Career ladders have largely disappeared in organizational life. Paths upward are clogged and promotions are no longer guaranteed. The result: stalled careers and disillusioned employees.

To put your career on an upward trajectory, you need to learn how to make the most of each situation. This includes knowing what to do when you get passed over for a promotion.

In a perfect work world, office politics don’t exist, no one makes mistakes, and everyone who performs a job properly gets promoted. But the reality is that competence often takes a back seat to office politics, personality conflicts influence decisions, and the best person for a job isn’t always the one who gets it.

A 28-year-old social worker in Chicago admits she had underestimated the importance of office politics before she encountered “the boss from hell.” Despite the fact that she was admired and respected by many of her colleagues, co-workers, and clients, she was passed over for a promotion she believed she deserved in favor of an outsider who knew nothing about the agency. While the newcomer had no social-work experience, she had management skills that the social worker lacked.

Career counselor Janet Scarborough, founder of Bridgeway Career Development in Seattle, said individuals often underestimate the importance of organizational politics while overestimating the role of skills and accomplishments. “When you get passed over for a promotion,” she said, “you need to ask yourself: ‘Have I paid enough attention to the organizational structure?’ Get comfortable with the idea that the interpersonal component matters.” In other words, if you shun office politics, don’t be surprised if you get passed over for promotions. People who are good at office politics are good at building relationships in organizations.

For the social worker, the first task was sorting out the personal disappointment from the professional ramifications. While she could see the value of hiring someone with management experience, she resented what she saw as the devaluation of her social-work experience. She also suspected that her personality clash with her boss hadn’t helped her situation. She was even less sure about whether she’d be able to respect and work with this new manager whose style was so different from hers.

From the other side, her boss worried that the social worker might try to undermine the new manager’s authority instead of providing valuable input and expertise. If she wanted to keep her job, she needed to focus on forging a strong relationship with this new manager. This meant setting aside her personal feelings and acting professionally. Still, it wasn’t easy for her to continue working in a place where she felt she had no future.

Not getting promoted turned out to be a key to forcing her to re-evaluate her priorities and make necessary changes. When she was able to place the lost promotion in perspective, she realized that, despite her ambition to be promoted, she didn’t want to be a manager. She really wanted to become a social-policy analyst.

Getting passed over for a promotion is almost always painful because the rejection feels so personal. But it may not be a reflection on your abilities at all. That’s why it is important to get all the facts before you jump to conclusions. A 35-year-old marketing manager in New York figured this out after getting passed over for a promotion on three different occasions, despite the fact that, on paper, she was clearly the most qualified candidate for the job.

The marketing manager could not understand why apparently less competent people kept getting promoted ahead of her, despite her outstanding achievement record with the company.

Because all the promotions had been given to less-qualified men, she felt she had only two options: file a discrimination suit or start looking for another job.

In such cases, proceed cautiously, said Lynn Friedman, a clinical psychologist in Bethesda, Md., who specializes in workplace issues. If you are a member of a minority group who has been turned down repeatedly for promotions despite stellar reviews and other kinds of formal recognition, it is natural to wonder whether these rejections are based on discrimination, Dr. Friedman said.

But wondering is different than knowing.

Before generating any hypotheses about your boss’s intentions, you should consider what other factors might be hampering your efforts at work.

“Your boss may have reasons that have nothing to do with your minority status. For example, she may be more dependent on you than you fully appreciate. She may, for her own reasons, be afraid to lose you. It’s important to learn more about why you have been turned down so that you can take effective steps to rectify the situation,” Dr. Friedman said.