Do Previous Promotion Awards Affect Current Decisions? Investigation of Intertemporal Correlations of Personnel Decisions

Purpose - This study analyzes the intertemporal patterns in personnel decisions made between a supervisor and a subordinate to understand potential supervisor bias in the decisions. A correlation between the current and the most recent personnel decisions made for a subordinate by a current supervisor captures certain relationship-embedded and time-invariant factors in effect. The characteristics speak to the nature of a supervisor bias arising from a relationship, or favoritism. Design/methodology/approach - This study manually collects the executive profile data from annual reports of key Samsung Group affiliates and compile a longitudinal sample of 3,675 executive-years. It mainly explores the logistic regression analysis. Findings - The study finds that a supervisor’ previous promotion award to a subordinate does not improve but decreases the likelihood of promotions in ensuing years, suggesting the containment of favoritism; and that the time since the last promotion award to a subordinate by the current supervisor increases the likelihood of both promotions and dismissals of the subordinate. Research implications or Originality - The findings are generally consistent with the theory suggesting that incentive schemes that align interests between an individual and an organization will contain the form of a supervisor bias.