Powermat, Inc., has encountered difficulty over the last few years in filling its middle management positions. The company, which manufactures and sells complex machinery, is organized into six semiautonomous manufacturing departments. Top management believes it is necessary for the managers of these departments to make many complex and technical decisions. Therefore, the company originally recruited strictly from within. However, it soon found that employees elevated to middle management often lacked the skills necessary to discharge their new duties.
A decision was then made to recruit from outside, particularly from colleges with good industrial management programs. Through the services of a professional recruiter, the company developed a pool of well- qualified industrial management graduates. Several were hired and placed in lower management positions as preparation for the middle management jobs. Within two years, all these people had left the company.