Competitive Position and Promotion Rates: Commercial Television Station Top Management, 1953-1988

While the scholarship on internal labor markets and promotion chances has contributed substantially to the sociology of organizations and labor markets, it has not developed a rich understanding of how career trajectories are influenced by the firm's competitive position in its product market. Our central claim is that a firm's implicit bargaining power over its employees depends on its product market position and its sensitivity to environmental change. The greater the firm's bargaining power, the less the firm will be compelled to use promotions as a device to induce productivity. Firms occupying robust competitive positions should have greater bargaining power in the labor market and be less likely to fill vacancies through internal promotions. Analyses of promotion rates among top managers in a longitudinal sample of television stations support our thesis.