Managing internal mobility: How social and human capital shape movers' integration over time.

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly leveraging internal mobility, the transfer of employees across teams within the organization, to enhance workforce flexibility and meet staffing demands. While prior research highlights the organizational benefits of internal mobility, knowledge remains limited about the process through which transferred employees (i.e., internal movers) successfully integrate into their new context, a critical step for realizing those benefits. Drawing on social and human capital theory, we examine how movers' preexisting new team social capital (preentry relationships), accumulated firm human capital (prior internal mobility experience), and transferable former team human capital (prominence in the former team) shape the integration process. Using longitudinal email communication data and internal mobility records from a health care company, we find that movers with preentry relationships in their new teams exhibit higher initial levels of integration, whereas those with more internal mobility experience or greater prominence in their former teams integrate more rapidly over time. Our findings underscore the importance of considering both pre- and postentry dynamics over time to adequately manage how different forms of capital support the successful integration of internal movers into a new team. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).