Dual Career Couples in R&D Labs

Abstract

OVERVIEW: Location can affect a firm's ability to recruit and retain professional employees. Location also influences the characteristics of the local labor market from which the firm draws its employees. Location preferences differ among household groups, with dual career couples particularly constrained and attracted to large metropolitan centers. The findings of this study suggest that it is beneficial not only for employees but for employers of professionals to locate in metropolitan areas. Companies that fail to consider the dual career couple as a unique employee group may not recognize the counterproductive nature of their personnel policies and procedures and, as a result, may lose top professionals. Women are going, to work in increasing numbers and now consist of 45.3 percent of the labor force in the United States (1). The increase of women, particularly married women, has resulted in a nay phenomenon--the dual career couple in which both members are engaged in continual professional employment. In 1988, dual career couples accounted for 20.6 percent of all professional households (2). During the past decade, organizations have begun to report increased resistance to relocation from men and women whose spouses have careers of their own (3,4). As dual career couples become more the norm than the exception, they are likely to have an increasing impact on the mobility of the professional labor force and, thus, an corporate personnel policies. This article reports on the impact of dual career couples on the personnel policies of RD laboratories. The study is based on a survey of Z3 U.S. RD rather the careers of both spouses are mutually interdependent (11). Each spouse's decision about location is affected by the other spouse. Thus, dual career couples seek the best joint solution: the location that will offer both members the best career opportunities. This raises two significant questions: which locations will provide dual career couples with the best career opportunities, and does the firm's present location hinder or improve the likelihood of attracting dual career couples? STUDY METHODOLOGY To answer these questions, a nationwide survey was conducted in 1988 of corporate R&D facilities and their professional labor force. The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of dual career couples on corporate R&D recruitment and personnel development policies. R&D facilities were identified and selected from the Cattell Press (1987) Directory of American Research and Technology. Questionnaires were sent to the vice president for R&D, the laboratory manager, or a similar executive at 100 R&D facilities located throughout the U.S. One corporate questionnaire and typically 25-to-125 employee questionnaires were distributed to each firm, depending on the size of its professional labor force and the number of employees to whom the firm was willing to distribute questionnaires. …