Workplace Romance and Sexual Harassment in Organizations

A research team that includes a member from the University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business & Economics is examining workplace romance and sexually harassing behavior from a human resource management perspective.

The main purpose of the research is to understand better the formation, impact, and management of workplace romances as well as the link between workplace romances and sexually harassing behavior between former romantic partners.

The research projects include:

examining the link between an organization's climate and formation of workplace romances as well as their impact on factors such as employees' job satisfaction, job performance, and organizational commitment.
examining the impact of media portrayal of a dissolved workplace romance on corporate image and firm performance.
examining the effects of organizations' workplace romance policies and consensual relationship agreements on recruits' perceptions of fairness, fun, and person-organization fit as well as their attraction to the organization and intent to pursue employment with the organization.
examining rater biases in decisions regarding workplace romance/sexual harassment cases and recommendations for training programs to reduce rater biases.

The research team consists of Dr. Chuck Pierce (Department of Management, FCBE, University of Memphis), Dr. Teri Elkins Longacre and Dr. Jim Phillips (Bauer College of Business, University of Houston), Dr. Katherine Karl (College of Business, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga), and Dr. Amy Nicole Salvaggio (Department of Psychology, University of New Haven).