Career Mobility and Branding in the Civil Service: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This paper investigates recruitment and mobility patterns, and builds and tests a model that predicts voluntary turnover. The findings include why current employees joined, their motivations and problems in seeking positions once in the public service, and issues in transition management. The model found that promotion stress and commitment were primary causes for seeking new positions. However, this search favored remaining in the civil service. The model also suggested the importance of supervisory support in addressing a number of career issues. Implications are drawn for meeting challenges including recruiting and retaining the “new age” employee, and managing the more calculative relationship between employee and organization.