Question

Imagine that you are the head of recruiting for a major airline. You are charged with replacing several department-head positions by the end of the year. In a short 1-page essay, lay out the arguments for recruiting from within the company and recruiting from outside the company.

Answer 1

Recruiting from within the company would mean that the new personnel would be very familiar with the company procedures and also probably know most of the other employees in their office so it would/should be easy for them to be integrated into the company. Also, they would already know the culture of the company which means for example they would know how to approach people in the best way to get their cooperation. Their probable intimate knowledge of the history of the company would also make it easier for them to understand its present functioning. Hiring from outside the company would have the advantage of having someone with a fresh point of view and able to see the co. more objectively and therefore be able to point out things which may be detrimental to its proper functioning. On the positive side, having someone who has had say wide experience with various companies there is more likelihood of them being more innovative about new ways of doing things. This is related to the problem that at least with some big companies, they sometimes think that because they are big and relatively successful, they have nothing to learn from other companies and this is an erroneous idea which may prevent them from optimizing their production.