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Prefer Internal Advancement

Many organizations recruit managers and executives almost exclusively from outside the organization. This is usually a mistake. This essay presents some important reasons that promoting from within the organization should be preferred whenever possible.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

The typical justification for promoting externally is that a suitable individual does not exist within the organization. The trouble with this argument is that it is not meaningful to compare an employee's known, although imperfect, track record to a candidate's possibly inflated résumé. Furthermore, it is entirely possible that the reason for the nonexistence of such an individual is that the organization does not promote internally.

Avoiding Resentment

Another common justification for promoting externally is that several internal candidates have similar qualifications, and therefore the individuals who are passed over, being aware of the selected candidate's limitations, may become resentful and unproductive. This argument is fallacious because promotion candidates may or may not be any more resentful for being passed over externally than internally, and if no candidate is promoted, then even the most suitable will be resentful. Furthermore, when the organization has a track record for promoting internally, the resentment of passed-over candidates is tempered with confidence that their time will arrive before long.

Transitioning Effectively

A clear advantage of promoting internally is that managers are intimately familiar with the operations that they manage, even during transition periods. By selecting managers among the peers of the managed, one guarantees that managers are fully capable of performing and therefore measuring the tasks of their subordinates. One tends to take this for granted, but it is often not the case when managers are imported.

Fostering Diversity

It is sometimes asserted that smooth transitions are not desirable, because the organization "needs a shake-up." Although stodginess and complacency are the enemies of a healthy organization, it is doubtful that they can be attacked effectively by installing an outsider into a situation in which he is likely to be undermined. Instead, intellectual and cultural diversity must be nurtured continuously throughout the recruiting and training functions, and at all levels of authority.

Motivating Employees

Perhaps the most important reason to promote from within is that most individuals are motivated by the opportunity for advancement. When the organization demonstrates that it is committed to advancing productive individuals, then there is healthy competition to be productive. This also leads to growth of individual capabilities and a stronger sense of participation in the success of the organization, which in turn makes the organization more successful.

A Vicious Cycle

The same forces that benefit the organization when there are internal advancement opportunities also work in reverse when they are absent. In particular...
When there of no hope of promotion, most individuals who are capable of being promoted elsewhere will seek employment elsewhere.

Most of those who remain are therefore either not viable for promotion or unwilling to be promoted, at which point the opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to internal advancement is forever lost. Finally, having lost most of the competent employees, the operations of the organization suffer to such a degree that even those who don't desire advancement can't stand it any more. At this point, you had better have a strong product position, or your organization is a goner.

Anders Johnson, last modified $Date: 2002/02/05 $

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