Employee Promotability: The Effect of Manager/Subordinate Work Proximity

Abstract

Despite the abundance of past research that has been conducted on various antecedents leading to promotability - "the favorability of an employee's advancement prospects" (Greenhaus, Parasuraman & Wormley, 1990), there is a paucity of research on the role that work proximity plays in determining an employee’s promotion into leadership positions. This research study looks to understand what role work proximity plays in the ability for a subordinate to be promoted into a leadership role. Leader member Exchange Theory and Signaling Theory all point to trust, perceived similarity and upward impression management as the antecedents having the most effect on the subordinate’s ability to be promoted into a leadership role when they do not physically work from the same location as their manager. The first phase of this research study aims to validate and refine those antecedents in a single case study using a qualitative and exploratory approach. As a result of the pilot study, trust was moved to control variable, informal interaction was added as a new antecedent and work proximity was changed from a moderating variable to a main effect variable. Additionally, perceived similarity and perceived positive impression were also identified as possible mediating variables. The results of this research study have shown that the extent to which a manger can physically “see” or “notice” their subordinate regardless of their physical work location, being co-located or not, is related to the manager’s assessment of the subordinates promotability. This finding answers the research question: What role does work proximity to one’s manager play in employees being promoted into leadership roles?