At the Crossroads: A Multiple-Level Explanation of Individual Attainment

Abstract

Individual attainment within organizational careers, or career mobility, has been explained by individual attributes and by demographic processes. These seemingly unrelated views can be reconciled by suggesting that employees develop a shared perception of their organizations's career hierarchy, and that this shared perception produces systematic managerial selection preferences that influence individual attainment. A study that examines the first part of this process is presented. The results, based on questionnaire data from an electric utility, suggest that managers do develop a shared perception of their organization's career hierarchy. However, managers' perceptions are not unanimous, and the analysis examines two explanations for perceptual variation. The implications of the proposed connection for further development of a multiple-level explanation of individual attainment are discussed.