Assessing the effectiveness of relocation support. Some evidence from the UK
| Date | 01 April 1998 |
| Pages | 124-142 |
| Published date | 01 April 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00483489810369278 |
| Author | Mark N.K. Saunders,Adrian R. Thornhill |
Personnel
Review
27,2
124
Assessing the effectiveness of
relocation support
Some evidence from the UK
Mark N.K. Saunders and Adrian R. Thornhill
Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education, Cheltenham, UK
Introduction
Research over the last decade has emphasised an increasing reluctance by
managerial and professional employees to move home for job reasons (Brett et
al., 1993; Champion, 1992). In multi-location organisations, such employees,
who are more likely to be asked to relocate by their employer than request a
move, are increasingly showing their reluctance by refusing job moves that
involve moving home (Munton et al., 1993). For employees in single-site
organisations, reluctance to relocate will be shown by a lack of willingness to
apply for vacancies in another locality with a different employer. This
reluctance is likely to have a negative impact on organisations. A recent survey
of 577 UK organisations found that (on average) domestic relocation of
employees was rated between fairly important and important to their business
success (Shortland and Kaltz, 1994). Within multi-location organisations the
lack of willingness by managerial and professional employees to relocate
reduces organisational ability to respond rapidly to change (Markham and
Pleck, 1986). In addition, refusals remove opportunities for organisations to
broaden their employees’ knowledge and experience (Savage, 1988). A reduction
in applications in response to externally notified vacancies may, in a similar
manner, adversely affect organisations’ potential selection decisions, the
breadth of experience of their workforce and possibly the fulfilment of human
resource and even business plans.
A substantial body of research on employee mobility has been undertaken
from the employee career strategy perspective. This has explored aspects of the
relationships between employees’ careers and intra and inter organisational
moves (for example Fish and Wood, 1993; Louis, 1980, Sonnenfeld and Peiperl,
1988) including individuals’ strategies to cope with job transitions (Feldman
and Tompson, 1993). However, the focus has been on the implications of the job
change and the links between organisational and individual career systems
rather than the barriers to relocation caused by the need to move home. It is
these barriers and the organisational interventions to help overcome them that
are the subject of this paper.
The authors would like to acknowledge the helpful comments of Dr Philip Lewis and the
anonymous referees.
Personnel Review,
Vol. 27 No. 2, 1998, pp. 124-142,
© MCBUniversity Press, 0048-3486
Received April 1997
Revised/Accepted
September 1997
The effectiveness
of relocation
support
125
UK-based research suggests that the barriers which result in professional
and managerial employees of both multi- and single-site organisations being
reluctant to move home are similar (Munton et al., 1993). These include both
financial and personal factors, in particular housing and family commitments
(Institute of Manpower Studies, 1987). In this paper we review and integrate
research on barriers to domestic relocation, and organisational interventions
designed to overcome them. The principal research focus of the paper is related
to an analysis and evaluation of forms of organisational intervention used
amongst UK local authorities in relation to the relocation of professional and
managerial staff. The choice of this particular sector is partly related to the need
for many of these staff to relocate where they seek to progress their careers (see
below). Using questionnaire data from 200 authorities the contents and likely
use of relocation packages for a variety of professional and managerial
vacancies are established and changes since the early 1980s indicated.
The theory of force field analysis is used to evaluate the relationship between
these barriers to relocation and organisational interventions designed to
overcome them. The resulting evaluation suggests that traditional forms of
organisational intervention to encourage relocation may be becoming less
effective, even where organisations recognise skills shortages in particular labour
markets and seek to target their interventions in relation to particular
occupational segments. Related to this, the evaluation indicates the significance of
other external environmental influences, related to economic, social and cultural
factors, which counteract the effect of traditional organisational interventions.
These point to the need to pay far greater attention than has been the case to non-
traditional forms of organisational intervention to overcome barriers to domestic
relocation. Of particular importance is the provision of personal support such as
tailored assistance for partners and other family members. In relation to local
authorities, the paper concludes that, in order to attract the most suitable
managerial and professional applicants, there is a need to re-examine and revise
the nature and availability of relocation support. This leads into a discussion
about the wider implications of these findings for organisations in other sectors;
in particular, the need to evaluate the nature of organisational interventions
designed to provide a strategy to support and encourage relocation, taking into
account the significant economic, social and cultural factors referred to above.
Recruitment and employee relocation
Organisations may require employees to relocate as a consequence of
recruitment and selection, internal transfer, or as part of organisational
relocation (Shortland, 1990). The focus of this paper is principally related to the
first of these reasons, recruitment and selection. For many vacancies there will be
a sufficient pool of potential applicants within the local area. These vacancies
tend to be those which require only limited skills, or for which there is an over-
supply of applicants. As a consequence there is no need to recruit suitable
applicants who would need to relocate. In contrast vacancies where the pool of
appropriate local applicants is too small will necessitate recruitment over a wider
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