Prof. Matthew Bidwell (University of Pennsylvania)

Program

• Date: 16.09.2014
  Time: 10am - 12.00noon
  Location: Ludwigstr. 28, VG, Room 305

"SHIFTS AND LADDERS: COMPARING THE ROLE OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL MOBILITY IN EXECUTIVE CAREERS"

Workers can build their careers either by moving into a different job within their current organization or else by moving into a new job within a different organization. We compare the roles of those internal and external moves within careers, using matching perspectives on job mobility to develop theory on how firm boundaries affect careers. We argue that upwards progression into a higher level job is much more likely to happen through internal mobility, but that internal and external moves will offer similar increases in pay as employers seek to attract external hires without offering them more responsibilities. We test these arguments using data from a survey of MBA alumni. We find that internal moves are associated with much greater increases in subordinates and job titles than are external moves, but that the differences in pay between internal and external moves are much smaller. Additionally, measures of career success are significantly predicted by the number of internal moves that a worker has had, but not by the number of external moves. Despite growing interest in boundaryless careers, our findings indicate that internal and external mobility play very different roles in workers’ careers, with upwards mobility still happening overwhelmingly within organizations.