Question

Explain how internal selection decisions differ from external selection decisions. At least 200 words and references.

Answer 1

Internal selection refers to situations where an organizationis hiring or promoting from within, whereas external selection refers tosituationswhere an organization is hiring from the outside. While some assessment methods areused more commonly for external selection (e.g., cognitiveability tests, personality tests,integrity tests), there are numerous examples of organizations that have used one or more tools for internalselection, external selection or both.

The selection of thewinning internal or external job candidateis a common dilemma of theinternal recruitment process. Many times, the external and the internal final candidates compete for the job position. The HRM Function and the hiringmanager have to make a correct decision.

Theefficient internal recruitmentneeds clear rules for the decision about the winningcandidate. The organization has to clearly define the condition for the final decision based on the corporate culture and habits inside theorganization.

The corporate culture should be the main driver of the final decision. The internal candidate has to be sure about the evaluation notto become de-motivated. The clear rules for the preference of the internal candidate over the external candidate will help to set the clearexpectations.

The common rule is the “winner takes it all”. This rule can be applied in the organizations focused on the internal and externalcompetition. The organization makes no difference between internal and external candidates. This approach looks fair to the employees, but it can bringa lot of confusion as the employees feel no preference of the internal and existing employees and they feel no interest of the organization in theirown personal career development.

Other organizations provide the internal candidates with some kind of the preference – in time or their competencies. The advantage intime is the simplest one to implement. The HRM Function does not look for the job candidate externally for a defined period of time and the employeesin the organization have a chance to be quicker. The advantage in competencies needs to define an ideal competencies profile for the position and theinternal candidate does not have to meet all to be a winning candidate. This approach is quite usual as well.

On the opposite side some organizations always prefer internal candidates for job positions and they do not have to compete with theexternal candidates. This is also very dangerous approach as the external candidate can bring a new knowledge or the approach to theorganization.