The intermediate managers, "actors of the internal mobilities "? Revealing do-it-yourself of tensions

Audrey ABEL
IAE de Paris

Rachel BEAUJOLIN-BELLET
NEOMA Business School

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to enlighten roles and practices of middle managers concerning internal mobility management in a context of reorganizing.
Adopting a « HRM-in-practice » and a « Grounded Theory » perspective, this research is based on the study of a large public company that intends to transform these managers as the « key internal mobility players ».
Our study reveals a diversity of middle managers’ roles in the management of internal mobility resulting in many do-it yourself in their practices. Building on the roles of these managers as identified by Balogun (2003), we also show that these roles are prioritized, that leads to the consideration that there are favorable conditions for the fulfillment of roles in a context of change. This diversity of middle managers’ roles and bricolages finally reveals unresolved tensions in the internal mobility management system.