Close Relationships in Task Environments

Abstract

This article reports on the impact of the perceived motivations of participants of organizational romances, the illicitness of the relationship, and the power of the relational participants upon individual and group performance. Interviews conducted with 128 observers indicated that (a) only certain types of relationships showed associations with either category of organizational effectiveness indexes, (b) illicitness was generally associated with negative outcomes in the work group, but not in the involved individuals, and (c) neither the power of the participants nor the differences in power between them was reliably associated with declines in either individual performance or work group functioning.