Dual-Career Couples in the Public Sector: A Survey of Personnel Policies and Practices

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a survey of IPMA agency members regarding their policies and practices to accommodate dual-career couples. Dual-career couples in the same organization are often perceived by the public to reflect nepotism; and 40 percent of survey respondents reported ethical dilemmas arising from these Situations. Nevertheless, a majority relied on merit procedures to assure competence, prohibiting only supervisory relationships between spouses. Moreover, the survey uncovered practices to accommodate dual-career couples in different organizations, suggesting that personnel administrators recognize the importance of a new recruitment and retention strategies. Nevertheless, further reform of merit system rules and regulations may be needed in the future to stay competitive with the private sector in this emerging area of human resources management.