How Salary Comparisons Among Spouses and Social Norms Affect the Salary Negotiations of R&D Workers

Andreas Distel, Agnes Guenther, Wolfgang Sofka

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference abstract in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

Abstract

R&D workers are of strategic importance for firms because they accumulate tacit knowledge about their employers' technologies. They have substantial bargaining power about their salaries because this knowledge would be attractive for competitors but hard to replace by their existing employers. While these conditions are well understood, we know comparatively little about when R&D workers are motivated to negotiate aggressively for higher salaries. We draw on theoretical mechanisms from social comparisons within marriages in social psychology and reason that R&D workers who earn less than their spouses will negotiate higher salary increases. Further, we propose that social norms make this effect stronger for male R&D workers who are traditionally considered as the breadwinners in households as well as for R&D workers who have a relatively higher-ranked job than their spouses which makes them sensitive to seeing their status threatened. We test and support these hypotheses for 70,312 married R&D workers in 3,710 unique firms in Denmark between 2008 and 2016.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Eighty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
EditorsSonia Taneja
Number of pages1
Place of PublicationValhalla, NY
PublisherAcademy of Management
Publication date2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
EventThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2024: Innovating for the Future: Policy, Purpose, and Organizations - Chicago, United States
Duration: 9 Aug 202413 Aug 2024
Conference number: 84
https://aom2024.eventscribe.net/

Conference

ConferenceThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2024
Number84
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago
Period09/08/202413/08/2024
Internet address
SeriesAcademy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings
ISSN0065-0668

Cite this