...more typically prevent employees from supervising or directing coworkers related to them by blood or marriage. Consensual Relationship Agreements Case Study Question 1 Argue for the use of Consensual Relationship Agreements (CRAs) in your current (or future) workplace. Answer Stephanie Losee and Helaine Olen, authors of "Office Mate: The ..[->5] so Dating and romance in the workplace is an interesting topic that will cause quite a discussion among many professionals and their coworkers. In the book titled Office Mate: The Employee Handbook for Finding and Managing Romance on the Job, 38% of employees ages twenty- five to twenty-nine have had an office romance (Losee & Olen, 2007, p. 55). Now, many individuals view office romances as an unavoidable trend as a result of people working together that share the same common interests (Losee & Olen, 2007). However, many people wonder what can be done to decrease the problematic situations that can arise when office romances occur in the workplace. A Consensual Relationship Agreement is a written contract that helps to address the issues created by office romances (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). This agreement acknowledges that such relationships will develop and ask that the parties inform their immediate supervisor of any romantic relationship (Merrill & Knox,...
Words: 841 - Pages: 4
...Consensual Relationship Agreements Case Study Strayer University Business 520, Leadership and Organizational Behavior Author Note In today’s society, most employers antagonize significant issues such as office romances and subjects that relate to sex and confidentiality. Romantic affairs are emerging more frequently since employees are working overtime and spending additional time on the job. A romance in the workplace is sometimes the only choice for employees whose work limits their extracurricular activities. However, these workplace relationships tend to be a problem as the legal responsibility connected with these romances rises. A few businesses prohibit all workplace romances, whereas others have no policy at all to address these matters. Most businesses fall in between and have policies that ban relationships or discourage distinct workplace romances. A CRA (Consensual Relationship Agreement) is essentially a written “contract” in which the romantically involved parties acknowledge the following: * Their relationship is voluntary and consensual. * They agree to abide by the employer’s antidiscrimination, anti-harassment, and workplace conduct policies. * They promise to report any perceived harassment to a management, if it occurs. * They agree to behave professionally and not to allow the relationship to affect their performance. * They agree to avoid behavior that offends others in the workplace. * They agree not to engage in favoritism...
Words: 1867 - Pages: 8
...fairness to all. There are two ethical principles: sexual harassment, and stakeholder responsibility, that I feel are major aspects on the whys and the hows of the Consensual Relationship Agreement. There has been endless episodes of romance and dating at the workplace. Most businesses were off-hands when it came to the matters of love and dating on the job. “The issue is not going away”, says Helaine Olen, coauthor of Office Mate: The Employee Handbook for Finding --- and Managing--- Romance on the job (Adams Media, 2007). It is really vital for those in leadership positions to accept the likelihood of romance and dating at the workplace. It is also crucial for there to be some sort of policy and procedure in place, to be prepared to deal with any happenings, dealing with the aftermath of these said relationships. If they tried to forbid the dating it was like using reverse psychology. The more it is forbidden, the more likely, one is to partake in it, just to be vindictive. Organizations that discourage or prohibit workplace romances are concerned about sexual harassment lawsuits (Cole, 2009) and thus have legal-centric Human Resources practices. Despite organizations’ fears, relatively few harassment lawsuits stem from workplace romances (Pierce et al., 2008). Consequently, researchers have recommended that Human Resource leaders should shift...
Words: 3336 - Pages: 14
...Workplace Romance: Wrong or Right? By Chelse Benham ”Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold — but so does a hard-boiled egg.” - Unknown The office affair can make a seducer, seductress and sinner out of people. In fact, workplace romance is so common, research indicates that one-third of all relationships begin at work. Often times they become the focus of intense gossip and may end badly creating disruption, disharmony and devastation in their wake. “In our ‘Succeed in the Workplace’ workshop we stress that students need to focus on their career, their job and work culture. They need to have that squared away before considering a romance in the office. We tell people to keep the work environment professional. If they can’t keep their work relationship professional then that’s not a good sign,” said Lourdes Servantes, placement specialist at The University of Texas-Pan American’s Career Placement Services Office. “Be mature and professional at all times and keep all relationship items, sweet-talk, public-display-of-affection and inappropriate behavior, away from the work environment.” In an effort to explain the rise of workplace romance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that office romance has more chances to start because now women comprise 46 percent of the workforce and people work longer hours - citing that one in 10 Americans works more than 60 hours a week. BLS points to further occurrences...
Words: 1427 - Pages: 6
...spend on average about 40 plus hours a week at work, is no wonder how romance in the workplace happens. I met my husband in the workplace. Our President also met his wife at work. People that work together have some similar interest and hobbies so a connection is bound to happen. Weather we want it to happen or not work relationships happen all the time. Vault surveyed and 47 percent of individuals had been involved in office romance, 19 percent would consider it and 11 percent dated their manager (Hellriegel / Slocum, p.65). Office romance is an avoidable trend and instead of stopping it there should be some policies and procedures in place to address the issue when it occurs ( Losee & Olen, 2007). One policy that can be adopted is the consensual relationship agreement (CRA). A CRA often called love contracts it is a written contract between both parties that helps address some of the issues that office romance often creates. Office romance can end in a happy ending but they can also end in a sour note and in order for the employer to protect themselves using a CRA would be something to consider. In this paper i will discuss the pros and cons of using CRAs and give an alternative to address office romance as well as the ethics of using CRAs to address workplace romance. It is often troublesome to deal with a relationship that just ended, it is harder to deal with it when both parties work for the same company. When workplace romance goes sour it can lead to accusation of harassment...
Words: 1937 - Pages: 8
...employee and employee privacy. (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). A CRA may be defined as a written contract in which the romantically involved parties acknowledge that the relationship is voluntary and consensual, there is an agreement to abide by the employer’s anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and workplace conduct policies, they are to behave professionally and not allow the relationship to affect their performance, they agree to avoid behavior that offends others in the workplace and agree not to show favoritism. This becomes an issue when higher management is one of the employees. (p. 65) Arguments for the use of Consensual Relationship Agreements Workplace romance generates multiple issues that can lead to poor job performance where the romance is visible and the employee may lose interest in their work. There may be accusations of poor judgment to make practical or fair decisions. (Tyler, 2008). There may be the breaking of ethical standards or codes within an organization, which includes but not limited to falsifying information, conflict of interest or sexual misconduct. Having this agreement to abide to the employer’s antidiscrimination, antiharassment and policies this will decrease sexual harassment. One argument is involving a manager or executive...
Words: 1688 - Pages: 7
...Consensual Relationship Agreements – Case Study Dr. Professor Jeffrey Weaver BUS 520 – Leadership and Organizational Behavior January 19, 2013 Consensual Relationship Agreements There are many challenges in the workplace. Office romance today is having to profound effect on corporate attitudes, values, and beliefs. The workplace has become a viable meeting ground for individuals to get to know each other, date, and begin a romantic relationship. People tend to feel more comfortable dating a co-worker than someone they met at a bar or nightclub. According to a major report on interpersonal attraction written in 1969 by Ellen Bercheid and Elaine Walster, professors of Psychology at the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, proximity is an important factor that explains why people become attracted to others. A February 15, 1988, Newsweek article reported that office romances are especially common in those professions in which employees are expected to spend long hours together on the job (Mainiero, 1989). This tends to put employers in a difficult position. Should workplace romance be managed or is any business of the company? Employers tend to take different stances when it comes to workplace romance. Some companies strictly forbid it, while some companies ignore it and hope that no one claims sexual harassment. Lastly, some companies have come up with policies that require disclosure of the relationship so that the employer can document the voluntary...
Words: 1868 - Pages: 8
...Conflict Resolution Paper Workplace romance is an issue in companies around the world. With full-time employees working forty or more hours each week, they tend to spend more time with their co-workers than with friends and family. This can lead to co-workers wanting to get to know each other as well as dating each other. An example of this in my experience was when I was an assistant manager at a retail store. The store manager at the time had started dating one of her subordinate associates. Rumors soon started around the store that the store manager was dating a certain associate. Other associates started to notice this particular associate would receive preferred shifts on a consistent basis. He would also be not on the schedule whenever the store manager was scheduled off. One day I was going from the sales floor to the stock room to check if we had a different size in stock for a customer. Once I walked in the stock room, I saw the two kissing. The stock room was a very large room. Once I realized what was going on, I stayed quiet and walked out within a few seconds. The two did not see me or notice anyone was even in the stock room. At this point, I contemplated having a talk with the store manager, as well as taking the issue straight to the district manager. I did not know exactly what to do because taking the issue to the district manager would be going behind my store manager’s back. I felt doing that could ruin our working relationship. Fortunately...
Words: 1767 - Pages: 8
...What should be Company X's policy on office romances? BCOM301_VA Research Report 27 March 2014 Prepared by Group A Jennifer Gantt Shelly Montgomery Elizabeth Palmer Teresa Rosso Prepared for Prof. Jordan Kroeger Table of Contents Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………….…....ii Table and Figures ………………….…………………..…………………………….…...iv Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………….....v Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………....1 Overview……………………………………………………………………………….….1 Background………………………………………………………………………………..1 Objective…………………………………………………………………………………..1 Benefits…………………………………………………………………………………....1 Methods of Research……………………………………………………………………...1 Problems and Purpose of Study………………………………………………………………...1 Methods and Procedures…………………………………………………………………….......2 Study Description……………………………………………………………………........3 Report Preview………….…………………………………………………………………….....3 Elements for an Effective Policy……………………………………………………….....4 Start with a Harassment Policy…………………………………...………..….......4 Require Full Disclosure…………………………………………………………...4 Create a Love Contract………………………………………………………........5 Advise against PDA………………………………………………………...……..5 Keep tabs on Office Sentiment………………………………………………........5 Seek Legal Counsel ………………………………………………………………5 Findings with Appropriate Divisions……………………………………………………...…....5 Interview One. Colin Chase, Chase Info Systems………………………………………...5 Interview Two. James...
Words: 5496 - Pages: 22
...Consensual Relationship Agreements Leadership and Organizational Behavior 25 October 2012 Introduction:The purpose of this project is to examine the Consensual Relationship Agreement Case StudyIn the job world of today, office romances have become an issues confronted by most employers. Some employers ban all workplace dating, while other employers have nopolicy at all to these issues. Most employers, however fall somewhere in between, with explicit or at least implicit policies that forbid or discourage certain workplace relationships. Consensual relationship policies are an important tool in managing the risk of sexual harassment and discrimination claims. However, they must be thoughtfully created and administered with care With more employees working longer days relationships at work are consistently developing more frequently. Workplace romance may be the only option for employees whose work load limits their outside activities; but for employers, this trend may prove problematic as the potential liability associated with these relationships rises (Wilson, Filosa, et al, 2003). Employers have had to develop new ways to protect not only the company but themselves from this potential disaster. One type of these new policy’s that are being adopted is a consensual relationship agreement (CRA). A CRA is essentially a “contract” in which the romantically involved...
Words: 1704 - Pages: 7
...In this paper we are going to discuss about consensual relationship agreements at work place. This is an issue that every work place and human resource management has to deal with. For this purpose the case study is analyzed on the said parameters while focusing over non-ethical difficulties. The Consensual Relationship Agreement refers to the romance and love relationships of the employees at work place. Different views have been surfaced during the course of subject study regarding the consensual relationship agreement as some are at the view that the agreement should be signed by every employee and would be effective for the organizational and employees’ performance while on the other hand some are at view point that the love and romance relationship of employees are their personal matter and should not be kept under observation by the employers (Hellriegel, 2011). In order to reach at the destination and achieve the said objectives the subject study has focused over numerous bullets including main but not limited to the use of consensual relationship agreement, creating counter arguments against the use of CRAs in existing or future organizations selected, discussing the ethical principles involved in Consensual Relationship Agreement in the United States, other options addressing the workplace romance and so forth. The subject study is conducted based on the theoretical research design using the secondary sources of data (Alderman, 1995). Consensual Relationship Agreement...
Words: 1944 - Pages: 8
...sinner out of everyday common people who have even the best of intentions. In fact, research suggests that one third of all relationships begin at work. At some time during a person’s working life, chances are they will have or know someone who has been involved in a workplace romance. Often times these relationships become the object of intense gossip and counter productivity. Many times they end badly leaving inefficiency, devastation, and disruption in the workplace not to mention the personal lives of those involved. When so many waking hours are spent with people having common goals in the workplace it is understandable to see how these relationships form. In an office romance, the chance for perceptions to develop of favoritism and unfair advantages one party in the relationship has over others is high. This is especially true if the relationship is between a supervisor or manager and a subordinate. People perceive situations differently. As a previous instructor at a technical training school for military recruits I was always told actual reality is not reality…PERCEPTION IS REALITY. In the Organizational Management textbook, Jim Sinegal further discovered that “it is the perception of reality-not reality-that influences behavior”. (p. 104) This leads to one of the biggest problems associated with office romances, which is, the potential for lawsuits. If the relationship ends badly, a law suit for sexual harassment may be filed by either the parties involved...
Words: 1757 - Pages: 8
...there are relationships in the workplace where I presently work. For any organization to thrive and be successful in a recession and other companies that are competition, they must have certain policies and procedures in place. The current consensual relationship agreement that we presently have in place at Clarks Companies specifically entails if there is a consensual relationship between a supervisor and subordinate, they would need to contact human resources as soon as possible. The reason being is the other employees that may have knowledge of the relationship will say that they are receiving preferential treatment because they are dating someone they report to. Consensual Relationship Agreement – Arguments: I feel that having and using the consensual relationship agreement can protect our workers and they will feel comfortable with coming into work and not worried about being retaliated by the individual they were dating, especially if they were the one to end the relationship. While some companies prohibit workplace relationships, Clarks Companies know that it’s inevitable while working in a company of 500 employees, we try to give them the tools needed to use good judgment if they find themselves being in a relationship with someone they work with. Personally I feel that having a consensual relationship agreement is a great policy to have in place for several reasons. Workers spend most of their time at work then with their families, or people that are single it...
Words: 1677 - Pages: 7
...years to create an environment where workplace romances must be addressed. The old movie scenarios where the boss (male) fooled around with the secretary (female) and the office morale plummeted because no one wanted to be the one to complain about favoritism are gone. The increase of women in the workplace and in managerial positions; increased hours spent at work; increased travel away from home; the push for equality among genders and the resulting integration of the sexes; employee sophistication regarding rights and legal redress on the job; and human resource professionals that fear being sued for sexual harassment complaints from within the employee ranks—all of these and more have resulted in the perceived need to create a document to regulate relationships on the job. The risks related to getting into an on-the-job relationship should not be taken lightly. Participants should be very sure the benefits outweigh the risks because office romances can jeopardize job security and create unease for everyone in the office. If you put individuals with common interests together for 40-plus hours per week, office romance is bound to happen, experts say. Statistics seem to bear that out: According to a 2003 survey by Vault.com, an online career center, 47 percent of the 1,000 professionals surveyed had been involved in an office romance, and another 19 percent would consider it. Of those individuals who had a romance, 11 percent had dated their bosses or another...
Words: 2883 - Pages: 12
...In today's work oriented culture, romances and the related topics of sex and privacy have become important issues confronted by most employers. With more employees working longer days and spending so much of their time on the job, romantic relationships at work are developing more frequently. Workplace romance may be the only option for employees whose workload limits their outside activities, but for employers, this trend may prove to be a problem as the potential liability associated with these relationships rises. Some organizations ban all workplace dating, while other employers have no policy at all to address these issues. Most organizations fall somewhere in between, with explicit or at least implicit policies that forbid or discourage certain workplace relationships. After all, with the amount of time people spend working, it’s impossible to meet people in the traditional meeting places such as church, the neighborhood, family events, and leisure time activities do not present the same kind of people. In contrast, the office provides a natural selection of people who share at least one important interest. People who work together also live within a reasonable dating distance, and share a location, so they see each other on a daily basis. Coworkers in similar jobs may also be around the same age, and share the same interests both inside and outside of work. Consensual relationship policies are an important tool in managing the risk of sexual harassment and discrimination...
Words: 1799 - Pages: 8
