How do you Explain Advancement in Management?: An Integration

This article evaluates organizational, interpersonal, and individual theories used to explain managerial career advancement, from recent empirical evidence. Managerial advancement is chiefly explained by human capital, social processes, and certain selection and promotion practices. An integration is presented to show how the theories and findings fit together to explain advancement, including from lower to higher management levels. At lower levels of management, advancement is most predicted by performance-based factors; additionally, at higher levels, social processes play important roles.