R&D professionals' views of criteria for intrafirm job mobility: Individual and aggregate analyses of transfer climate perceptions in West German and British Industrial R&D Organizations

Abstract

Prior research on employees' views of various criteria for obtaining a desirable intrafirm transfer has conceptualized these perceptions on an individual level of analysis (i.e. has examined psychological transfer climates). It is argued that the identification of aggregate transfer climate dimensions on an organizational (subsystem) level of analysis is important for improving the effectiveness of R&D via better transfer policies. Factor analyses of questionnaire data obtained from 729 R&D professionals in 11 FRG industrial firms and 141 R&D professionals in three U.K. industrial firms revealed that both FRG and U.K. subjects perceived three broad means (overall task performance, publication and patent productivity, favouritism) for obtaining a desirable job transfer. Empirically the idea was supported that, for certain transfer criteria (overall task performance, manifest professional output, educational level, luck), individuals' scores can be meaningfully aggregated to obtain organizational transfer climate measures. Remarkable differences in the importance of company tenure and educational level as criteria for transfers in R&D were found between FRG and U.K. organizations. Using the FRG data set differences in the performance responsiveness of organizational transfer climates were shown to be significantly related to work‐related outcome variables. Implications are sketched for R&D transfer policies and for explaining U.K./FRG differences in the corporate treatment of R&D activities.