Internal hires often have an initial performance advantage over external hires due to their firm-specific experience, which includes established colleague networks and familiarity with the firm’s social system. While existing studies typically view firm-specific experience as an advantage that prepares internal hires for success in new positions, this paper explores the unexpected challenges it can present as internal hires transition into new roles. Drawing on Mintzberg’s (1971) analysis of managerial behaviors, we suggest that, when available, managers use shortcuts and heuristics to manage their multifaceted responsibilities. In the hiring context, we propose that managers may be especially inclined to adopt shortcuts in their treatment of internal – relative to external – hires, leading internal hires to experience less formal evaluation in selection, less formal onboarding support, and greater unfamiliar responsibilities in their new roles. Using survey data from over 600 new hires and 200 hiring managers at a large healthcare company, we find support for our predictions that internal hires receive less formal onboarding and face more unfamiliar responsibilities in their new roles, while our prediction regarding formal evaluation is not supported.
