Polyphonic Career Scripting: Political and Relational Dynamics in the Construction of Promotion Norms

Career scripts are typically treated as static frameworks that outline expectations of career paths. Little is known about how they are actively scripted, “on the ground” among career actors. We address this shortcoming by examining promotion scripts in a professional services firm. Through an inductive study of 91 participants, we identify different variations of the promotion script among human resource professionals and partners as gatekeepers. Adopting a relational lens, we uncover scripting processes and modes through which gatekeepers and promotion seekers jointly and intersubjectively construct the script. We extend career script scholarship in two ways. First, we theorize promotion scripts as polyphonic, multi-voiced, and partially contested among promotion actors, problematizing a view of career scripts as collectively shared representations. Second, we broaden focus beyond script content to empirically substantiate the notion of career scripting. We evidence how polyphonic promotion norms are scripted through (a) formalized and political scripting among gatekeepers, and (b) relational sponsorship practices between promotion seekers and gatekeeping sponsors, through which they jointly construct and differentially amplify the script variations. Our grounded model reveals how four scripting modes sustain polyphony in the promotion script, foregrounding the multi-actor, political, and relational dynamics implicated in the scripting of career norms.