Promotion: Meaning, Definitions, Objectives, Types, Basis, Principle and Policy

Promotion is an upward movement of an employee from his present job to another that is with higher job responsibilities and pay. It is a job which falls high in the organizational levels from the current job. It is an advancement of an employee in the same organization in terms of status, responsibilities and pay scale.

Promotion gets employee a monetary benefit with a better position but some organizations have a policy of giving positional hike but not give the monetary hike simultaneously. They may give the monetary hike after some time when they are sure that the employee is performing well in the new position.

According to Pulapa Subba Rao “Promotion is the reassignment of a higher level job (which is not supposed to be filled through external recruitment/selection modes) to an internal employee with delegation of responsibilities and authority required to perform that higher level job and normally with higher pay”.

Every employee has the aspiration to get promotion and is ready for acquiring the additional qualification and experience fit for the job. Higher posts and key posts are filled up by the management through the promotion policy. This promotion policy persuades the employees to be loyal to the management.

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Learn about:- 1. Meaning of Promotion 2. Definitions of Promotion 3. Objectives 4. Purpose 5. Types 6. Basis 7. Principles 8. Difference between Promotion and Transfer 9. Elements of Programme 10. Policy 11. Advantages 12. Problems.

Promotion: Meaning, Definitions, Objectives, Types, Basis, Principle, Policy, Advantages and Problems

Contents:

Meaning of Promotion
Definitions of Promotion
Objectives of Promotion
Purpose of Promotion
Types of Promotion
Basis of Promotion
Principles of Promotion
Difference between Promotion and Transfer
Elements of Promotion Programme
Promotion Policy
Advantages of Promotion
Problems of Promotion

Promotion – Meaning

A promotion may be termed as an upward enhancement of an employee in an organisation to a disorient job with increased pay, higher status or rank, better opportunities, higher responsibility, more authority, better working environment, conditions in respect of hours of work, facilities, etc. But, however, all promotion may not possess this characteristic, of increase in pay. Sometimes it may happen that the promotion may be a ‘Dry promotion’.

A dry promotion refers to an increase in responsibility and status without any increase in pay. A company may have formal and informal promotion systems, open or closed promotional systems and so on. Promotion is distinguishable, from transfer also, in the sense that the latter term refers to changes in jobs that involve little or no change in status, responsibility and pay.

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Promotion is different from up-gradation.

Promotion v/s Upgradation:

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Promotion implies change of job within an organization with higher status, authority and monetary and non-monetary benefits. Upgradation of an employee on the other hand implies a higher pay scale without any change in job. The job is upgraded to a higher scale without there being any change in status, authority or salary. Both these concepts are used to reward employees and to motivate them for future.

The dilemma with the management these days is whether to promote or upgrade the employee after seeing the performance. There often are very limited vacancies at the higher levels, so to promote all employees is not possible. Some employees will surely get promoted but other will have to be upgraded to higher pay scale but not status. This is done to motivate them to stick to the job till their chance of promotion arrives.

Promotion v/s Transfer:

Transfer implies a mere change in job from one unit/division/region to another job with same pay scale, status and authority. Transfer is, thus, only a horizontal shift of an employee whereas promotion is a vertical shift of an employee. Promotion is highly motivating but transfer has hardly any motivational value. In fact, many a times, transfers have been used as punitive tool against employees but promotion is always a motivational tool and is always welcomed by them.

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Thus, the main conditions of promotion are:

i. Reassignment of higher level job to an employee than what he is presently performing.

ii. The employee will naturally be delegated with greater responsibility and authority than what he has had earlier.

iii. Promotion normally accompanies higher pay. It means that in some cases, the employees perform higher level job and receive the salary related to the lower level job.

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For example, if a University Professor is promoted to the next higher level of the faculty position, i.e., Dean of the faculty, he will not receive any increase in salary. Such promotion is called dry promotion. Promotions may be temporary or permanent depending upon the organisational needs and employee performance.

A sound promotion system is of vital importance for the continued efficiency of the public services. Promotion is a reward to an employee, which entails a change in his position and status. It is essential to build morale and efficiency in public services. Unless the civil service has adequate promotional avenues, it will not be able to attract ambitious and talented young men and women towards it as an attractive career.

It prevents employees from taking training courses and making other efforts towards self-improvement. A proper promotion system helps in retaining the services of the ablest among its employees and also in giving them an opportunity to improve their capabilities and qualifications. It is thus, useful to the employees individually as well as to the administration as a whole.

But to improve the morale and efficiency of administration, a promotion system must be based on the principles of equity and fair play. Unjust prejudice, favouritism, corruption or bias on the part of promoting officers by pushing up unqualified employees are some obstacle in the way of establishment of a just and sound promotion system.

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All civil services lay down certain eligibility criteria for promotion to all graders.

Generally, there are two main forms of qualifications:

(a) Personal qualifications of the candidates, for example, educational standard, professional training or experience, or any specially laid down personal qualification, like physical fitness, social and other qualities.

(b) Service status is another important factor for determining eligibility for promotion. This refers to the range of selection of candidates for promotion. There are posts for which promotion is confined to a section or division or department, whereas there are others to which employees with requisite qualifications from other departments may also be eligible.

Promotion – Definitions by Pegors and Myres, Dale Yoder, Arun Monappa and Mirza S. Saiyadain, Pulapa Subba Rao, Scott and Clolhier, Koontz O Donnel & Flippo

Employees working in an organization expect higher status, more responsibility and also higher remuneration. If these expectations of the employees are not cared by the employers, there may be change in the attitude and behaviour of employees which may affect on the day to day work of the organization. Therefore, to fulfil this desire of the employees, almost all the organizations have adopted a policy of moving employees from lower post to higher post with additional duty, responsibility and remuneration.

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“Promotion is the advancement of employee to a better job better in term of greater responsibilities, more prestige or status, greater skill and specially increased rate of pay or salary.” (Pegors and Myres)

This process of moving an employee from lower post to higher post or position with an increase in salary, status and responsibilities is known as promotion. It is an upward movement of an employee from one job to another higher job with increased work and facilities. When an employee is assigned a higher level job with more pay, status and powers, he is said to be promoted.

Dale Yoder defines promotion as a “movement to a position in which responsibilities and presumably, prestige are increased”. Thus, advancement of an employee to a higher post with higher responsibility and remuneration is called promotion. If an employee is promoted to a higher level job without increase in pay, it is called ‘dry’ promotion.

Arun Monappa and Mirza S. Saiyadain defined promotion as “the upward reassignment of an individual in an organisation’s hierarchy, accompanied by increased responsibilities, enhanced status and usually with increased income though not always so.”

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Promotion may be defined as an upward movement or advancement of an employee in an organisation to another job, which commands better pay, better status or prestige and higher challenges and responsibilities and opportunities.

According to Scott and Clolhier, “A promotion is the transfer of an employee’ to a job which pays more money or one that carries some preferred status.” According to Koontz O Donnel, “A change within the organisation to a higher position with greater responsibilities and used for more advanced skills than in previous position. It usually involves higher status and increase in pay.”

Promotion may be defined as the placement of an employee to a better job which results in extending prestige, salary, powers, duties, responsibilities and it requires more knowledge and skills to perform the job.

“Promotion” is a term which covers a change and needs higher responsibilities. It normally means increased pay and better terms and conditions of service, resulting into, a higher status or rank.

“Promotion involves a change from one job to another that is better in terms of status and responsibilities.” (Flippo)

Thus from the aforesaid definitions it is clear that promotion involves the following three basic elements:

(i) Better job and status.

(ii) Greater responsibilities.

(iii) Increase in pay and perks.

Promotion – 11 Important Objectives

The following are the important objective of promotion:

i. It is recognition of a job well done by the employee.

ii. It is to increase the employee’s and the organization’s effectiveness.

iii. Promotion builds loyalty, morale, and belongingness on the part of the employee.

iv. Promotion impresses upon others that opportunities are available to them also if they perform well.

v. Promotion is a device to retain and reward an employee for his years of service to the organization.

vi. a concrete promotion policy should be based on the following aspects

vii. Encouragement of promotion within the organizations, instead of looking outside to fill vacancies in higher posts.

viii.An understanding that ability as well as seniority will be taken into account in making promotions.

ix. Drawing up an organization chart to make clear to all the ladders of promotion.

x. All promotion should be for a trial period. Normally during this trial period the employee draws the pay of the higher post.

xi. It should be clearly understood that if “he does not make the grade” he will be reverted to his former post.

Promotion – Purpose

The purposes of promotion may be outlined as follow:

1. To recognise an individual’s performance and reward him for his work.

2. To retain and reward an employee for his unbroken continuous service to the organisation.

3. To increase an employee’s organisational effectiveness.

4. To build loyalty morale, and belongingness on the part of the employee.

5. To promote job satisfaction among the employees.

6. To attract suitable and competent workers for the organisation.

The importance of promotion is that it provides incentive to initiatives, enterprise, and ambition, minimizes discontent and unrest, attracts capable individuals, necessitates logical training of advancement and forms an effective reward for loyalty, co-operation and long service. Promotions also afford an opportunity for greater self-actualization through more varied and challenging assignments..

Promotion – Top 3 Types: Horizontal Promotion, Vertical Promotion and Dry Promotion

A promotion involves increase in status and responsibility and pay. Increase in these elements may be in varying proportion in different types of promotion.

Let us see what these types are:

Type # 1. Horizontal Promotion:

This type of promotion involves an increase in responsibility and pay with the change in the designation. However, the job classification remains the same. For example, a lower-division clerk is promoted as higher-division clerk. In such a case, the position of the employee concerned has been upgraded with some pay increase but the nature of his job remains the same.

This is known as upgradation of an employee. In universities and other academic institutions, the system of this type of promotion is in the form of lecturer- senior lecturer-selection grade lecturer, etc.

Type # 2. Vertical Promotion:

In vertical promotion, there is a change in the status, responsibilities, job classification, and pay. For example, a production superintendent is promoted as production manager. Sometimes, this type of promotion changes the nature of job completely, for example, a functional head is promoted as chief executive of the organization. The jobs involved at these two positions are completely different.

Type # 3. Dry Promotion:

Dry promotion refers to increase in responsibilities and status without any increase in pay or other financial benefits, for example, a Professor in a university becomes Head of the Department. It is just an elevation of the Professor without any increase in financial benefits.

Promotion – Basis: Seniority as a Basis of Promotion, Merits as the Basis of Promotion and Seniority Cum Merit Scheme

Promotion is an upheaval task. It requires statistical data about employees on many dimensions. Some promotions are made on the basis of seniority, some are made on the basis of merit while in some cases it is merit cum seniority.

The following discussion deals with all the three kinds of basis of promotions:

1. Seniority as a Basis of Promotion:

Seniority means relative length of service in the same organization. Seniority of service become basis for promotion in the organization on the assumption that someone who has greater length of service in the organization must have embedded skills and talents. So, he should be promoted. The proponents of this school of thought also feel that seniors should be respected by the management.

There are some merits of this scheme of promotion:

(a) It is relatively simpler to promote people on the basis of their length of service as the data can immediately be had from the HR department. Employees are happy with this because they feel the judgment based on facts is the best for them.

(b) This is an objective criteria to follow as there can be no manipulations or favouritisms involved in promotions. There will, therefore be, no conflicts or grievances in the organization.

(c) Employees here can themselves find their place in the promotion list as they know how much time they have been in the organization. They can also compare their tenure with tenure of other employees and understand who should be promoted first.

(d) This system enjoys full support of all trade unions in India. When trade unions accept this basis, all member employees accept it cordially. There is no room left for any conflict or unrest.

(e) Indian socio-cultural systems have always respected elders/ seniors in all walks of life, be it in a corporate set up, a family set up or any other institutional set up. This basis of promotion thus gets very well with people in our part of subcontinent.

Demerits of Seniority as the Basis of Promotion:

(a) The critics of this criteria of promotion have said that the assumption of a correlation between length of service and skill development or talent development is faulty. The senior most employee of organization may be far from being the best employee.

(b) Individuals join an organization with different knowledge, skills and talents. Each one has different level of potential. The ones with high potential may not be satisfied if they have to wait for long to get promoted.

(d) If everybody is promoted without showing performance, then there is no incentive left for people who work hard. This basis of promotion penalizes the hard workers.

2. Merits as the Basis of Promotion:

Merit based scheme of promotion is a scheme where promotion is given on the basis of knowledge, skills and performance records of an employee. This criteria of promotion has some merits over the seniority criteria.

These are as follows:

(a) It makes the competent employees work hard, acquire new skills and talents because they are confident of their growth in the organization.

(b) It helps the organization to retain competent employees and attract new talent for its future projects.

(c) The organization becomes efficient and manages core competence with the help of performance of competitive workforce.

Merit based promotion scheme suffers from the following disadvantages:

(a) When young employees are promoted over the senior employees, the senior employees feel insecure and dejected. They at times go dysfunction for the organization.

(b) It is a very complex issue to judge merit of employees. The very prominent achievements can be judged by the assessing managers but when a group activity is assessed, it is hard to point out which team member has been instrumental in maximizing productivity or efficiency. Employees often complain of subjectivity in such a scheme of promotion.

(c) This criteria is not liked by trade unions as they feel that management has its own say in promotions. They, therefore, give promotions only to those employees who are their favorites. Employees who are left behind also start mistrusting their superiors and at times become vocal and destructive.

(d) This criteria of promotion often makes the senior employees, who have been very loyal workers, rethink about their future tenure with this organization. They may leave it the day they get another opening.

(e) Finally, merit indicates the past achievements of an employee where many other factors may have been playing a positive role e.g. in normal times production is good but when there are power cuts, natural disasters, strikes in industry etc. production suffers. We, thus, cannot blame employees for factors beyond control. May be, the same employee becomes less efficient/productive when other situational factors are not favourable. Thus, the potential of the employee gets under-rated in adverse situations.

3. Seniority Cum Merit Scheme:

Since both the criteria, merit based and seniority based, suffers from various disadvantages, a scheme where seniority and merit are both considered simultaneously for promotion.

A proper balance between seniority and merit is strived for by many organizations in the following ways:

(i) One technique is to give promotion to people after they have completed a minimum period of service e.g., in any commercial banks in India, promotions are given to eligible employees after they have completed 5 years on a job.

(ii) Employees with a minimum performance record and qualifications are made eligible for promotion. A list of employees is prepared out of which the senior employees are given promotions first and the junior employees later.

(iii) In another strategy, relative importance of both seniority as well as merit should be decided by the management and accordingly the employees whose scores are high will be promoted and the ones whose assessment score is less will be left out e.g. an organization may keep 50% for merit and 50% for seniority or 70% to performance and 30% to seniority depending upon the attitude of management.

Merit cum seniority scheme is used by the corporate sector. In all government organizations, generally only seniority is used for promotions.

Promotion – Top 11 Principles Necessary to Achieve the Desired Results from Promotion: Written Policy, Proportion of Vacancies, Basis of Promotion and More…

Promotion is considered as double-edged weapon. This is because, if it is handled carefully and properly it leads to the increase in employee satisfaction and morale. But if it is mishandled, it will lead to discontentment, frustration, scepticism, bickering among the employees, and will also increase the labour turnover. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the HR department to lay down sound promotion policy and ensure its proper implementation.

Following principles are necessary to be followed to achieve the desired results from promotion:

Principle # 1. Written Policy:

The promotion policy should be in writing and all employees should have proper understanding of this policy. The policy can avoid all types of doubts in the minds of the employees in relation to the lines of promotion available to them in the organisation.

Principle # 2. Proportion of Vacancies:

The promotion policy of the firm should clearly lay down the proportion of vacancies to be filled in through promotion in the higher levels hierarchy. It should also be strictly followed. If possible, management should incorporate a statement in the promotion policy that high paying and better jobs will be filled through promotions from within and through the recruitments from outside.

It should also be stated that, if necessary, the hiring can be made from outside but this will be communicated to the employees in advance.

Principle # 3. Basis of Promotion:

When it has been decided to fill up the higher positions with promotions, a further decision should be taken by the management in determining the basis of promotion. The basis of promotion may be seniority or merit. Of the two, merit is the better basis because it rewards those who deserve it.

In non-unionised companies, promotions are made on the basis of merit because management of the companies are free from the pressures of the union. But if there is a clash between the two employees on merit, the one who is senior can be promoted.

Principle # 4. Job Analysis:

It should be done to provide the clear recognition to the employees of the movement from one job to another. Job analysis decides the positions of all the jobs in the organisations and how they are related with one another.

The adjustment is made in the positions so that workers can be prepared for the natural course of advancement in the organisation, or in their respective department. Employees should also be communicated about this adjustment so that they can prepare themselves for the future positions.

Principle # 5. Alliance with Training Programme:

Both the promotion and training policy should be allied with each other. This will enable the employees to acquire training for the positions which they are going to acquire in the future.

Principle # 6. Evaluation of Employee Performance:

Scientific procedure should be followed for the purpose of evaluation of the performance of the employee and for determining their merit. There should be objectivity in the assessment of employees and their confidential reporting. This creates trust among them for the promotion system and they get motivated for better performance in the future.

Principle # 7. Recommendation of Promotion:

Promotions should be recommended by the supervisor or by the immediate boss, which is subject to approval by his immediate superior in the organisation. Further, the final decision should be left to the top executives in the line with the assistance and advice from the personnel department. This will ensure fairness in the promotion system and also checks the proper implementation and administration of the promotion policy.

Principle # 8. Establishment of Promotion Chart:

A well-defined promotion chart should be established under the promotion policy, which should clearly show that who can go up and up to which level in the organisation. This chart is also helpful to management as it removes any suspicion, which the employees may have and enables the aspirants to make them eligible for promotion.

Principle # 9. Number of Promotions:

Frequent promotions are inadvisable from the point of view of the employer and employees. For the employer, frequent promotions mean a higher wage and salary bill and temporary instability in the organisation. Frequent changes in the assignment of individuals make them stagnate in their job. It is, therefore, necessary to limit promotions to the desirable level.

Principle # 10. Acceptance from Labour Union:

The promotion policy should be communicated to the labour unions, as it is necessary to obtain the acceptance of labour unions in the form of an agreement. This is because, now the promotions are no longer the prerogative of the management. For making the promotion scheme successful, it is necessary to obtain the worker’s acceptance and cooperation along with the intention of the management.

Principle # 11. Notification of Vacancy:

When promotion is based on merit, it is necessary that the vacancies for the promotion should be notified to the employees in advance. This will enable all the interested and eligible employees to apply for the post. Further, the openings of promotions should be displayed prominently at several places.

Promotion – Difference between Promotion and Transfer

The distinction between transfer and promotion is discussed below:

(i) Promotion generally implies an upward elevation of an individual in terms of job responsibilities, pay scale and status. It represents an advancement, and going up a step in the career ladder. It is a case of upward mobility which most of the employees seek for their career advancement. But transfer refers to a lateral shift of an individual from one job position to another on the same occupational level and pay scale.

(ii) Promotion represents a recognition of and reward for merit, good performance and behaviour, length of service, commitment, and so on. It tends to improve satisfaction of the person promoted and to induce him to perform better. Transfer does not have these implications.

Considerations of merit and seniority do not generally enter into transfer matters; there may however be some instances where an employee with good performance is transferred to another unit to utilise his skills more meaningfully. The incentive value of transfers is generally low.

(iii) Promotion involves thoughtful managerial decision, but transfer is a routine administrative matter. In the case of promotion, management has to consider whether a particular position should be filled by internal promotion or external selection. Thus, competition by outsiders is a threat to insiders aspiring for promotion. In the case of transfers, outsiders do not enter into the scene.

(iv) The criteria for promotions are different from those of transfers. The promotion criteria may be merit in the performance of job, potential for assuming higher responsibilities, length of service in a job, or an appropriate combination of all.

In case of transfer, criteria such as need for improving versatility of employees, rectification or correction of wrong placement, increase or decrease in volume of activity, punishment for poor performance or objectionable behaviour, solution of genuine personal problems of the employees, etc. are generally used.

(v) Normally, once an employee is promoted to a higher position, he is not reverted back or demoted to his earlier position. Thus, promotion is a one-way upward movement for the employee concerned, except in some odd cases. But transfers could be multi-directional and reversible. An employee transferred from one job to another may be shifted back to his earlier job after some time.

Promotion – 2 Basic Elements of Promotion Programme: Deciding the Policy and Promotion Policy

A promotion programme consists of the following basic elements:

1. Deciding the Policy:

The management must provide realistic opportunities which will en-course promising employees to take the risks involved in moving upward.

Each organisation needs to strike a balance between the internal sources of personnel promotions and external sources on the one hand or between the merit and ability as against length of service on the other.

A management should frame the policy on the basis of which promotions may be made:

(a) Consider whether vacancies are primarily to be filled up from within organization or by recruitment from outside. Would it be sure to deny promotion to otherwise qualified personnel? Whether an increase in pay is to be given? If, so when and how much? The increase must be generally given at the time of promotion, otherwise promotion is meaningless.

(b) To establish a plan of jobs – Decide on what basis promotion are to be given whether a performance appraisal on the basis of confidential reports?

(c) Trace transfer routes – To have some type of formal and systematic promotion channels. Ladies swing paths of advancement, promotional changes opportunity charts should be prepared.

(d) Keep detailed personnel and service records ready on the basis of which promotions may be made.

(e) Prepare employees for advancement through the provision of same training either on the job or in professional technical institutions or through job rotation, or conferences.

2. Promotion Policy:

The usual policy is to take merit into consideration remissions, length of service, education, training courses Completed, previous Work history etc. are factors which are given weight while deciding a promotion. Although promotions are made on the basis of ability, hard work, co-operation, merit honesty, many informal influences are powerful determinants of a promotional policy.

For higher posts, persons are picked by the top executive:

(a) Who think and feel just as he does;

(b) Who value loyalty to business and to the organisation;

In short, top executives tend to choose there who are carbon copies of themselves.

Promotion – Promotion Policy: Meaning, Contents and Features

A sound promotion policy means a policy, which is fair, impartial and enjoys consistency. It should state management’s intention regarding filling of vacancies from within the organization (i.e. by promotions) or recruiting from outside or from both. In most cases, the superior/higher vacancies in an organization are filled through external recruitment, while the lower level vacancies are filled by promotions.

A promotion policy should provide a well-defined and clear-cut promotion chart. Management should state clearly the base of promotion, i.e. whether seniority is considered or merit, or both. Seniority means the length of service and is counted from the date of employee’s appointment in the organization.

The usual policy is to take merit into consideration. The Length of service, education, training courses completed, previous work history etc. are the factors, which are given weight age while deciding on a promotion. Although promotions are made on the basis of ability, hard work, co-operation, merit, honesty, many informal influences are powerful determinants of the promotional policy.

For higher posts, the top executives considering the employee who thinks and feels just as he does pick persons. Who values loyalty to him and to the organization; and who has social, political, economic and religious interests similar to his own. Top executives tend to choose those who are carbon copies of them.

Contents of Good Promotion Policy:

A good promotion policy may include the following:

i. Encouragement of promotion within the organization, instead of looking outside to fill vacancies in higher posts;

ii. An understanding that ability as well as seniority will be taken into account in making promotions;

iii. Drawing up an organization chart to make clear to all the ladder of promotion. Where there is a job analysis and a planned wage policy, such a chart is quite easy to prepare;

iv. Making it clear to all concerned who may initiate and handle cases of promotion. Though departmental heads may initiate promotion, the final approval should lie with top management, after the personnel department has been asked to check whether any repercussion is likely to result from the proposed promotion.

v. All promotions should be for a trial period, in case the promoted person is not found capable of handling the job. Normally during this trial period he draws the pay of the higher post, but it should be clearly understood that if “he does not make the grade” he will be reverted to his former post and his former pay scale”.

A good promotion policy should have the following features:

(1) The promotional policy of every organization should be fair and objective. It should not have any loose end i.e., there should be no arbitrariness. There should be no room for any favoritism.

(2) It should uniformly distribute promotional opportunities among all departments. If a department has to promote 5 employees every year, then all other departments should also have the same rule. In the absence of uniformity in distribution of promotional policies there will be a discontent in the mind of affected departments. This discontent may lead to employee turnover etc.

(3) All information regarding growth opportunities should be duly informed to all employees in the organization. Promotion charts may be prepared showing ladders of growth. They may even be personally explained to the department heads who will make it clear to their department employees. Jobs where no growth is expected and jobs where enough growth is expected should be marked properly.

(4) The rule of the organization regarding weightage to be given to tenure and seniority should be clearly mentioned. Clear cut norms and criteria should be laid out.

(5) The assessment team should be entrusted with the work of taking decisions regarding promotion. The HR department and line managers should be a part of the assessment team.

(6) HR department should have detailed service records of all employees based on which promotions will be given.

(7) There should be proper monitoring of promoted employee to see whether they have adjusted to the challenging position. Counselling and guidance should be given to rejected employees. The rejected employees may be given pay up-gradation.

(8) There- should be a mechanism developed for listening to grievances of employees who are dis-satisfied with the promotion decision. All doubts in the minds of dis-satisfied employees should be duly cleared.

(9) Promotion policy should tell employees the reasons for his rejection. Internal manpower should be given preference for promotion rather than filling the post with outsiders.

(10) The promoted employee should be communicated in writing and his superior should be also communicated about the date on which the employee should be relieved for the next job.

Promotion – 5 Main Advantages: Recognizes the Commitment/Performance of Employees, Provide Opportunities for Career Development and a Few Other Advantages

Advantage # 1. Recognizes the Commitment/Performance of Employees:

Promotion is the best tool to recognize the loyalty and commitment of the employee towards organization. Promotion makes the employee perform better in future. It boosts up the morale of employees and they start to internalize organizational goals as their goals.

Advantage # 2. To Provide Opportunities for Career Development:

If promotions are not given to employees, they start looking for greener pastures outside the organization. This harms the organization’s growth, stability and competence. Therefore, the only way to encourage competent employees is to provide them with promotions.

Advantage # 3. To Develop Competitive Spirit among Employees:

Promotion has also been used to inculcate a spirit of competition among employees. The thumb rule is made clear to all employees that ‘the one who performs the best gets promoted. Employees then start to take work in a competitive spirit and try to prove themselves to be worth promotion.

Advantage # 4. Give the Satisfaction of Continuous Unbroken Service:

It is very satisfying for an employee to work in the same organization for longer tenure. They feel very happy and satisfied to tell others that they have been working with the same group or organization for 20-25 years. The loyalty, commitment of such people is par excellence. They become pride of the organization. Promotions given on time provide an opportunity to employees to get this job satisfaction.

Advantage # 5. To Reduce Unrest and Discontent among Employees:

If employees feel that they have not been duly recognized by the organization, promotion is the best tool to satisfy them. If there is an environment of unrest in organization, promotion is the fastest way to control it. The employees of Maruti Udyog were not happy with the promotional schemes of the company and so they confronted the management with strike and gherao. If the promotional policy of any organization is challenged, the management should take it seriously and not allow it to catch fire.

Promotion – 3 Major Problems: Basis or Criteria for Promotion-Seniority vs. Merit, Refusal of Promotion by Employees and Promotion May Disappoint Employees

Although promotion benefits both employees and organization, it creates certain problems also which are described below:

1. Basis or Criteria for Promotion-Seniority vs. Merit:

Basis of promotion- seniority or merit itself poses a problem to the organization. If an employee is promoted on the basis of his/her seniority i.e., length of service irrespective of his/her merit or performance, meritorious employees lack interest in showing better performance.

On the other hand, if the promotion is made on the basis of merit regardless of length of service, competent and interested junior most employee may get an opportunity to occupy higher position who may have to exercise power on senior employees which may cause embracement to senior employees. Thus, basis of promotion itself may be a problem.

2. Refusal of Promotion by Employees:

Sometimes employees refuse promotion if they are promoted together with transfer to an unwanted place or because of delegation of unwanted responsibility or employees feel that they are incompetent to discharge duty. Under these circumstances, promotion becomes problem.

3. Promotion May Disappoint Employees:

If all those who are due for promotion are promoted, employees will certainly welcome the decision. On the other hand, if few are only promoted, leaving the other employees, those who are not promoted will be disappointed when their colleagues with similar qualifications and experience are promoted. Such employees may develop negative attitude and may not contribute to the progress and prosperity of the enterprise.