Careers in Organizations: An Ecological Perspective

Recent sociological theory and research on careers in the paid labor force has become increasingly structural and macroscopic. Many promising lines of inquiry use formal organizations in a central way. These studies typically map structural characteristics of organizations and their environments onto differential rates of movement by individuals over their working lives. In general, this approach assumes a focal organization perspective and an adaptationist imagery. By doing so, it cannot explore how career patterns might be accounted for by the dynamics of organizational populations. Other structural approaches do little better since they typically deemphasize organizational factors altogether. Empirical research in other fields suggests that ecological dynamics of organizational populations might explain a substantial amount of career mobility, especially that related to job turnover. We review and evaluate these findings. We propose ways that theories and methods from organizational ecology might be used to research these topics. In general, the analysis suggests that life course research on careers needs to be even more macrosociological, more contextual, than is widely recognized.