The area of personal, romantic relationships between colleagues is under-researched. It is obvious that there are specific reasons for these connections, and Cowan & Horan (2014) explore this matter. Furthermore, in their study, the authors also focus on investigating how such relationships may affect the organization they work in. In fact, they identify several general reasons for workplace romance, which are simplicity, similarity, time, and, obviously, hook-ups (Cowan & Horan, 2014).
The most exciting part is that 40% of organizational members have been in romantic relationships with their colleagues, which is an impressive statistic (Cowan & Horan, 2014). It is critical to note that the study only focuses on exploring the reasons for forming meaningful romantic connections and not just a few passionate hook-ups. However, Cowan & Horan (2014) also consider the tendency of the growing numbers of hard-working and goal-oriented employees that have no time to find potential partners. Consequently, they are unable to form meaningful romantic relationships within their organization. Overall, they take into account aforementioned points to also produce conclusions about how workplace romance impacts the organization.
The actual research was conducted with the data collected from the participants. The results were based on information retrieved from 17 in-depth interviews with currently employed individuals who were older than 18 (Cowan & Horan, 2014). The first step of data collection was a one-on-one interview that was held in a place comfortable for the employee and lasted from 30 to 120 minutes (Cowan & Horan, 2014). Naturally, participants were asked about their personal experiences of workplace romance and their opinions on the concept. As a result, the researchers collected 38 workplace romance stories that were further analyzed to produce findings.
Overall, the study identified four primary reasons for why employees form romantic relationships within the organization. The interpersonal attraction was boosted mainly by the factors of time, simplicity, and similarity, while hook-ups fueled the interest in sexual relationships. In fact, these reasons were not mutually exclusive and were the motives for the participants in this study’s interviews. This study’s primary implication is for further research on why the workplace romance that occurs because of the first three aforementioned reasons is not based on physical attraction. It can be assumed that it happens due to the fear of complaints about sexual harassment and work complications, but this matter still has to be thoroughly studied to form reliable conclusions.
Still, it was mentioned that authors contacted the individuals for the interviews they were acquainted with. It seems biased to do so; why did they not create criteria for choosing employees with specific characteristics they did not know randomly? What is more, Cowan and Horan assume that workplace romances occur mainly due to convenience. To elaborate, they presume that not having to specifically go out and meet new people, but rather seeing your partner at work every day, is the primary reason for phenomena. Why do they not consider the possibility of workplace romance occurring because of two people being attracted to each other because of their personalities and not the convenience of working together?
Reference
Cowan, R. L., & Horan, S. M. (2014). Why Are You Dating Him? Contemporary Motives for Workplace Romances. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 15(1), 9–16. Web.