MPC Member Publications

This database contains a listing of population studies publications written by MPC Members. Anyone can add a publication by an MPC student, faculty, or staff member to this database; new citations will be reviewed and approved by MPC administrators.

Full Citation

Title: Strength from Within: Internal Mobility and the Retention of High Performers

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2020

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3503708

Abstract: We develop and test a theoretically informed and generalizable empirical framework for evaluating the performance gap between internally and externally hired workers. First, human capital theory predicts that internal hires will be immediately more productive than external hires. Second, contextual learning predicts that internal hires will be more productive with time. Finally, theories of commitment, which are rarely applied to this literature, predict that internal advancement enhances retention among high performers (“positive retention”). Applying a general empirical framework for quantifying the relative contributions of these mechanisms to a retailer with 109,063 commissioned salespeople and their 12,931 managers, we find that the gap in our setting is primarily driven by positive retention: high performers and internal hires are less likely to quit, and crucially, high performing internal hires are especially unlikely to quit. When high performing internal hires do quit, they tend to cite reasons unrelated to work rather than advancement opportunities. By typically examining erformance and retention in isolation, researchers and organizations may be underestimating the importance of internal advancement as a means of retaining of high performers

Url: https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3503708

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Benson, Alan; Rissing, Ben A.

Periodical (Full): SSRN Electronic Journal

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IPUMS NHGIS NAPP IHIS ATUS Terrapop