Positive Interventions: Alternate Routes to Quality Workplace Relationships

Social exchange theory (SET) is an important foundation of social sciences from which many workplace theories have emerged. Chernyak-Hai and Rabenu (2018) contend that social exchange is at the heart of workplace relationships. Although SET is a complex framework, in essence, it views workplace interactions as exchanges of resources broadly construed, ranging from tangible resources such as money, goods, and services to intangible ones such as information, support, and trust (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005; Foa & Foa, 1980). Governed by the rule of reciprocity, parties involved in social exchanges use rational deliberation to gauge how much they need to repay for others’ actions. Chernyak-Hai and Rabenu posit that workplace theories rooted in SET should be modified to accommodate the new realities in modern organizations. Although we concur with their observations about new characteristics of work, we are not as optimistic as Chernyak-Hai and Rabenu about SET's capacity to guide our understanding and actions to improve workplace relationships. We argue that positive interventions are important complements to the social exchange process, thereby promoting the quality of work relationships.