On the Move: Career Mobility and Its Mechanisms

Career mobility, or the movement of individuals across jobs, has long been recognized as pivotal to the development of both individuals and organizations (Bidwell, Briscoe, Fernandez-Mateo, and Sterling, 2013; Bidwell and Mollick, 2015). As individuals change jobs more frequently, it is increasingly important to understand mobility's underlying mechanisms, which are the factors that explain why and how people and organizations achieve or are prevented from achieving career mobility. Along these lines, five papers in this symposium unpack the complex dynamics of individual-organization fit, social networks, mobility, and performance. Two of the papers examine the mechanisms of individual-organization fit. Stein, Goldberg, and Srivastava investigate how language used at the pre-hiring stage is related to a person's likelihood of being hired and – for those who are hired – of fitting in culturally and of performing well on the job. Bode and Rogan examine how participation in corporate social initiatives, which are commonly believed to enhance the fit of individuals with the organization, in fact negatively affect the mobility of men. Two papers examine the mechanisms of job seekers' social networks. Rider et al. investigate the causal relationship between individuals' network ties and their likelihood of maintaining employment and of changing employers. Zhang, Sterling, and Aven examine how employees' ties to other business units affect both the likelihood of joining those units and post-move performance. Complementing these papers, which focus either on external mobility (Rider et al.; Stein et al.) or internal mobility (Bode and Rogan; Zhang et al.), Benson and Rissing investigate whether internal transfers outperform external hires and whether establishments that prioritize internal transfers outperform those that do not. In combination, these five papers help open the “black box&x201D; of mechanisms that operate at the organization/labor market interface and broaden our understanding of career mobility and its impact."

• Distinguishing Round from Square Pegs: Language Use Predicts Hiring, Performance, and Cultural Fit

• Presenter: Sarah Stein; Stanford Graduate School of Business

• Presenter: Amir Goldberg; Stanford U.

• Presenter: Sameer B. Srivastava; U. of California, Berkeley

• Gender Differences in Promotions Following Participation in a Corporate Social Initiative

• Presenter: Christiane Bode; Bocconi U.

• Presenter: Michelle A. Rogan; UNC Chapel Hill / INSEAD

• Evolving Network Ties and Careers: A study of National Football League coaches

• Presenter: Christopher I. Rider; Georgetown U.

• Presenter: James Wade; George Washington U.

• Presenter: Anand Swaminathan; Emory U.

• Presenter: Andreas Schwab; Iowa State U.

• Structural Blindness? Mobility and Performance Disruption in Organizations

• Presenter: Evelyn Ying Zhang; Carnegie Mellon U. - Tepper School of Business

• Presenter: Adina D. Sterling; Stanford GSB

• Presenter: Brandy Aven; Carnegie Mellon U.

• Strength from Within: Individual and Store-Level Evidence Transfers Outperform Hires

• Presenter: Alan M. Benson; U. of Minnesota

• Presenter: Ben Rissing; Cornell U.