Job Searches

Leave or Leverage?

Wendy Boswell Why do employees search for other jobs? The answers may seem obvious—better working conditions, pay, position or other perks. However, some employees search out new jobs and decide to stay with their current employment. Why?

In "The Outcomes and Correlates of Job Search Objectives: Searching to Leave or Searching for Leverage?" published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Mays assistant professor of management Wendy Boswell, along with fellow authors John Boudreau of University of Southern California and Benjamin Dunford of Purdue University, have determined that not all employees search for jobs with the intent of leaving their current employment. According to the paper, some employees seek outside job offers to use as bargaining leverage to enhance their present employment situations through promotions, raises and other means of personal gain.

"The premise is that if an individual has a better opportunity elsewhere, the current employer should be compelled to try and keep the employee by making a counteroffer," Boswell says.

According to Boswell, the paper is among the first research ever to explore the topic of job searching motivated for the purpose of leverage. The research finds that generally employers will make counteroffers to retain their employees, and that those employees have favorable conditions one year after leverage negotiations. But Boswell cautions any workers willing to experiment with leverage to better themselves.

"This is only the first step in a series of research that I hope to examine on this important issue," Boswell says.

Boswell now hopes to study the long term and the possibly unintentional consequences associated with aggressive leverage job searches. She believes that widespread employee use of leverage tactics within a particular corporation could possibly increase the competition between employee peers within the organization. Liberal use of leverage could also damage employer/employee relations, perhaps creating distrust between employees and supervisors.

- Alycia C. Zuehlke



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