Company promotions: Is your manager ruining the internal job market?

In the busy hurried corridors of our Kenyan corporate world, employees often find themselves navigating a maze of managerial styles. Sit back at your desk and recall a past boss, one who perhaps hoarded talent, stifling your growth opportunities. Picture them micromanaging, seldom offering support for career advancement, or perhaps even blocking your path to new internal roles. Such experiences, unfortunately common, diminish not only employee morale but also organisational progress.

Recent research by JR Keller and Kathryn Dlugos, just published in the prestigious Academy of Management journal, challenges the effectiveness of our internal talent markets as we know them. The study scrutinises the assumption that free movement of employees to open and available internal organisational jobs suffice for effective talent management.