ABSTRACT
A strategy that may be used by organizations that cannot fire people to obscure many demotions is to elaborate harmless positions and promote people into them. This chapter discusses the operation of this system in the Japanese factory. The second area of special interest in an examination of the formal organization of the factory is the relationship between the organizational system and the careers of the employees. The need for some system of relatively harmless positions for the shokuin who prove incompetent appears to account for some of the elaboration of positions and titles. The net effect has been to retard sharply career progress among company executives, particularly since the retirement age of 55 is seldom observed in the upper reaches of management. The positions of deputy and assistant managers of sections especially make it possible for the company to offer some career recognition to men who would not otherwise achieve the advancement to which their seniority entitled them.
