er investigators have analyzed career processes in their organizational setting directly, detailing the criteria that employers use in structuring rewards and opportunities. Unfortunately, this research has often been limited to specific work contexts. THE IMPACT OF SIZE-Wages are higher both in industries made up of large companies and in the larger companies within any given industry.-Granovetter argues that these relationships only characterize manufacturing industries.-Effects of schooling on income and status increase monotonically with the size of employee's work location (for white, male, nonagricultural workers) (Stolzenberg 1978). Possible explanations:- Large bureaucracies may pay and promote more because scale economies increase worker productivity, structure of demand allows higher wages to be absorbed in product pricing.-Urban locations, where higher wages are necessary to offset competitors' offers. -Large organization are more vulnerable to worker unrest and rewards are higher to reduce the chances of labor-management conflict. IMPACT OF GROWTH-Corporate growth increases promotion rates. (Even among those less likely to be promoted e.g. women).-Economic contraction disproportionately harms those the growth helps. IMPACT OF DEMOGRAPHY-Individuals' careers are not independent (attainment research assumes they are).-Size of one's organizational cohort and its relation to other cohorts significantly affects career outcomes. E.g. members of small cohorts experience enhances mobility prospects. IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY-Automation raises the average level of worker skill and increases the variance within firms, giving rise to skill-based career lines that reflect job idiosyncrasies.-Long-linked technologies (e.g. assembly lines) generate more lateral mobility because workers are interchangeable.-Mediating and Intensive technologies (e.g. client-oriented banks and research labs, respectively) foster more upward mobility. (In speciali...
