ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how career lines tend to become stabilized in an organizational structure and how individuals can take advantage of developed channels of mobility. The organizational structure of an industrial enterprise has dual and interrelated functions. From the standpoint of management, it provides for an orderly hierarchy of responsibility and authority—a division of work rationally planned to meet the objectives of efficient operation. Patterns of vertical and horizontal movement evolve, to form various types of career lines which terminate at various levels of the management hierarchy. Progression of individuals along given career lines is not only a result of technical competence and of being available and trained at the right time. From the standpoint of the mobile individual—the person ambitious to move ahead and up—the established patterns of movement in an organization present avenues of advancement. The mobility patterns in any organization are, therefore, to a considerable extent influenced by the phenomenon of sponsorship.
