Develop talents through internal mobility in large French businesses

Large French companies usually propose intra-organizational mobility to their employees. Intra-organizational mobility presents many relevant issues highlighted in the economic and managerial literature. In particular, theoretical frameworks, such as the learning theory of Bateson, the intrinsic motivation approach developed by Thomas and the sociology of translation, suggest that intra-organizational mobility can develop and spread employees' talent through the organization.

Through a qualitative research, we observed the implementation of intra-organizational mobility inside three large companies: Société Générale, Venus and EDF. The research finds difficulties that limit the impact of intra-organizational mobility in terms of talent development. For organizations in transition, intra-organizational mobility suffers from logical inconsistencies and disconnects that make its effects ambiguous. In other organizations, the boundaryless model of career development that applies inside the organization can lead employees to a lack of sense in career development and be compared to a Brownian motion. Only intra-organizational structure at Venus develops "learning agility" and an intrinsic motivation of Progress, thanks to a managerial philosophy that considers trial and error an intrinsic element of learning but at the cost of an important psychic involvement from individuals.

Thus, intra-organizational mobility is an attractive tool for HR professionals but it is rather complex to implement in organizations. Inter case analysis shows that intra-organizational mobility actually includes strong psychological and cultural dimensions and reflects aspects of the employment relationship.