Vacancy chain

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In a vacancy chain, a new resource unit coming into a population is taken by a first individual who leaves his/her old unit behind, this old unit is taken by a second individual leaving his/her old unit behind, and so forth (1).

Vacancy chains are started when an initial vacancy comes into a population a new house is built, a new car manufactured, or a new job created or an existing unit is vacated by someone leaving the system under consideration an employee retires, or a home owner goes to a nursing home (2).

Eventually a chain has to end, usually when a new recruit enters the system someone moving into the job or housing market for the first time or the last unit in a chain is abandoned, merged, or destroyed the last house in a chain is torn down, left empty, or the duties of a vacant job are distributed among other employees (2). A vacancy chain is simply the sequence of moves that a vacancy makes from initial entry into a system to final termination (2). The distribution of material resources and social positions through vacancy chain processes requires that the things distributed possess a number of abstract qualities (2). These qualities include that the resource units in question are reusable, discrete, identifiable, and utilized by one individual or social group at a time (2).

Further, in vacancy chain mobility systems, a unit must be vacant before it can be taken by a new occupant; individuals must need or want new and usually bigger or better units from time to time; vacant units must be scarce (the number is small compared to the number of individuals who want them); and most individuals in a group already must have units so they can leave one behind when they move to a new one (2).

In order to trace a vacancy chain, a researcher notes a vacancy coming into a system and then follows this vacancy as it moves to a number of resource units in turn and then finally leaves the system (2). Since vacancy chains in humans often take considerable periods of time, on the order of months, to move from beginning to end and because the chains often involve people widely scattered geographically, researchers usually trace the chains by reconstructing them from organizational records or from series of linked interviews (2).

The length of a vacancy chain is the number of moves a vacancy makes after its entrance into a system, and this includes the terminal move to the absorbing state (2). Longer chains and more costly resource units generate greater benefits,while shorter chains and less costly units generate smaller benefits, for the individuals and institutions involved (2). Vacancy chains have patterned effects upon other individuals and, in the human case, institutions connected to the primary individuals actually getting resources in the chains (2).

Usually when a vacancy occurs the bulk of the people who fill the position(s) come from the inside the internal labor market rather than hiring someone new (3). The individuals being moved and or promoted to a new job/position often gain a higher salary of more benefits which has an important impact on the organization (3). Individuals affected by vacancy chains starting in an organization usually are upwardly mobile in small to moderate jumps in status or laterally mobile within their same status; they rarely experience downward mobility (2). In systems in which they operate, vacancy chains have a strong influence upon organizational demography (2). Such factors as length of service distributions for individuals within the organization, rates of advancement within the system, the age distribution of individuals within particular strata, cohort effects for mobility within the system, and waiting times for advancement (2). Several researchers have used vacancy chain studies to investigate equal opportunity of access by different groups to mobility opportunities (2).

The number and initial strata of the vacancy chains created influence the career possibilities of the individuals in the internal labor market and those about to enter (2). The more chains initiated at higher levels, the more mobility opportunities for individuals throughout the system, as the chains move downward, and the greater the speed with which individuals advance to high status or large units and positions (2). On the other hand, if chains are mostly initiated at lower levels, individuals already in high status positions will see their careers plateau while only those at lower levels will move comparatively quickly before they reach a career bottleneck caused by the lack of opportunities at higher levels (2).

[edit] References

• 1. Pinfield, Lawrence, (1995). The Operation of Internal Labor Markets. New York. Plenum Press.
• 2. Chase, Ivan D. Vacancy Chains. Annul. Review Sociology, 1991.
• 3. Persky, Joseph; Felsenstein, Daniel & Carlson, Virginia. Job Vacancy Chains in Metropolitan Labor Markets. European Regional Science Association, Aug 2002.