the balance of supply and demand for particular kinds of individuals, rather than affecting their earnings directly, affects which individuals are selected into available positions, which, in turn, affects individuals' earnings. Consequently, although economic theory may lead to correct predictions of changes in earnings outcomes in many cases, the mediating role of structure introduces constraints on the responsiveness of earnings for certain kinds of employees in ways not predictable by economic theory alone. The developmental and selectivity hypotheses provide a dynamic structural model that more closely describes the actual institutional practice and accounts for a fuller range of circumstances.

These hypotheses are tested on random samples of corporation employees over the four periods between 1965 and 1975. Comparisons of multivariate analyses over these periods reveal considerable stability of certain general patterns, and the changes which occur tend to support the hypotheses.

What are this study's implications for conceptualizing organizational career systems? Organizations are complex phenomena; they are difficult to see and difficult to conceptualize, so it is not surprising that managers and employees are confused, conflicted, and vague in the ways they portray them. The pattern of careers is hard to discern, even at a descriptive level, because of the large numbers of individuals involved and the many factors that any analysis must include. The task is made additionally difficult by the fact that personnel policies are confusing on these issues, reflecting the fundamental conflict in social norms. This study is distinctive in that it describes and models organizational careers in an entire corporation over long periods of time, using an unusually detailed and accurate dataset.

Our analysis of human capital and structural theories is really an effort to understand how much and what kinds of structuring the organization incorporates into the career system. The tournament model provides a particularly good way of reconciling some of the conflicts between the human capital and structural theories, for, like a sports tournament, career tournaments make structural attainments into signals of ability.
If this article has helped you in some way, will you say thanks by sharing it through a share, like, a link, or an email to someone you think would appreciate the reference.



EmploymentCrossing was helpful in getting me a job. Interview calls started flowing in from day one and I got my dream offer soon after.
Jeremy E - Greenville, NC
  • All we do is research jobs.
  • Our team of researchers, programmers, and analysts find you jobs from over 1,000 career pages and other sources
  • Our members get more interviews and jobs than people who use "public job boards"
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars.
EmploymentCrossing - #1 Job Aggregation and Private Job-Opening Research Service — The Most Quality Jobs Anywhere
EmploymentCrossing is the first job consolidation service in the employment industry to seek to include every job that exists in the world.
Copyright © 2024 EmploymentCrossing - All rights reserved. 168