Avantages
Employees enjoy great exposure and relatively easy access to many different aspects of technical issues, which can be very beneficial for a person's professional growth and broadening knowledge portfolio. The company is generally supportive of employees' participation in conferences, trade groups and other professional activities. Various award programs exist that recognize employee contribution on a regular basis. Information sharing is generally promoted.
Inconvénients
The company may be unintentionally discouraging employees to keep further developing domain expertise. Instead, it is trying to emphasize 'leadership' ability, by which it primarily looks for project management type of activities in the employee. Often times, people who pay attention and time to get along with others but with quite limited contribution or technical capability may advance better than those who just maintain normal professional relationship but with stronger technical ability.