Triggers and Halts of Professional Mobility in Public Companies: A Case Study of the Romanian Forest Administration

Abstract

This research tried to identify the most important factors that motivate or hinder forest engineers in commuting between their household and the regional office of the National Forest Administration, or prompt them to relocate their entire family to Bucharest, where the headquarters of the NFA is located, in seeking promotion in the professional hierarchy. A survey, administered as a Google form, was designed to carry out analysis of independent benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks. The decision process was designed as an analytic hierarchy process, and each one of these factors was a separate analytic hierarchy process. We found that forest engineers tend to be very conservative when it comes to changing their professional position from the forest district to the NFA regional office or NFA top management. On the one hand, the professional opportunities to promote upwards do not compensate for the fringe benefits gained at the forest district level, while the costs of living in a larger city outweigh the benefits, even though the house rent is paid by the employer.