Perceived Workplace Romance Motives and Their Consequences

Co-workers assign meaning to workplace romance (WR) based on perceived WR motives. Extant literature suggests that these attributed motives could influence coworker’s relationship with the WR participants and affect various workplace outcomes. Since the contemporary perceived WR motives identified are different from the ones identified by Quinn (1977) forty years ago, further research is called for to examine the consequences of the contemporary perceived WR motives. The present study therefore seeks to examine the relational and workplace implications of the contemporary perceived WR motives. Based on the data from 500 respondents who have observed at least one romantic relationship in their organization(s) in the previous two years, it was found that: 1) Perceived love motive had positive relational implications, while egoboosting motive had negative relational implications; 2) Perceived love motive had positive workplace implications, while job, ego-boosting, and pleasure motives had negative workplace implications; 3) Emotional support motive had neither positive nor negative relational and workplace implications. Limitations and future research directions arefurtherdiscussed.