Turned Down and Taking Off? Rejection and Turnover in Internal Talent Markets

Is shooting for fairness always beneficial? The influence of promotion fairness on employees' cognitive and emotional reactions to promotion failure

“…Scholars have examined the implications of promotion failure on work outcomes. For instance, some studies have examined the relationship between promotion failure and rejectee' turnover intention (Bagdadli et al, 2006; Dlugos & Keller, 2021; Lyness & Judiesch, 2001). In addition, Webster and Beehr (2013) and Lam and Schaubroeck (2000) found that promotion rejection detrimentally affects employee work behaviours, including organizational citizenship behaviours and work performance.…”

“…From the social exchange approach, denied promotions impact outcomes through satisfaction, organizational commitment and intrinsic motivation (Johnston et al, 1993; Lam & Schaubroeck, 2000; Webster & Beehr, 2013). From the future‐oriented lens, promotion rejection affects work outcomes via rejectees' growth‐based denied promotion story construction, information interpretation of the likelihood of future advancement and procedural fairness (Bagdadli et al, 2006;Brands & Fernandez‐Mateo, 2017; Dlugos & Keller, 2021; Vough & Caza, 2017). In addition, individual differences, such as gender, integrity and locus of control (Fine et al, 2016; Lam & Schaubroeck, 2000; Lyness & Judiesch, 2001) and hiring managers' decisions about whom to interview and hire (Dlugos & Keller, 2021) are also included as boundary conditions to explain rejectees' reactions.…”

“…According to this perspective, the rejection disrupts the social exchange relationship candidates have with their organizations, characterized as reciprocal obligation and commitment (Johnston et al, 1993; Webster & Beehr, 2013). In addition, some studies have taken a future‐oriented perspective to examine the effects of promotion failure, which underscores rejectees' outward perceptions or attitudes toward promotion system and practice (Brands & Fernandez‐Mateo, 2017; Dlugos & Keller, 2021; Vough & Caza, 2017). However, few studies have asked what discrete emotions rejectees experience when receiving the rejection outcome (Fine et al, 2016) and how the rejections mean in terms of their capabilities and qualifications.…”

Succession planning for senior leaders: is it always a good idea?

“…Similarly, SP and LD may create demoralization if internal candidates are not selected or promoted (Cappelli, 2008;Cavanaugh, 2017;Conger and Fulmer, 2003;Dlugos and Keller, 2021) An incestuous internal promotion culture may fail to support change and adaptation to the external environment or create diversity or inclusiveness in the senior leadership ranks (Barton, 2019;Rothwell, 2015) SP and LD may compete with other projects for limited resources (Murphy, 2005) Relying on outside talent may be preferable to SP and LD when a complacent or struggling institution needs to diversify perspectives or change direction (Leske, 2009;Rothwell, 2015) During unstable periods, top candidates might leave for more stable institutions or industries, whereas retained weaker candidates may limit SP and LD investment returns (Rothwell, 2015) An abundance of external candidates can create opportunities for organizations to hire strong external candidates reducing SP's value (Cappelli, 2008;Schuler et al, 2011) Tensions may arise with incumbent leaders when favored candidates are rejected or their mentees fail (Giannakas et al, 2017;Vaughn et al, 2017) Table 1.…”

The Generative Mechanism of Boomerang Intention: From the Perspective of Legacy Identification

“…Thus a large scale of ex-employees appears ( Laulié and Morgeson, 2021 ), providing numerous human resources for the former organization. As we know, internal and external hiring have their limitations ( Dlugos and Keller, 2021 ), while re-hiring has advantages over them in some aspects. Such as improving the accuracy of employee selection; reducing the time and cost of recruitment, training, and socialization; bringing new knowledge, skills, and perspectives to the organization; boosting the morale for the existing employees; enhancing customer retention; strengthening employees’ trust and commitment to the organization after they have found that “the pasture outside is not greener”, and then establishing long-term employment relations ( Shipp et al, 2014 ; Raveendra and Satish, 2021 ).…”