Q1: Changing business environment and the concept of work relationships demonstrate new angles of work ethics and morale. Office romance that was previously considered taboo has been in the focus of attention in business and social circles. The reality is that changing organizational profiles, new perspectives on the leadership and motivation of personnel place the role of the social environment forward as one of the strong extrinsic motivational factors (Mainiero and Konrad, 2011). The question is: “How Does a Modern Leaders ‘joggle’ this sensitive issue in the office?” One could argue that transformational leadership should be able to delegate authority and decision-making process not only in regards to business decisions, but in terms of morale and personal ethics, as well. The fact is that an office romance, however, touches upon the morale and ethics of several stakeholders and not only an ‘office couple’. Taking into consideration that a leader is responsible for the maintenance of fairness and transparency of communication in the company, it is not acceptable that he or she develops personal liaison with his direct report. The reason for this argument is that emotional management in this case becomes much more complex and emotional side will always prevail. To handle the situation it is important that people in romantic relationships do not have any work-related links and, with that in mind, one of the potential solutions would be to leave the office or ask for Human Resource Management (HRM) decision on relocation.
Q2: The statistics on the office romance shows that these occurrences existed 40 years ago and will continue be part of our office environment. It is not possible to avoid, exclude or prevent the development of romantic relationships between some of the individuals in the office environment. The freedom of this choice and benefits that employees may see in the development of their social life is, without a doubt, important. The drawbacks of the office romance in the situation when it is developed between a manager and his or her direct report, however, are very strong. It is important, in my opinion, to differentiate the degree of business work correlation and proximity that the individuals involved in romantic relationships have to make a decision about the damage or benefit of this occurrence (Chaney and Martin, 2007). As such, there is no clear answer to the question: “Do potential rewards for office romance outweigh the potential risk?” Each and every situation should be handled individually, and the only restriction should apply to the romantic relationships developed between a manager and his subordinate.
References
Mainiero L., and Konrad A. (2011). Managing Romance in The Office. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 20 February 2014, http://hbr.org/product/managing-romance-in-the-office/an/W11238-PDF-ENG
Chaney L., and Martin J.S. (2007). The Essential Guide to Business Etiquette.Westport, CT: Praegar Publishers. Print.
