The Sources of Upward Mobility within Public Sector Organizations

• Author: Craig Matheson
• Published date: 01 September 1999
• Date: 01 September 1999
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953999922019210
• Subject Matter: Articles

ADMINISTRATION & SOCIETY / September 1999Matheson / UPWARD MOBILITY IN PUBLIC SECTOR

This article identifies four primary sources of upwardmobility within public sector organi-

zations, namely, ability, reputation,social credentials, and patronage. Ability is the single

most important source,but the other factors taken collectively are at least equally as impor-

tant. Reputation rests on three factors: ability,visibility, and demeanor. Social credentials

compriserace,ethnicity, gender,education, personality traits, attitudes, and values. Reputa-

tion, social credentials, and patronage figure as sources of upward mobility for threerea-

sons: the fact that ability is assessed subjectively,the requirement for trustworthiness in ad-

ministrativework, and the fact that superiors and subordinates engageinsocial exchanges.

THE SOURCES OF UPWARD

MOBILITY WITHIN PUBLIC SECTOR

ORGANIZATIONS

A Case Study

CRAIG MATHESON

Charles Sturt University, Riverina

This article investigates what factors enable people to obtain promotion

within public sector organizations. It does so by means of a case study of

theAustralian Public Service (APS).The APS is theadministrativearm of

the Commonwealth government of Australia and was established in 1901

as a result of the federation of the Australian colonies. As a national civil

service,the APS is a standard Weberianbureaucracy comprising a number

of separate departments or agencies that are subordinate to central con-

trols in respect to finance and staffing. It employs approximately 130,000

staff in 17 portfolio departments and 98 agencies (Joint Committee of

Public Accounts [JCPA], 1993; Public Service and Merit Protection

Review Agency [PSMPA], 1997). This makes it the single largest

employer of wage and salary earners in Australia (Management Advisory

Board/Management Improvement Advisory Committee [MAB/MIAC],

1992). Of public servants, 97% are employed in the 32 departments and

agencies that employ more than 500 staff each. The APS has a diverse

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ADMINISTRATION& SOCIETY, Vol.31 No. 4, September 1999 495-524

© 1999 Sage Publications, Inc.

white-collar workforce including managers, clerks, professionals, and

technical staff. The largest employment categories are clerks and manag-

ers. Almost two thirds of staff are employed in just six departments and

agencies. Of the staff, 72% are employed in three clerical administrative

classifications. These are ranked in ascending order of seniority as fol-

lows: Administrative Service Officers (ASOs 1 to 6) (prior to 1984, the

fourth and third divisions); Senior OfficerGrades (SOGs C to A) (prior to

1984, the third division); Senior Executive Service (SES) (prior to 1984,

the second division), and department heads. The ASOs comprise 85% of

clerical administrative staff, and the SES comprises just more than 1% of

such staff.

My methodology involves triangulation of data obtained from the fol-

lowing sources: (a) direct observation conducted during the course of 3½

years employment in two APS departments between 1984 and 1988; (b)

staff surveys conducted by the APS and academic consultants to APS

departments, including service-wide surveys conducted in 1975 by the

Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration (RCAGA)

and in 1992 by the MAB/MIAC; (c) in-depth, semistructured interviews

with 20 former and serving APS employees with a diverse range of work

experiences obtained in a number of departments at different hierarchical

levels; and (d) a number of academic studies of the APS and miscellane-

ous sources, including newspaper articles, government reports, a survey

of SES officers, books by former senior officials, consultant’s reports,

submissions to government inquiries, and a 93-page document (The Tax

OfficeSpeaks) containingthe 1,314 comments made by768 people. These

constituted one third of all the respondents from a sample survey of the

Australian Taxation Officestaff. I will refer to studies of organizations in

the United States, Britain, and Australia to strengthen the external validity

of my findings. Two important sources have been Kanter’s (1977) case

studyof a corporation and Jackall’s (1988) study ofcorporate managers.

Thisarticle will focus on the middle to upper ranks of theAPS, namely,

the Senior Officer Grades, SES, and department heads. Although survey

data show that there are variations in the level of importance that officers

at different levels of the APS ascribe to varioussources of upward mobil-

ity, senior and junior officersprovide very similar rank orderings of such

sources and accord them a similar importance (see RCAGA, 1976). The

sameis true of differentrankswithin the SES (Jans& Frazer-Jans, 1990a).

This can be explained in terms of the fact that staff selection at different

levels follows standard procedures and uses similar selection criteria.

Although the precise skill requirements of jobs vary according to

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