This chapter examines talent management through the lens of worker flows, emphasizing the interdependence between staffing decisions across jobs and over time. It reviews existing theories on how people flow across jobs within and across organizations, as well as how organizations balance those internal and external flows in staffing jobs. Although different theories have generally been used to analyze internal and external mobility, I note that organizations are using increasingly market-like structures to manage internal moves, while research is also revealing increasing amounts of structure in flows of workers across organizations. I also argue that studies continue to highlight the substantial benefits that organizations receive from staffing jobs through internal rather than external mobility, despite increases over time in outside hiring.
Internal and External Labor Markets: A Personnel Economics Approach