To move or not to move – a question of family?

Abstract

Relocation is one organizational phenomenon where the influence of family is prominent. Our paper thus uses it as a backdrop against which to study the work–family interface. In-depth qualitative analysis of 62 interviews with Royal Air Force personnel is used to complement the literature by demonstrating the impact on and the impact of the immediate family in relocation. The analysis provides evidence that relocation influences an employee's role as family member, other family members and the family as a whole. Findings also illustrate that families influence employees' relocation behaviour, organizational tenure and work focus. In summary, this paper supports the bidirectional nature of the work-family interface and also demonstrates that regardless of whether examining the work-to-family influence or the family-to-work influence the effects are not always negative.

Keywords:

• employee relocation
• family
• moving
• transience
• work–family interface

Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Paula Jarzabkowski and Professor Doris Fay, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. We acknowledge Aston Business School for the financial bursary that facilitated this study.