Profiling Performance Trajectories in the Internal Hiring and Adjustment Process

Abstract

Internal hiring has been recognized as an important staffing strategy and a strong driver of employee internal mobility. The current study explores whether different performance change patterns exist for successful and unsuccessful internal applicants after their application and how their abilities relate to performance change patterns. In Study 1, using the latent class growth analysis, we identify the coexistence of three distinct longitudinal change patterns of successful applicants’ job performance (i.e., maintenance, upward, and downward patterns) and four distinct change patterns for unsuccessful applicants’ (i.e. slightly increase, downward, inverted-U from medium performance, and inverted-U from low performance patterns). In Study 2, we replicate these patterns and demonstrate that workability and adaptability are important antecedents of such performance change patterns. Specifically, successful applicants with high workability displayed an upward pattern; Successful applicants with low adaptability displayed a downward pattern; Unsuccessful applicants with low workability displayed an inverted-U from low performance pattern; Unsuccessful applicants with low adaptability displayed downward pattern.