Intraorganizational Mobility Research Articles

Intraorganizational mobility and employees’ work-related contact patterns: evidence from panel data in the European Commission

Abstract Programs to encourage staff to move within public-sector organizations have become increasingly widespread in recent decades. Yet, although there are some anecdotal accounts, the effects of such intraorganizational mobility remain largely unexplored. Building on insights from organization theory and social psychology, we argue that intraorganizational mobility entails an important trade-off: it undermines movers’ depth of work-related contacts within the (new) department, while it increases the breadth of their work-related contacts outside it. Our empirical analysis evaluates this trade-off using a two-way fixed effects model for a longitudinal dataset of movers (N = 149) and stayers (N = 473) across two survey waves among European Commission officials in 2014 and 2018. Our main findings confirm that intraorganizational mobility is connected in opposing ways to employees’ intra- and extra-departmental work-related contact patterns. In line with theoretical expectations, we find these relationships to be stronger for employees who have previously experienced intraorganizational moves (“repeat-movers”).

Motivational function of intraorganizational mobility employee (IME)

This article presents proposals for organizational solutions that can motivate HR managers and employees in the context of intra-organizational mobility. This proposal for empirically tested organizational solutions will help to understand which factors should be used to exploit the potential of competencies to motivate work and prevent the effects of monotonous and monotypic work. These solutions were developed in two-stage empirical research. After defining the test items based on the literature, the first stage was initiated. In this stage, the Delphi method was used, in which 29 experts participated. After the completion of the first research phase, the second phase was initiated. This stage was directed to HR managers of medium and large organizations. As a result, we received responses from 401 organizations in Poland. During the empirical research, a catalog of solutions managers can use to motivate employees in intra-organizational mobility was created. These solutions can also be used to determine whether the introduced intra-organizational mobility has a motivational function. The theoretical and practical findings presented in the article also show that these elements are essential for those organizations that want to exploit the potential of their employees based on conscious and intentional intra-organizational mobility activities. This relates to the organization’s activities to implement solutions in this area. This research has some limitations, especially concerning the lack of evaluation of the constructs proposed by the author - organizational solutions as part of the motivational function of intra-organizational mobility by HR managers.

Perceiving intraorganizational mobility ameliorates the effects of low-level position on detrimental workplace attitudes and behaviors

How do the perceived chances to get a better position in a company affect how individuals feel and behave towards their employer? Confirming the theory of relative deprivation, recent research showed that social mobility belief has attenuating effects on anger about one's relative social standing. When an individual believes they can change their current social status, negative affect about one's disadvantaged standing is appeased compared to when people believe the present hierarchy is fixed. We tested this model in a workplace context, examining whether perceived intraorganizational mobility ameliorates the effects of a low position at work on negative workplace attitudes (Study 1) and behavior (Study 2). Study 1 (n = 498) found that indeed, perceiving chances of promotion weakened the association of position at work with hostile affect towards the employer. Expanding this model to provide a direct test of the theory of relative deprivation, we designed a moderated mediation model testing whether the effect of workplace position on counterproductive work behaviors was mediated by relative deprivation, and whether this indirect effect was moderated by perceived chances of promotion. As hypothesized, Study 2 (n = 408) found that perceiving chances of promotion attenuated the detrimental effect of workplace position via relative deprivation on counterproductive work behaviors. Effects in both studies occurred independently of company hierarchy, salary, educational attainment, sex, and job sector. Overall, the results suggest that perceiving potential for individual promotion is linked to lower levels of negative workplace attitudes and counterproductive work behaviors.

Strategic approach for Polish organizations to implement intraorganizational mobility of employees

Abstract Background The importance of intraorganizational mobility of employees (IME) is one of the challenges currently faced by modern organizations, especially in the face of a changing and unpredictable environment. This situation requires organizations to re-code and re-focus on building an employee-friendly environment. One element of this environment may be IME, which, if included in the organization's strategy, gives it an opportunity to use and enhance the potential of its employees. Research aims The aim of this paper is to present the relationship between intraorganizational mobility and the intraorganizational mobility strategy of modern organizations. The article also includes a search for answers about the organization of such a strategy in terms of its scope for planning and evaluation. It was assumed that a strategic approach to the use of intraorganizational mobility is linked to the nature of the organization and the existence of such procedures. Methodology This study is empirical in nature. The research was conducted in 2020 in 401 Polish organizations (medium and large). The research method included a diagnostic survey using an on-line questionnaire. Persons holding the position of HR Specialist or HR Manager in a given organization were directly responsible for completing the questionnaires. Findings The results revealed that only one-third of the organizations surveyed have a strategy in place for intraorganizational mobility. Those organizations that have procedures in place embedded in a strategy are far more likely to make such decisions in a planned manner. Furthermore, it was found that having a strategic approach to intraorganizational mobility is not related to the nature of the organization. Originality This article makes a significant contribution to the area of research on the importance of internal employee mobility in an organization and its relation to the organization's strategy.

Strategic approach for Polish organizations to implement intraorganizational mobility of employees

Abstract Background The importance of intraorganizational mobility of employees (IME) is one of the challenges currently faced by modern organizations, especially in the face of a changing and unpredictable environment. This situation requires organizations to re-code and re-focus on building an employee-friendly environment. One element of this environment may be IME, which, if included in the organization's strategy, gives it an opportunity to use and enhance the potential of its employees. Research aims The aim of this paper is to present the relationship between intraorganizational mobility and the intraorganizational mobility strategy of modern organizations. The article also includes a search for answers about the organization of such a strategy in terms of its scope for planning and evaluation. It was assumed that a strategic approach to the use of intraorganizational mobility is linked to the nature of the organization and the existence of such procedures. Methodology This study is empirical in nature. The research was conducted in 2020 in 401 Polish organizations (medium and large). The research method included a diagnostic survey using an on-line questionnaire. Persons holding the position of HR Specialist or HR Manager in a given organization were directly responsible for completing the questionnaires. Findings The results revealed that only one-third of the organizations surveyed have a strategy in place for intraorganizational mobility. Those organizations that have procedures in place embedded in a strategy are far more likely to make such decisions in a planned manner. Furthermore, it was found that having a strategic approach to intraorganizational mobility is not related to the nature of the organization. Originality This article makes a significant contribution to the area of research on the importance of internal employee mobility in an organization and its relation to the organization's strategy.

Knowledge Sharing and Intra-Organizational Worker Mobility

Knowledge Sharing and Intra-Organizational Worker Mobility

Intra-Organizational Mobility as an Instruments of High Potential Employee Retention

Retaining employees identified as high potential is currently a problem for many organizations. This situation requires them to be coded and reoriented to build an environment conducive to the retention of such employees. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to define the intra-organizational mobility activities as a retention method for employees with high potential. The study has a theoretical character and was based on literature studies.

Unpacking Institutional and Individual Antecedents of Employees’ Internal Mobility Preferences

Evolving forms of intra-organizational mobility raise important questions about organizational institutions that influence employees’ decisions to pursue certain internal opportunities over others:...

The structure of internal job mobility and organizational wage inequality

The movement of people among jobs within an organization reflects a process of relational position-taking—a contest among individuals for valued resources. The structure of this mobility offers clues regarding the relational dynamics associated with position-taking and how these processes might vary across low and high inequality organizations. We explore these issues using data on intra-organizational mobility networks from 7347 workers in 428 positions in 11 distribution centers from a national grocery store chain. Exponential random graph models are used to identify the local network features that characterize each organization’s pattern of job mobility. This approach is then supplemented with meta-regression that examines the extent to which those network features are associated with organizational inequality (the wage gap between supervisors and non-supervisors). Organizational inequality is unrelated to the presence of purely structural mobility features (density, reciprocity, or transitivity), but instead is characterized by the confluence of mobility structure and positional hierarchy. The findings demonstrate that workers have fewer mobility pathways into high wage jobs in high inequality organizations than in low inequality organizations.

The use of the psychological contract to explain self-perceived employability

This study examines the relationship between the psychological contract and self-perceived employability (intra-organizational mobility intentions, employee development and perceived labor market opportunities). A survey was completed by 247 alumni of the Hotelschool The Hague, a hotel management school in the Netherlands. Hierarchical stepwise regression analyses were used to assess the relative contribution of employer practices to the employability measures. The psychological contract measures were work-home flexibility, job content, autonomy, development opportunities, a clear task description, salary and intra-organizational mobility opportunities, job security, performance-related pay and promotion opportunities. The main predictors for employability were intra-organizational mobility opportunities, development opportunities and autonomy. Age and gender moderated some of the relations between psychological contract and employability. We conclude that the psychological contract can explain a fair amount of variance among hospitality workers’ self-perceived employability.

Внутриорганизационная мобильность на российских предприятиях: динамика структурных и нормативных регуляторов карьеры

The paper is devoted to the intraorganizational mobility at the Russian industrial plants (1990-2000). Author investigates direction and intensity of mobility as well as structural and normative factors regulating job careers. Based on several case-study, the paper demonstrates that in conditions of Russia structural changes encourage intraorganizational mobility. As for normative regulators as an element of corporate culture, they significantly vary among enterprises.

Canadian Library Human Resources Short-Term Supply and Demand Crisis Is Averted, But a Significant Long-Term Crisis Must Be Addressed

Canadian Library Human Resources Short-Term Supply and Demand Crisis Is Averted, But a Significant Long-Term Crisis Must Be Addressed

Gender, family and career in the era of boundarylessness: determinants and effects of intra- and inter-organizational mobility

Changes in patterns of long-term employment make understanding the determinants of different career forms increasingly important to careers research. At the same time, the rise of dual-earner families demands greater attention to the ways in which gender and family characteristics shape careers than has been paid by traditional research. This paper addresses these issues, examining the determinants and consequences of intra-organizational and inter-organizational mobility, using a sample of employees from dual-earner couples. We find significant gender differences in these different types of career mobility, and in the effect of family relations on different forms of mobility. Women experience more inter-organizational mobility, while men experience more intraorganizational mobility. Having more children positively influences men's intra-organizational mobility, but increases inter-organizational mobility for women. Marital instability increases intra-organizational mobility among women, but has no effect among men. Each form of mobility has distinctive effects on objective and subjective indicators of career success for both men and women. Moving between organizations tends to depress earnings, but has no effect on how successful people feel in their careers. Job changes within an organization increase earnings, but have a negative effect on perceived success.

Managing individual career aspirations and corporate needs: a study of software engineers in France

Abstract Managing engineering professionals is critical in high-tech corporations. Typically this leads to hiring a large pool of engineers to benefit from their varied technical skills and to buffer against environmental change. Intra-organizational mobility becomes a means both to develop engineers’ skills and to manage careers in the lean organization era, with limited upward mobility opportunities. Corporate priorities may conflict with individual needs, however, although the former should include engineers’ own career aspirations. This study of software engineers working in a large French electronics firm examines the impact of several individual variables on engineers’ willingness to accept various internal mobility opportunities. The findings reveal that mobility involving a major functional change is linked to individuals’ career anchors, while mobility closest to their current job is mostly influenced by job satisfaction variables. Managerial implications of these findings are then discussed.

Maintaining an Internal Market: Antecedents of Willingness to Change Jobs

The relative importance of demographic, job-related, family-/community-related moving concerns and attitudinal factors in influencing employees' willingness to accept intraorganizational job changes were investigated in a sample of 545 employees of a Fortune 100 company. Specifically, the influence of antecedent factors was examined across eight mobility opportunities: lateral, promotion, change in job discipline or career, and no change in career by geographic and nongeographic relocation. Results indicated that employees are differentially willing to accept distinct types of mobility opportunities. Further, results of hierarchical regressions and tests of mediated relationships indicated that different sets of antecedent factors are more or less important depending on the type of internal mobility required, highlighting the need to examine a range of mobility types for understanding intraorganizational mobility. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

And Then There were More? The Effect of Organizational Sex Composition on the Hiring and Promotion of Managers

We study how organizational sex composition influences the intraorganizational mobility of male and female managers. We test hypotheses linking organizational sex composition to hiring and promotion using longitudinal data on all managers in the California savings and loan industry. We find that the impact of sex composition depends on hierarchical level: Not only does it matter what relative proportions of men and women are working in organizations, but it also matters at what levels in the managerial hierarchies they are working. Our findings demonstrate a catch-22 situation: Women are more likely to be hired and promoted into a particular job level when a higher proportion of women are already there. The question remains, how can women gain entry into these positions? We also find that women are more likely to be hired and promoted when there is a substantial minority of women above the focal job level, but not when women constitute the majority in those higher-level positions: Hence women in high ranks can sometimes be a force for demographic change. Finally, we find evidence that women are more likely to be hired and promoted when higher proportions of women hold positions below the focal job level, indicating that gains made by women are not entirely dissipated by endogenous organizational processes.

Social Capital and Opportunity in Corporate R&D: The Contingent Effect of Contact Density on Mobility Expectations

Our analysis focuses on scientists in corporate research and development (R&D) work units. Building on the rich literature on the importance of brokerage and boundary-spanning for intraorganizational mobility, we investigate how scientists' positions in networks of work relations affect the probability that they expect future mobility. Our results support the claim that, in general, actors with disconnected contacts gain a competitive advantage relative to others who do not enjoy the same degree of access to structural holes. In addition to documenting this basic association between contact density and mobility expectations, we demonstrate that the nature of this association differs considerably depending on the larger context for local patterns of interaction. We investigate three such contextual factors: the degree to which the work unit is oriented toward individual rather than collective incentives; the density of the overall pattern of interaction in the unit; and the extent to which brokerage strategies are legitimate. Findings support the conclusion that the effect of contact density on expectations of promotion is contingent on the character of relevant structures and cultures of opportunity.

Resources and Relationships: Social Networks and Mobility in the Workplace

We examine how the structure and content of individuals' networks in the workplace affect intraorganizational mobility. Consistent with prior research, we find that an individual's mobility is enhanced by having a large, sparse network of informal ties for acquiring information and resources. However, in contrast to previous work, we emphasize the importance of consistent role expectations for performance and mobility. We find evidence that well-defined performance expectations are more likely to arise from a small, dense network of individuals. We develop a typology of network contents and document the interaction between network structure and content in analyses of mobility among employees of a high-technology firm. We also examine how the effects of tie duration on mobility vary by tie content. We discuss the implications of our results for theory and research on networks and organizational mobility.

Intraorganizational mobility and work related attitudes

Summary Survey responses of 690 employees of a state agency were used to investigate the idea that internal mobility experiences 'spill over' to affect a variety of job attitudes and perceptions. Having one's internal mobility expectations met, as opposed to unmet, was associated with more favorable work-related attitudes, a finding not moderated by demographic factors. Furthermore, employees denied a job change for 'fair' reasons generally exhibited more favorable work-related attitudes than those denied for a reason construed as 'unfair' (e.g. sex discrimination, reverse discrimination). Demographic characteristics were again observed to moderate few relationships.

The Career Attitudes and Intentions of Managers in the Finance Sector

A questionnaire survey of career attitudes and intentions was administered to 1646 middle managers from eight organizations in the UK finance sector. Lengths of time in the organization, in previous and in present job were shown to predict career attitudes and intentions. Longer‐serving managers were less ambitious and were unwilling to accept various career options. Those who had spent longer in their present job neither expected any change nor were willing to accept it. While decreased inter‐and intraorganizational mobility are consequences of cost‐cutting and recession, it is argued that efforts to increase mobility are likely to pay dividends. Other measures may also succeed, given the finding that organizations differed in terms of their managers' career attitudes and intentions over and above the effects of mobility.