ABSTRACT
This chapter purposes to lay out a scheme of the forms of demotion that people have observed, and to indicate the conditions which increase the likelihood of demotion being used as a business process. It analyzes the consequences of demotion on the individuals demoted and on the company organizations in which this takes place. Both promotion and demotion are results of external forces, or authorities, acting on individuals. The chapter considers the way demotion affects the individual demoted, and then the effects of demotion on the company as a whole. When a person is demoted, this generally is the result of a negative evaluation of him or his job by his superiors. Such an implicit or explicit negative evaluation tends to increase the individual's feelings of anxiety about his job, to lead him to question his own worthfulness. Demotion must be seen only as a special instance of downward social and occupational mobility.
