INTRODUCTION

A career does not exist in a social vacuum but is in many ways directed by the employer's staffing priorities. Over a quarter of the U.S. work force is thought to hold continuing employment with the same employer for over 20 years (Hall, 1982). Given this pattern of long service with a single employer, it seems logical that emphasis should be placed upon the notion of career systems, paths through which employees progress during their term of employment within an organization. Despite the importance of career systems for the individual and the organization, however, we know very little about the dynamics of employment conditions within which firms define opportunities and equip people for changing assignments. In particular, we often fail to explain the wide variation in career system practices across employers. Differences in human resource management approaches, from firm entry to exit, are not arbitrary company features but rather reflect strategic staffing choices.

In order to more clearly understand these variations in policy, we might find it useful to propose a framework for interpreting the HRM policies of different companies. Such a framework would define the factors that influence career paths and show how they interact to produce a coherent HRM strategy and set of policies (Walton and Lawrence, 1985). These factors include the way in which employees enter and exit a firm as well as the process of development they undergo in the course of their term of employment.