Workplace Romance and Sexual Harassment in Organizations

A research team which includes members from the University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business & Economics are examining workplace romance and sexually harassing behavior from a human resources 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 dissolved workplace romances and sexually harassing behavior between former romantic partners. 

The team includes researchers from the Fogelman College, in collaboration with researchers from the Business School at the University of Colorado Denver, the Graduate School of Management at Marshall University, and the Psychology Department at the University of Tulsa. 

The research projects include:

• a content-analytic review of U.S. federal and state sexual harassment court cases involving a prior workplace romance between the plaintiff and alleged harasser.  The goal of this research is to reveal differences in how judges versus HR managers make decisions about sexual harassment claims that stem from a prior workplace romance.

• for the purpose of raising HR leaders' awareness of legal, ethical, and justice issues that arise when managing workplace romances, researchers reviewed the scholarly literature on workplace romance to derive a set of best practice recommendations that HR leaders can use to manage romantic relationships in organizations.  Implementing best practice recommendations should lead to improved legal protection for organizations, increased ethical conduct and perceptions of fairness among employees, and an opportunity for HR professionals to elevate their role as organizational leaders.

• collecting data from employees in several organizations to examine the link between an organization's climate and the formation of workplace romances as well as their impact on factors such as employees' job satisfaction, job performance, and organizational commitment.

• designing an experimental study that will examine the effects of organizations' workplace romance policies and consensual relationship agreements on individuals' perceptions of fairness, fun, and organizational fit as well as their attraction to the organization and intent to pursue employment with the organization.  The goal of this research is to understand better the relationship between organizations' workplace romance policies and procedures and their ability to recruit employees.

The research team consists of Dr. Chuck Pierce (capierce@memphis.edu, Department of Management, FCBE, University of Memphis), Dr. Herman Aguinis (The Business School, University of Colorado Denver), Dr. Katherine Karl (Graduate School of Management, Marshall University), Dr. Amy Nicole Salvaggio (Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa), and Ivan Muslin (Doctoral Student, Department of Management, FCBE, University of Memphis).

Read more about FCBE research