The purpose of this paper is to review the study of promotion, mainly in the Japanese public sector, from three points of view
1 ．the key points in observing promotion structure and the basic characteristics of promotion structure in national and local governments,
2．the main research approaches, and
3．subjects, data, and methods.
The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, this paper is, as far as can be seen, the first comprehensive review paper on public sector promotion research. Secondly, whereas conventional reviews of promotion research focusing on the private sector have been conducted mainly from an economics or business administration perspective, this paper broadly discusses the perspectives from both theoretical and empirical perspectives from different disciplines such as economics, business administration, public administration, and political science, organizing three approaches.
In line with the three objectives mentioned earlier, this paper is structured as followed: First, we summarize what has been pointed out about the reality of promotion in the national and local governments within the Japanese public sector, along the following five lines. Namely
1．the intensity of track-by-track management at the entry-level,
2．the speed of promotion,
3．how the disparities in promotion within a given personnel group are made,
4．selection through horizontal movement without promotion, and
5．in relation to politics.
Next, three approaches to promotion research in the public sector have been described: the functional approach, the normative approach, and the power approach. The functional approach is mainly adopted by economists and considers that the promotion structure is rationally designed for the organization’s purpose and work performance. It is also believed that the organizational environment and technical conditions create differences in the abilities and skills needed by the organization and the promotion structure that develops them. The abilities and skills here are assumed to be objectively ascertainable, at least in theory, and to have a single entity.
The normative approach is a sociological approach that focuses on the unique role of norms not dissolved by environmental conditions when considering promotion. It is critical of overly rational explanations of management and emphasizes that organizations are embedded in their social, cultural, and historical contexts. Capability is seen as socially constructed within those particular contexts. This is the so-called “social construction theory of ability.”
The power approach focuses on the principal nature of government as an organization and is concerned with how power struggles between actors manifest themselves in promotion mechanisms. Many political scientists and public administration scholars have adopted this approach, with the theme of political-government relations （the relationship between politicians and administrators） receiving particular attention.
Thirdly, subjects, data, and methods that previous studies have addressed are discussed. As for the research subjects, interest in the subject has expanded in recent years to include technical officials and non-elite employees. In recent years, the number of studies relying on primary data such as official documents has increased. Although the basic research method is to draw a career tree, in recent years, new methods such as Bayesian estimation and QCA have been applied to more rigorously clarify the structure of promotion and analyze the causes and consequences of the structure.
We conclude with a discussion of future challenges for promotion research in the public sector. There are three main challenges: the development of databases, the expansion of research subjects, and the refinement of each research approach.
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