The Internal Environment

The internal factors selected for this discussion concern staffing managerial

positions – with personnel from within the firm as well as from the outside – and

determining the responsibility for staffing.

Promotion from Within

Originally, promotion from within implied that workers proceeded into first-line

supervisory positions and then upward through the organization structure. Thus, a firm

was pictured as receiving a flow of non-managerial employees from which future

managers emerged.

Employees overwhelmingly favor a policy of promotion from within. The banning

of outsiders reduces competition for positions and gives employees an established

monopoly on managerial openings. Employees come to doubt the wisdom of the policy,

however, when they are confronted with a specific case of selection of one of their own

for promotion. This feeling is present at all levels of the organization, largely because of

jealousy or because of rivalry for promotion. The difficulty becomes most evident when

a general manager is being selected from among the sales, production, finance, or

engineering managers. Top managers are often inclined to choose the easy way and

avoid problems by selecting an outsider.

Promoting from within an enterprise not only has positive values relating to

morale, employees’ long-run commitment to the company, and the firm’s reputation, but

it also allows the enterprise to take advantage of the presence of potentially fine

managers among its employees. However, although these positive but unmeasurable
values are important, executives should not be blind to the dangers of either

overemphasizing this source or relying on it exclusively.

A danger presented by a policy of exclusively promoting from within is that it may

lead to the selection of persons who have, perhaps, only imitated their superiors. This

is not necessarily a fault, especially if only the best methods, routines, and viewpoints

are cultivated, but this is likely to be an unapproachable idea. The fact is that

enterprises often need people from the outside to introduce new ideas and practices.

Consequently, there is a good reason to avoid a policy of exclusive promotion from

within.