Think ahead. The manager who rewards you with raises, bonuses and career opportunities could be replaced by a new boss who stunts your growth.

New research co-authored by ILR Associate Professor JR Keller indicates that a manager’s influence on your career can be felt even after they leave for a new role, and that leaving can accelerate the movement of an employee within the company.

“We spend a lot of time thinking about how employees build their careers, but employees have managers and those managers have their own careers,” said Keller, who studies how companies make hiring decisions and how individuals make career choices, with a particular interest in how dynamics shape how employees change jobs within companies. “Often, individual employees are affected by the decisions made by their managers. Employees should be aware that these decisions by their managers will have consequences for their own careers, and they should proactively anticipate. »

In the study, “My manager moved! Manager Mobility and Subordinates’ Career Outcomes,” Keller and his co-authors, Minseo Baek and Matthew Bidwell, both of the Wharton School, found that when an employee’s manager left, his annual bonuses dropped by 4%, while his long-term incentives, such as stock options, fell 17%.

The full version of this story appears on the ILR website.
Julie Greco is Senior Communication Specialist at ILR School