Factors relating to relocation decisions of research and development employees

JOURNAL

OF VOCATIONAL

BEHAVIOR

41, 183-199 (1992)

Factors Relating to Relocation Decisions of Research and Development Employees DANIEL

B. TURBAN

Management Department, University of Missouri JAMES

E. CAMPION

University of Houston AND ALISON

R. EYRING

College of Business Administration, University

of Houston

The present study investigated factors related to relocation decisions of employees of a research and development laboratory who, faced with a facility relocation, either relocated from the northeast to the southwest or lost their current jobs. We extended earlier research by including a wider range of variables than earlier studies and by measuring actual relocation decisions rather than willingness to relocate. Results indicated that employees who had lived a shorter time in the community and had more positive perceptions of the new job’s attributes were more likely to relocate. Contrary to expectations, employees with high school age children living at home were more likely to relocate than families without high school age children. The results were compared with findings from earlier studies, and areas for future research were discussed. o KW Academic press. ~nc.

Each year employers ask approximately 250,000 to 500,OOOemployees to relocate (Bureau of National Affairs, 1986; Kunish, 1983). However, both the costs and the refusal rates for relocation have been increasing (Axel, 1985; Grossman & Magnus, 1988; Newgren, Kellogg, & Gardner, 1988). Organizations spend approximately 4 billion dollars a year relocating employees (Grossman & Magnus, 1988), yet many firms find that employees refuse to relocate (Kunish, 1983). Although the transfer and relocation of employees is a widespread practice in large organizations, Reprint requests should be addressed to Daniel B. Turban, Management Department, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. 183 oool-8791&2 $5.00 Copyright 8 1991 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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little research has investigated employee relocation decision-making processes and factors influencing relocation decisions (Richards, Donohue, & Gullotta, 1985). The present study investigated factors influencing employees’ decisions either to accept a job transfer involving relocation or to discontinue employment with the organization. A large chemical company closed a research and development laboratory located in the northeast and offered to transfer employees to the southwest. As such, this study investigated a facility relocation that led to a lateral transfer. Researchers have investigated factors, usually with data collected by the Census Bureau, predicting whether people move across county lines ( i.e., “migration” decisions) (Duncan & Perrucci, 1976; Long, 1974; Sell, 1983). Such research provides useful information about migration decisions but does not investigate specifically which factors influence employees’ decisions to relocate for an employer. Other research, focused on employee relocation decisions, measured willingness to relocate rather than the actual relocation decision (Gould & Penley, 1985; Noe, Steffy, & Barber, 1988; Swanson, Luloff, & Warland, 1979). However, indicating a willingness to relocate does not measure costs associated with relocating, such as packing and moving belongings, and may not predict actual decisions. Brett and Reilly (1988) measured actual relocation decisions of employees from 10 organizations and found that employees’ willingness to move, employees’ attitudes toward moving, and the wife’s willingness to move predicted subsequent relocation decisions. As noted by Brett and Reilly (1988)) however, because employees made relocation decisions within a few months to 5 years after completing a survey, the power of the variables to predict relocation decisions was limited. Therefore, Brett and Reilly (1988) called for future research and suggested that different measures be used in future studies of relocation decisions. The current study extends earlier research by measuring variables thought to influence relocation decisions, but not included in earlier research, and by measuring actual relocation decisions of employees. A cost-benefits approach to relocation decisions suggests that employees will relocate when the perceived benefits of relocating exceed the costs of moving (Lichter, 1982). We investigate the relationship between the employees’ relocation decisions and these factors thought to influence the costs and benefits of moving: family considerations and community ties, employee demographic characteristics, and employee perceptions of the new job, the location and the relocation policy. Employees with families are thought to have stronger community ties, and because the costs of moving are greater for employees with stronger community ties, such employees are thought to be less likely to relocate than those with weaker community ties (Spitz, 1986; Veiga, 1983). Therefore, we investigate whether these family considerations are related to

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relocation decisions: marital status, the spouse’s employment status, the number and ages of children living at home, and perceptions of family adjustment to the move. Additionally, we investigate the effects of community tenure, another indicator of community ties, on relocation decisions. Marital status is expected to influence relocation decisions because the costs of moving are less for single employees who do not have to consider the impact of the move on the spouse (Mincher, 1978). Therefore, we expect that married employees are less likely to relocate. Additionally, employees with an employed spouse probably have stronger ties to the community and therefore are less likely to relocate than employees whose spouses are not employed. Most studies found that employees with working spouses were less likely to relocate (Brett & Reilly, 1988; Lichter, 1982; Mincher, 1978), although one study found that employees were more willing to relocate when their spouses were working (Gould & Penley, 1985). One explanation for these discrepant findings is that Gould and Penley (1985) measured willingness to move rather than the actual decision. We hypothesize that employees with employed spouses are less likely to relocate. The costs of moving are thought to be greater for families with more dependent children (Fox & Krausz, 1987; Brett & Reilly, 1988). Additionally, teenagers in high school are thought to have a difficult time moving because of the disruptions caused by leaving behind their friends and changing school systems (Brett & Reilly, 1988; Pinder, 1989). Nonetheless, neither the number nor the ages of children living at home was related to relocation decisions (Gould & Penley, 1985; Brett & Reilly, 1988). The number, or ages, of children in the family may not reflect the children’s expected adjustment to the new location, and previous research has not investigated whether employees’ perception of family adjustment to the new location influence relocation decisions. Further, no study has investigated whether families with teenagers are less likely to relocate than families without teenagers (Brett & Reilly, 1988). We extend earlier research by investigating the effects of such variables and hypothesize that perceived family adjustment will be positively related and that high school age children at home will be negatively related to relocation decisions . Additionally, employees who have lived longer in an area probably identify more with the area and therefore perceive greater costs in moving (Swanson et al., 1979). Although employee community tenure was negatively related to willingness to relocate (Gould & Penley, 1985; Noe et al., 1988; Swanson et al., 1979), no study has investigated the effects of community tenure on actual relocation decisions. We expect that employees with longer community tenure have invested more in the community and therefore are less likely to relocate.

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Employee demographic characteristics are thought to influence the costs and benefits of moving and to therefore be related to relocation decisions. We investigate whether employees’ age, tenure, and sex are related to relocation decisions. In general, age and organizational tenure both tend to be negatively related to willingness to relocate (Gould & Penley, 1985; Noe et al., 1988; Sell, 1983), presumably because of the greater costs of moving for older employees with more seniority. However, age and tenure also are negatively related to turnover (Mobley, 1982). Such findings make it difficult to predict how age and organizational tenure are related to relocation decisions because in the current study employees either relocated or quit their jobs. Although older employees might be more likely to relocate because of their greater investment in the organization (Meyer & Allen, 1984), older employees with longer tenure also have stronger community ties and therefore might be less likely to relocate. Therefore, we have postulated no specific hypotheses concerning the relations between tenure, or age, and relocation decisions. Finally, because evidence suggests that women are less willing to move than men (see Markham, 1987 for a review), we expect that men will be more likely to relocate. Employees making a decision to relocate or to quit working for the organization are likely to compare the relocation (new) job with other jobs they have received or expect to receive and choose the option with the greatest expected utility. Models of turnover decisions suggest that employees compare the expected utility of the current job with the expected utility of alternative job opportunities (Hulin, Roznowski, & Hachiya, 1985; Mobley, 1982). Therefore, we asked employees to compare the new job with other jobs they received or expected to receive on three job attributes thought to influence relocation decisions: the type of work, location, and financial rewards. Perceptions of the type of work influence employment decisions (Schwab, Rynes, & Aldag, 1987; Wanous & Colella, 1989) and are thought to influence relocation decisions (Noe et al., 1988; Brett & Reilly, 1988). Further, employees with more positive perceptions of the new location, compared with expected alternative locations, should perceive greater benefits in relocating. Finally, financial rewards influence employment choices (Lawler, 1971; Lippman & McCall, 1976) and are thought to influence the perceived benefits of relocating. No research was found that investigated whether relocation decisions are related to employees’ perceptions of the type of work, the location, and the financial rewards, although researchers have proposed such relations and have argued that such research is needed (Carruthers & Pinder, 1983). We expect that employees with more positive perceptions of the new job, in comparison to expected alternatives, are more likely to accept relocation offers because of the greater expected utility (Vroom, 1966). No study has investigated the relation between relocation decisions and

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attitudes toward the new location, although preferences for the new location predict post-transfer satisfaction (Pinder, 1977, 1989). Because attitudes toward the location may influence the perceived benefits in relocating, we expect that employees with more positive attitudes toward the new location are more likely to relocate. In general, employees with more positive attitudes toward their work and the organization are more likely to relocate because the benefits of relocating are greater for such employees. For example, employees with greater organizational commitment are more likely to accept the transfer because of their greater attachment to the organization (Brett & Reilly, 1988). Gould and Penley (1985) found that employees with greater job involvement were less willing to relocate because of their greater attachment to the job. However, because in the current study employees who are unwilling to relocate will lose their jobs, we expect employees with greater job involvement will be more likely to relocate. Therefore, both job involvement and organizational commitment are hypothesized to be positively related to relocation decisions. Finally, although we found no study that investigated whether perceptions of the company’s relocation policy influence relocation decisions, Pinder (1977) found that satisfaction with the transfer policy was positively correlated with transfer satisfaction. Therefore, we expect that employees with positive perceptions of the company’s relocation policy perceive less costs in moving and are more likely to relocate. In summary, we investigate factors related to actual relocation decisions. We expect that employees with more family considerations and stronger community ties perceive greater costs in moving and therefore are less likely to relocate. Employees with positive perceptions of the new job’s attributes, positive attitudes toward work and the location, and positive perceptions of the relocation policy are more likely to relocate because the benefits of moving are greater for such employees. This study extends earlier research by investigating the effects of variables that were not previously measured but are thought to influence relocation decisions. In addition, we measure actual relocation decisions of employees of a single organization who were faced with a choice of relocating or losing their current jobs. METHOD Procedure and Setting

A large chemical company decided to close a research and development laboratory located in the northeast and asked 81 employees to relocate to the southwest. The laboratory employed 105 individuals. Twenty employees were made offers to relocate to other laboratories around the country, and four individuals were not given relocation offers. The sample

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for this study was the 81 employees who were asked to relocate to the southwest. Employees were given approximately 3 months to decide whether to accept the relocation offer or to quit working for the company. During this time period the company provided numerous programs and seminars (e.g., individual/family conferences, tax information, benefits, and housing) to assist employees in the relocation decision and also provided site visits at the new location for interested employees and their spouses. We were contacted to investigate factors influencing employees’ relocation decisions and to evaluate the relocation programs provided for the employees. Approximately 3 months after the deadline for making the relocation decision, we mailed surveys to the 81 employees who had been offered similar positions at the new site in the southwest. These surveys were approximately eight pages long and included sections evaluating the relocation programs and the site visit, in addition to the measures, discussed below, which were used for this study. Participants were assured confidentiality and asked to return the surveys to the university. To thank participants for their time and effort, 10 dollars was included with the survey. The measures used in this study were obtained from the surveys, except for relocation decisions, which were obtained from company records and reflected employees’ actual decisions. Subjects Sixty-six employees (81% response rate) returned usable questionnaires. The response rates of subjects who rejected (47/56) or accepted (19/25) the relocation offer were very similar. The subjects were predominantly white (89%), male (86%), and married (86%), with an average of 1.2 children. The average age was approximately 43 years. Subjects had lived in the New England area on the average 28 years and had worked at the particular laboratory for an average of 13.5 years. Approximately 36% of the subjects had a Ph.D., 19% had a Master’s degree, and 31% had a Bachelor’s degree. Measures Family considerations and community ties. Employees indicated their marital status, whether their spouse was employed, the number and ages of children living at home, and the number of years they lived in the general area. Spouse employment status was coded 1 for employees with an employed spouse and 0 for employees who did not have an employed spouse. Following Brett and Reilly’s (1988) suggestion a variable was created to indicate whether the family had high school age children (between the ages of 15 and 18) living at home. High school age children was coded 1 for employees with such children at home and 0 for employees

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who did not have such children at home. Finally, employees indicated their agreement (on 6-point scales) with these items measuring perceptions of the family’s adjustment to the move: (1) My family encouraged me to accept the new job, (2) moving provides excellent career opportunities for my spouse, and (3) my children would adjust easily to the move. Demographic characteristics. Subjects provided their age, sex, and the number of years they had worked at the laboratory. Perceptions of the new job’s attributes. Employees compared (on 5-point scales from l-Much Poorer to 5-Much Better) the relocation job with other job offers they received or expected to receive on job attributes measuring type of work, location, and financial rewards. Type of work was measured with 6 items ((Y = .93) assessing opportunities (1) for challenging work, (2) for new learning experiences, (3) to do a number of different things, (4) to use new technology, (5) for freedom on the job, and (6) for high responsibility. Location attributes were measured with five items (a = .86) concerning (1) opportunities for a social life, (2) access to recreational activities, (3) access to cultural activities, (4) high quality of life, and (5) accessto higher education. Financial rewards were measured with two items (a = .82): (1) excellent prospects for high future earnings and (2) excellent promotion possibilities. The scale score was the mean across the items. Employee attitude toward the location. The mean score for these items (measured on 6-point scales from l-Strongly Disagree to 6-Strongly Agree) measured attitude toward the location (o = .79): “(Location) is a great place to live” and “The (location) culture is unattractive” (reversed). Employee attitudes toward the work. Job involvement was the mean score of six items adapted from Lodahl and Kejner (1965). The Lodahl and Kejner (1965) scale has acceptable reliability and validity and is the most frequently used measure of job involvement (Cook, Hepworth, Wall, & Warr, 1981). Lodahl and Kejner (1965) reported that the split-half correlation corrected with the Spearman-Brown formula was .73 for the six-item scale. For the current study, coefficient (Ywas .83. Organizational commitment was the mean score of eight items adapted from the short form of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979). Mowday et al. (1979) provide reliability and validity evidence of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and Reichers (1985) noted that this measure has become “the approach to organizational commitment” (p. 467). Mowday et al. (1979) reported that the median coefficient (Y for studies employing the organizational commitment scale was .90; for the current study, coefficient (Y also was .90. Perceptions of the company’s relocation policy. Employees indicated

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their agreement (on a 6-point scale from l-Strongly Disagree to 6Strongly Agree) with this item: “(Company’s) relocation policy is excellent.” Relocation decision. The relocation decision was obtained from company records and reflected employees’ actual decisions. Approximately 29% of the subjects relocated. RESULTS Table 1 presents descriptive statistics and correlations of the study variables, and Table 2 presents means and standard deviations of the predictor variables by relocation decision. Many of the indicators of family considerations and community ties were related to relocation decisions. For example, employees who rejected the relocation offer were more likely to have had a working spouse, less likely to perceive that the new location provided career opportunities for their spouse, and had lived longer in the community. Opposite of what was expected, however, employees with high school children were more likely to relocate than employees without high school children living at home. Perceptions of type of work and financial rewards were positively related to relocation decisions. Additionally, attitude toward the location, but not perceptions of location attributes, was significantly related to relocation decisions. Finally, employees who accepted or rejected the job offer were similar in their demographic characteristics, attitudes toward work, and perceptions of the relocation policy. Table 3 presents results from analyses regressing relocation decisions on the predictors. The significance of the regression coefficient provides a test of whether that variable explains unique variance in relocation decisions (Pedhazur, 1982). To determine the unique contribution of each set of variables in explaining relocation decisions, we conducted a usefulness analysis (Darlington, 1968) which calculated R* for the full model and then for a reduced model that did not contain the set of variables of interest. The difference in variance accounted for between the full and the reduced models is the unique variance (usefulness) accounted for by the set of variables; the calculation of unique variance is not affected by order of entry of the variables (Pedhazur, 1982). The set of family considerations and community ties variables explained 24% of the variance in relocation decisions. Specifically, subjects were less likely to relocate if they had lived longer in the area and if they did not have any high school age children at home (p G . 10). Demographic characteristics explained 7% (p G .lO) of the variance in relocation decisions; as expected, females were less likely to relocate than males, The set of comparison of job attributes variables explained 9% of the variance in relocation decisions, although only type of work was significantly related to relocation decisions. Additionally, as expected, employees who ac-

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cepted the relocation offer had a more positive attitude toward the location. Employees’ attitudes toward work were not related to relocation decisions. Finally, perceptions of the relocation policy were negatively related to relocation decisions (JJ s .lO). In summary, employees who had high school age children living at home, had lived a shorter time in the community, were male, perceived the type of work more positively than expected alternatives, had a more positive attitude toward the location, and perceived the relocation policy more negatively were more likely to relocate. DISCUSSION The current study investigated factors related to employees’ decisions to accept a relocation offer or to lose their present jobs. We extended earlier research by including a wider range of variables than earlier studies and by measuring actual relocation decisions rather than willingness to relocate. In general, the strongest predictors of relocation decisions were family considerations and community ties, although the comparison of job attributes also explained a significant amount of variance in relocation decisions. Our results extend previous research (Gould & Penley, 1985; Noe et al., 1988; Swanson et al., 1979) by demonstrating the importance of community tenure in actual relocation decisions. As expected, employees who had lived longer in the area were less likely to relocate. Subjects in our sample had lived in the community approximately two-thirds of their lives (community tenure, M = 28.4; age, M = 42.8). Future research is necessary to investigate whether the effect of community tenure on relocation decisions generalizes to employees who have lived in the community for a shorter time period. For example, community tenure may not predict relocation decisions when most subjects have lived in the area for only a few years because these subjects may not have developed a strong tie to the community. Nonetheless, community tenure was related to willingness to relocate for subjects who had lived in the community approximately 28% of their lives (community tenure, M = 12.9; age, M = 46.0) (Swanson et al., 1979) [the results for Gould and Penley (1985) were very similar to this study (community tenure, M = 27.4, age M = 40.4), and Noe et al. (1988) reported only statistics for community tenure (M = 9.8)]. Given the importance of community tenure in predicting relocation decisions, researchers may want to investigate how long it takes subjects to feel a tie to the community. The only family consideration variable that predicted relocation decisions was high school age children at home, and the direction of the relation was opposite of what was hypothesized. This finding might be because employees with high school age children have a greater need for current income and perceive greater expenses in the near future (e.g.,

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TABLE 1 Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations of Predictors and Relocation Decisions Mean

SD

1

Family considerations and community ties 1. Marital status .86 .35 (0 = Single, 1 = Married) 2. Spouse employment .66 .48 56*** status (0 = No, 1 = Yes) 3. Number of children 1.2 1.2 -01 4. High school age children .18 .39 08 (O=No, l=Yes) 5. Family encouragement 2.4 1.5 17 6. Career spouse 1.9 1.4 00 7. Children adjust 3.2 1.6 30* 8. Community tenure 28.4 14.4 01 Demographic characteristics 9. Age 10. Lab tenure 11. Sex (0 = Male, 1 = Female) Comparison of job attributes 12. Type of work 13. Location 14. Financial rewards 15. Attitude toward location Attitude toward work 16. Job involvement 17. Organizational commitment 18. Relocation policy 19. Relocation decision (0 = Decline, 1 = Relocate) Note. to 66. * p ** p *** p

2

3

4

5

10 05 -26 -01

17 13 -27 -07

26 36* -23

14 26* -07

-13 -19 -07

-18 09 -01 -10 -09 08

38**

-

42.8 13.5 .14

8.1 22 11 8.1 .35 -10

-02 01 26* 07 07 -14

3.1 2.2 3.0 2.7

1.0 -11 .72 -02 02 1.1 1.3 11

-10 -11 08 -07

14 10 01 09

13 10 07 02

33* 23 33’ 39**

3.8 3.9

.87 1.0

24 14

18 10

-16 04

06 17

04 33*

3.9

1.4

.29

-07

.46 -04

-13 -25*

-09 20

-16 31*

09 25

Decimals have been omitted. Coefficient a is in the diagonal. N ranged from 40 c .05. c .Ol. s .OOl.

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DECISIONS

Table l-Continued

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

(93) 49*** 65*** 49***

(86) 35*’ 66***

(82) 38**

(79)

16

17

18 19

35* -14

-16

-

-28 -21

-28 -37:

35** 48***

63***

25*

04

-11 - 16 -11 - 12

11

14

44** 27 42** 23

41** 34’ 35* 35”

-14 -03 -23 - 12

15 31’

07 29

-10 -11

36**

47** -10

32*

05

-36**

11 00 -17 01

08 -

06 05 -17 -22 -04 08 -01 -04 05 -00

01 22 21 50***

04 30*

20 46***

17 50***

-20

09 44***

41**

36**

46***

07

50***

-

20

29*

25*

20

21

00 -

-03

-16

47***

(83) 51***

(90)

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TABLE 2 Means and Standard Deviations of Predictor Variables by Relocation Decision

Predictor variable

Accepted relocation offer

Rejected relocation offer

Mean

Mean

Family considerations and community ties Marital status .8 (0 = Single, 1 = Married) .5* Spouse employment status (0 = No, 1 = Yes) 1.6 Number of children .4* High school age children (0 = No, 1 = Yes) Family encouragement 2.9 2.6* Career spouse 3.3 Children adjust 20.1** Community tenure Demographic characteristics Age Lab tenure Sex (0 = Male, 1 = Female)

43.0 13.1 .1

SD

SD

.4

.9

.3

.5

.7*

.4

1.6 .5

1.0 .1*

1.0 .3

1.7 1.6 1.7 16.0

2.1 1.6” 3.1 31.6**

1.3 1.1 1.6 12.6

8.8 8.3 .2

42.8 13.7 .2

9.1 8.1 .4

Comparison of job attributes Type of work Location Financial rewards

3 s*** 214 3.5*

.7 .6 1.1

2 8*** 2:1 2.8*

1.0 .7 1.1

Attitude toward location

3.2*

1.4

2.5*

1.3

Attitude toward work Job involvement Organizational commitment

4.0 4.3

.9 .8

3.7 3.8

.9 1.1

Relocation policy

3.9

1.2

3.9

1.6

* p s .05. ** p =z .Ol. *** p s ,001.

imminent costs of a college education). Therefore, these employees cannot afford the possibility of interrupted income and decided to relocate rather than to risk unemployment and search for another job. Conversely, employees with high school age children might have perceived greater benefits for these children in the new location. For example, the new location is a small town with a reputation for having a good school system. Parents with high school age teenagers might have felt that the benefits of the new location (e.g., better education) outweighed the costs of moving. Clearly, these interpretations are speculative. High school age children

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DECISIONS

TABLE 3 Multiple Regression Analyses with the Relocation Decision as the Dependent Variable Predictor Family considerations and community ties Spouse employment status (0 = No, 1 = Yes) Number of children High school age children (0 = No, 1 = Yes) Family encouragement Career spouse Community tenure Demographic characteristics Age Lab tenure Sex (0 = Male, 1 = Female) Comparison of job attributes Type of work Location Financial rewards

p”

.24** - .13 -.06 .26” -.17 .15 - .4v** .07h -.15 .18 - .33* .09* .41* - .29 .15

Attitude toward location

.46*

Attitude toward work Job involvement Organizational commitment

.16 .02

Relocation policy

Unique R2

.05*

.02

- .29“

SW

Note. Because the inclusion of marital status and the career spouse variable led to a model that was not full rank, we did not include marital status, which was uncorrelated with the relocation decision, in the equation. Additionally, the children adjustment variable was not included in the regression equation because it contained many missing data points and was uncorrelated with the relocation decision. The RZ for the full equation is .78, F(16, 24) = 5.34, p < .fKHB; adjusted R* is .63. ’ These are standardized regression coefficients for the full equation. ’ Significant at the .lO (x level. * p s .05. ** p s .Ol. *** p 6 .ool.

living at home is a complex variable that may be an indicator of need for income and family stage. Future research is necessary to investigate how the presence of high school age children living at home influences relocation decisions. Employees who relocated had more positive perceptions of the type of work in the new job and a more positive attitude toward the location than employees who rejected relocation offers. Such results, although

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corroborating findings that the type of work and the location influence employment decisions (Rynes & Lawler, 1983; Schwab et al., 1987), must be interpreted cautiously, however, because the data were collected after employees made relocation decisions. Therefore, rather than predicting relocation decisions, these perceptions might have been influenced by the decisions. For example, employees may have engaged in post-decisional justification (O’Reilly & Caldwell, 1981) in which they bolstered their perceptions and attitudes toward the new job after making the decision. However, perceptions of the location were not related to relocation decisions, suggesting that effects caused by post-decision rationalizations may be minimal. Further, by asking employees to compare the relocation offer with other offers received or expected on specific job attributes, this study operationalized a construct hypothesized to influence turnover decisions (Mobley, 1982) and applied it to relocation decisions. Future relocation research should continue to have employees compare expected alternatives on specific job attributes and should include additional attributes such as supervision and working conditions. Additionally, if at all possible, future researchers should attempt to measure employee perceptions of the new job before employees make relocation decisions to avoid any possible post-decision rationalization. This study contributes to the scant literature investigating relocation decisions because it measured actual relocation decisions of employees from one organization and measured a broader range of variables than did previous studies. Nonetheless, as with all empirical investigations, this study has limitations. First, the small sample size and the uneven split of accepts and rejects may have limited the power to detect true relations but does not detract from the positive findings. Second, because surveys were completed after employees made relocation decisions, responses to some of the items (e.g., attitudes, perceptions) may have been affected by the decision. However, it seems unlikely that the objective, verifiable indicators (e.g., community tenure, high school age children at home) were influenced by relocation decisions. Third, the one-item measures of family encouragement and children adjustment have unknown psychometric properties and may have limited the power to detect relations with relocation decisions. Finally, characteristics of the sample and of the locations may limit the generalizability of the results. The sample consisted mostly of married males, who were, in general, highly educated professionals. Further, employees were given the option of relocating from the northeast to the southwest. Different factors may be important in relocation decisions involving different samples and different locations. Additionally, future research should investigate other indicators of community ties, such as civic and volunteer work, friendships, and financial investments. Also, in addition to measuring spouse employment status, future researchers should attempt to measure the importance of employ-

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ment to the spouse and the family by measuring the number of hours worked per week, the spouses’ attachment to their positions and the families’ dependence on the spouses’ income. Results from this study have several implications. First, because family considerations, at least the presence or absence of high school age children at home, appear to influence relocation decisions, organizations should consider the attitudes of all family members to the move. Additionally, some evidence suggests that perceptions of the new job’s attributes, particularly the type of work, influenced relocation decisions. Therefore, organizations should describe the type of work the employee will do and how the relocation job will fulfill the employee’s career goals. Finally, because attitudes toward the location were related to relocation decisions, organizations should provide positive, yet realistic, information about the new location. In sum, the results suggest that family considerations and community ties and perceptions of the new job’s attributes are important factors in relocation decisions. Organizations continue to relocate employees (Grossman & Magnus, 1988) yet there is little empirical evidence concerning factors that influence relocation decisions. Further, the relocation process is stressful to employees and costly to organizations (Axe& 1985; Bureau of National Affairs, 1986). Therefore, research should continue to investigate the employee relocation decision-making process. In addition, researchers should investigate factors that influence relocation satisfaction and the effects of interventions designed to reduce the stresses of relocating. The findings from such research may help organizations reduce the number of employees who turn down relocation offers or who are dissatisfied after relocating. REFERENCES Axel, H. (1985). Corporations

Changing practices and perspectives. New York: Conference Board. Brett, J. M., & Reilly, A. H. (1988). On the road again: Predicting the job transfer decision. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 614-620. Bureau of National Affairs. (1986). Work and family: A changing dynamic. Washington, DC: Author. Carruthers, N. E., & Pinder, C. C. (1983). Urban geographic factors and location satisfaction following a personnel transfer. Academy of Management Journal, 26, 520-526. Cook, J. D., Hepworth, S. J., Wall, T. D., & Warr, P. B. (1981). The experience of work: A compendium and review of 249 measures and their use. London: Academic Press. Darlington, R. B. (1968). Multiple regression in psychological research and practice. Psychological Bulletin, 69, 161-182. Duncan, R. P., & Perrucci, C. C. (1976). Dual occupation families and migration. American Sociological Review, 41, 252-261. Fox, S., & Krausz, M. (1987). Correlates of relocation intention and emotional responses to an Israeli plant relocation. Journal of Occup4tional Behaviour, 8, 325-338. Gould, S., & Penley, L. E. (1985). A study of the correlates of the willingness to relocate. and families:

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