Internal promotions versus external recruitement : evidence in industrial plants

Abstract

Altres ajuts: BEC2001-2552-C03-01

An analysis of the factors related to the use of internal promotion of blue-collar workers to positions as supervisors and skilled technicians compared to external recruitment was carried out on a sample of 653 Spanish industrial plants. The use of internal promotion is positively correlated with variables indicating the efforts made by plants to measure employees' skills as well as with the level of specificity of investment in human capital made by blue-collar workers. Contrary to what was expected, variables related to the use and efficiency of other incentive systems have no significant influence on the degree to which internal promotion is used. These results are preliminary evidence that internal promotions are used to protect and favor specific investments, especially those made by firms in order to find out their workers' skills