Rejected But Still There: Shifting the focus in applicant reactions to the promotional context

Applicant reactions continue to be an important area of research. Yet a unique category of individuals generally overlooked in applicant reactions research is internal candidates for promotion. This is unfortunate and surprising, as these candidates often possess greater awareness of the procedures used to create the selection process, have greater familiarity with other candidates for comparisons, and have greater investment in the process than external, entry‐level applicants. Understanding this situation is important because internal candidates who fail the process are retained as members of the organizational workforce. Consequently, applicant reactions within the promotional context could profoundly impact important organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, morale, retention, contextual performance, and the effectiveness of the newly promoted staff. This paper highlights relevant theories and key candidate outcomes pertinent to applicant reactions in a promotional context. Theoretical propositions and suggestions for future research are developed to encourage further investigations related to reactions of internal candidates.