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television show is useful for looking at organizational communication, upward and
downward communication, and sexual harassment in the workplace.
Office Space (1999, 89 minutes) is a cult-favorite comedy written and directed by Mike
Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head. In the movie, low-level employees at a
technology company rebel against the mundane but oppressive demands of their unfeeling
supervisor by attempting a foolish embezzlement scheme. In addition to providing many very
funny and relatable scenes about the everyday humiliations of working within a corporate
structure, the film addresses advocacy, downward communication, workplace bullying, and
myriad other concepts from the chapter.
Philadelphia (1993, 135 minutes) stars Tom Hanks as a successful and well-liked attorney
working in a law firm. However, when it becomes known that he is gay and has AIDS, the
organizational climate changes swiftly from warm support to hostile defensiveness. The
story, based on a 1987 AIDS discrimination case brought against the law firm of Baker &
Beckett, illustrates the contrast between detachment and empathy, and it offers a painful view
of ineffective downward communication when Beckett is told his services are no longer
required.
Parks & Recreation (2009–2015 TV Series) chronicles the absurd antics of an Indiana
town’s public officials as they pursue projects to make their city a better place. This
television show is useful for looking at organizational communication, workplace culture,
and workplace challenges.
The Proposal (2009, 108 minutes). In this film, a pushy boss (Sandra Bullock) forces her
young assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to keep her visa status in the United
States and avoid deportation to Canada. The film is useful for examining organizational
climate, upward and downward communication, and workplace challenges.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006, 109 minutes) stars Will Smith as Chris Gardener, a
financially desperate single parent who struggles mightily to win a position at a brokerage
firm by competing in an unpaid internship program while homeless and caring for his 5-year-
old son. As Chris interviews for the program and endeavors to learn new work skills, he
scrimps by selling medical equipment. Throughout the film, Chris struggles to fit into an
organizational culture, to bond with organizational insiders who can advance his career, and
to use advocacy while selling medical equipment and campaigning for a position.
The Social Network (2010, 121 minutes) tells the story of the creators of Facebook and the
subsequent legal battles that stretched out over several years. This movie is useful for
examining organizational communication, upward and downward communication, and
workplace challenges.
“The Secretary” (Seinfeld, 1994, Season 6, Episode 9) is a 1994 episode of the TV sitcom
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Web Resources
How I Survived Workplace Bullying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmRKlZEXVQM
This Ted Talk offers insight into workplace bulling and what to do when it happens to you.
Leadership in Eliminating Workplace Bullying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jO-To2K1AQ
This Ted Talk explores how transformational leadership is the key to creating and
maintaining a supportive and bully-free work environment.
Workplace Communication
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/workplace-communication-4161667
This website offers tips and resources to improve workplace communication via email, social
media, IM, meetings, newsletters, and more.
4 Ways to Combat Workplace Communication Breakdowns
https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlsun/2018/04/24/4-ways-to-combat-workplace-
communication-breakdowns/#7b73cf6c2d5b
This article breaks down the role communication plays in maintaining effective workplace
relationships and offers tips for using the “right” communication tools.
Fast Company
http://www.fastcompany.com
This is the website of Fast Company magazine, which focuses on issues related to innovation,
leadership, networking, and learning.
Sexual Harassment
http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/sexual_harassment.cfm
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s website offers information on
sexual harassment.
“You Can Talk Your Way through the Glass Ceiling”
http://georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/usatoday121594.htm
This USA Today op-ed piece by Deborah Tannen examines how stereotypes about gender
communication can keep women from making gains in the workplace.
Communication and Leadership
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcom.html
This article covers basic communication concepts and their application to leadership issues.
“Apologies: What It Means to Say ‘Sorry’”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/tannen082398.htm
This Washington Post article by Deborah Tannen explores the topic of apologizing.
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“Workplace Woes: He Hovers While You Work”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9164947
This NPR article examines cultural nonverbal communication differences in the workplace
and provides tips for dealing with these differences.
“How Millennials Work Differently from Everyone Else”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/09/13/how-millennials-work-differently
-from-everyone-else/
This article focuses on the differences in communication styles in the workplace between
millennials and older generations.
“How Good Workplace Communication Improves Employee Morale”
http://www.crmlearning.com/blog/index.php/2013/08/communication-improves-employee
-morale/
This article focuses on the positive effects of effective communication in the workplace.
“Have Social Media Hurt Communication in the Workplace?”
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-24/business/os-mending-our-manners-in
-workplace-20120724_1_social-media-office-depot-skills
This article from the Orlando Sentinel focuses on how social media has contributed to the
erosion of interpersonal skills in the workplace.
MUSIC RECOMMENDATIONS
The following music examples have been included for illustrating interpersonal
communication concepts addressed in this chapter. It is recommended that the instructor
preview songs before using them, as some contain adult language. Each instructor must
decide what is appropriate for his or her class.
“Go to Work,” performed by Nadine Coyle
“Work from Home,” performed by Fifth Harmony
“9 to 5,” performed by Dolly Parton
“Workin’ for a Livin’,” performed by Huey Lewis and the News
“Working Man,” performed by Rush
“Blue Collar Man,” performed by Styx
“Working Class Hero,” performed by John Lennon
“Let’s Work,” performed by Mick Jagger
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Chapter 14: Relationships in the Workplace
Lecture Outline
I. A workplace relationship is any relationship that you have with a professional peer,
supervisor, subordinate, or mentor.
A. Workplace relationships can be either balanced or unbalanced in status, can vary in
intimacy, and are defined by choice.
B. Workplace relationships bring the benefits of increased professional skills but the
drawbacks of spawning cliques and gossip.
II. Workplace relationships are shaped by the organizational culture of the individual
workplace, the distinctive set of beliefs and practices existing within an organization.
A. An organization’s culture comes from three sources:
1. Workplace values are the beliefs people share about work performance,
dedication to the organization, and coworker relationships.
2. Workplace norms govern appropriate interpersonal communication and
relationships.
3. Workplace artifacts are the objects and structures that define the organization.
B. Becoming socialized into organizational culture happens through formal and
informal exchanges between new and established coworkers.
III. In addition to organization culture, workplaces also have systems of communication
linkages, known as organizational networks.
A. Organizational networks are defined by three characteristics:
1. The nature of information that flows through them
a. Communication may be work-oriented, such as interactions among teams
about quality management.
b. Communication may be personal, such as gossip or social small talk.
2. The particular media or channels through which information flows
a. Channels may include face-to-face interactions, text messages, instant
messaging, telephone calls, e-mail exchanges, Skype video conferences, and
other online services.
b. Some organizations use virtual networks to link distant coworkers by e-mail,
allowing some workers to telecommute (which involves working from home
while communicating with coworkers electronically).
3. Network density, or the frequency and number of interactions among people in a
network
a. Members in dense networks interact regularly with every other network
member.
b. Members in loose- networks may interact with just one or two other members.
B. Organizational networks can either be formally defined by the organization or
informally defined (e.g., evolving naturally from work patterns).
1. Formal organizational networks describe the status and relationships of the
2. Informal workplace cliques may form among coworkers who share values and
interests. These networks can amplify workplace goals (e.g., an ambitious group
of salespersons who combine their talents while pursuing new clients).
a. Cliques can educate new employees about the organizational culture and key
operations; they also can educate new employees about whom they can trust
and to which networks they should belong.
b. Cliques may be disadvantageous, encouraging values or behaviors contrary to
the organization’s culture (e.g., a group of “slackers” who conspire to evade
responsibility by creating false time-card records for each other).
C. Organizational networks are important in providing employees with workplace
information and opportunity.
1. Use discretion, since information shared in the organization network seldom
remains secret—the private is public in the workplace.
2. Build interpersonal relationships with respected workplace cliques or
organizational insiders—reputable workers who are connected to dense
organizational networks—to support your performance and career advancement.
IV. Workplaces are characterized by an emotional quality known as organizational
climate.
A. Organizational climate develops from the sum total of individuals’ interpersonal
behavior in the workplace.
B. Two types of organizational climate exist: defensive and supportive.
1. A defensive climate is unfriendly, rigid, and unsupportive of workers’
professional and personal needs.
2. A supportive climate is warm, open, and supportive.
C. Climates vary widely, and most fall somewhere between defensive and supportive,
depending on workers’ personalities, job demands, and supervisor communication
styles.
D. Workers can create a supportive workplace climate by:
2. Adopting a flexible mindset
4. Describing challenges rather than assigning blame
6. Emphasizing equality
V. The use of computer-based communication technologies and social media platforms,
such as e-mail, text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, and instant-messaging, are now
standard practice for coordinating professional activities in many workplaces.
A. Computer-mediated communication provides advantages over face-to-face and
phone interactions.
1. Decision-making input can be sought from employees who work long distance.
3. Conversations can be more democratic because those in authority cannot “stare
4. People who are shy can feel more comfortable contributing.
5. Online discussions provide participants with freedom from time constraints and
geographic constraints.
6. Online discussions are often more informative, detailed, and factual, as
participants have the opportunity to fact-check the information before posting the
information.
7. The biggest advantage of communication technologies is that they connect
workers relationally by allowing workers to form and maintain friendships with
coworkers in other divisions of the company that they otherwise wouldn’t have
met.
B. Disadvantages of workplace technologies include the possible distractions that
online games, apps, and social-networking sites present to workers.
1. Cyberslacking involves using work computers to play video games, surf the
internet, post to social media, and send personal e-mails and instant messages.
According to the textbook, this behavior is so commonplace that American
workers now spend two hours each workday cyberslacking.
2. Lost productivity due to cyberslacking costs organizations millions of dollars.
3. Companies combat cyberslacking by using programs that track employee
computer use, often without employees’ knowledge.
4. Everything and anything you do on a company computer is considered company
property, even if you sign into personal Web accounts.
VI. Meaningful and intimate relationships often develop between professional peers—
people holding positions of similar organizational status and power.
A. Peer relationships vary by type:
1. Information peers are equivalent-status coworkers with whom our
communication is limited to work-related content.
3. Special peers are those coworkers with whom we share high levels of emotional
4. Virtual peers are those coworkers who communicate mainly through telephone,
e-mail, and related communications technologies; it is commonplace for virtual
peers to become virtual friends.
B. Healthy professional peer relationships are maintained in a manner similar to other
types of interpersonal relationships.
1. Positivity helps offset the stress and demands everyone faces in the workplace.
3. Assurances help demonstrate your commitment to your peers.
4. Relationships grow stronger when you treat one another as whole human beings
with unique qualities and not strictly as coworkers.
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A. In supervisory relationships, one person outranks and supervises another.
1. Most supervisory relationships are assigned, not chosen.
2. Supervisory relationships are less likely to evolve into friendships due to power
imbalance.
3. Friendship between supervisors and subordinates is often discouraged by
organizations because it may influence supervisors’ objectivity.
B. Influencing superiors to support our work-related needs and wants is achieved
through upward communication—communication from subordinates to
superiors—and is pursued with the desire to persuade.
1. Advocacy means designing messages in accordance with your superior’s
communication preferences, with the goal of creating a well-received message.
2. Advocacy is based on six principles:
a. Plan before you pitch.
b. Identify reasons why your supervisor should agree with you.
c. Tailor your message to your supervisor’s preferred message mode. For
example, does your supervisor respond more favorably to anecdotes or
statistics, details or generalities?
d. Know your supervisor’s knowledge.
e. Create coalitions before communicating.
f. Competently articulate your message.
VIII. Having formal authority in an organization gives you freedom in the messages you use
when interacting with subordinates, known as downward communication.
A. Focus on Culture: The Model Minority Myth
1. One problem of downward communication in organizations is the belief that
certain minority groups have overcome all the barriers to success and are self-
effacing, reliable, hard-working, and technically proficient.
2. This belief may stem from ignorance, so discussing the matter directly with a
supervisor can help dispel stereotypical assumptions.
B. Effective downward communication can be achieved by observing five principles:
1. Routinely and openly emphasize the importance of communication.
2. Listen empathically.
3. Frame wants and needs as polite requests or persuasive explanations.
4. Be sensitive to your subordinates’ feelings.
5. Share relevant information with employees whenever possible.
IX. Effectively praising and constructively criticizing subordinates can be especially
challenging in workplace communications. Use the following steps in order to
constructively issue compliments and criticism.
A. Praise subordinates’ work achievements, expertise, attitudes, and the like, rather
than their appearance.
B. Praise should be private, except in cases of formal recognition dinners or awards
ceremonies—singling out employees can create workplace resentment.
C. Constructive criticism starts with managing your own emotions in order to approach
the situation calmly and positively.
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D. Constructive criticism relies on rhetorical skills of honesty, descriptive
communication about the issue or behavior of concern, perspective-taking, and
empathic understanding.
E. Constructive criticism also negotiates solutions or actions for the future.
X. Maintaining mixed-status relationships is achieved by:
A. Developing and following communication rules about what is appropriate to talk
about and when matters should be discussed
B. Communicating in consistent and reliable ways in order to build trust in the
relationship
XI. A significant challenge to workplace relationships is workplace bullying, the repeated
unethical and unfavorable treatment of one or more persons by coworkers.
A. Bullying occurs in myriad ways, including shouting, swearing, spreading vicious
rumors, destroying the target’s property at work, physical violence, and excessive
criticism.
B. Bullying is also perpetrated through passive means, such as the “silent treatment,”
exclusion from meetings and gatherings, and ignoring requests.
C. When bullying occurs online or via text messaging, it is known as cyberbullying,
which can manifest in withholding or deleting important information sent via e-
mail, or spreading gossip/rumors through computer technologies.
D. Perpetrators of workplace bullying usually combine several of the following
tactics:
1. Isolation: Restricting employees’ interaction with coworkers, isolating their
work area from others, and excluding them from group activities and off-site
social gatherings.
2. Control of Important Information: Preventing key data from reaching workers,
providing false job-related information, blocking or deleting correspondence.
3. Constraint of Professional Responsibilities: Assigning workers to tasks that are
useless, impossible, or absurd; or leaving them with nothing to do.
4. Creation of Dangerous Work Conditions: Distracting workers during critical
tasks to put them in peril, assigning tasks that endanger health or safety, refusing
to provide appropriate safety measures.
5. Verbal Abuse: Making disdainful, ridiculing, and insulting remarks regarding
workers’ personal characteristic; spreading rumors and lies.
6. Destruction of Professional Reputation: Attacking worker’s professional
performance, exaggerating the importance of work errors, ignoring or distorting
correct decisions and achievements.
E. Workplace bullying has devastating effects on the target’s physical and
psychological health.
F. Workplace bullying is common: 25–30 percent of U.S. employees are bullied at
some point during their work lives.
G. Strategies for coping with workplace bullying include:
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a. If the bully is not your direct supervisor, speak with your supervisor about the
issue.
XII. A second challenge to workplace relationships is the development of romantic feelings
for coworkers—between 40 to 56 percent of professionals surveyed have been
involved in workplace romance, and 10 million new workplace romances are forged
each year.
A. Historically, companies have discouraged workplace romances, believing they lead
to favoritism, lack of worker motivation, decreased efficiency and productivity,
and increased risk of sexual harassment lawsuits.
B. Many workplaces have begun to shift their views and policies, as research supports
that romantic involvement does not hurt worker productivity.
C. Workplace romances can create the perception among coworkers that the partners
are more interested in each other than in their work, leading to rumors and gossip.
D. Many of the negative outcomes associated with workplace romances are more
pronounced for women than for men.
1. When female subordinates become involved with male supervisors, for instance,
coworkers may assume the female has traded sexual favors for workplace
advantage.
2. Men face more detrimental outcomes than women in mixed-status relationships,
whereby men are less likely to be considered for promotion and training
opportunities when they have a higher-status female partner.
E. Strategies for handling workplace romance include:
1. Communicating in a strictly professional manner during work hours
2. Using communication technologies judiciously to maintain your relationships
F. Sometimes one-sided sexual or romantic interest in the workplace can lead to
sexual harassment. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) provides this definition: “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual
favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual
harassment when (1) this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s
employment; (2) unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance,
or (3) creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.”
1. The definition points to two types of harassment in the workplace:
a. Quid pro quo harassment (“this for that”) occurs when a person in a
supervisory position asks for or demands sexual favors in return for
professional advancement or protection from layoffs or other undesirable
events.
b. Hostile work environment is sexual conduct or gender-based hostility that is
so severe or pervasive that it disrupts work performance.
2. Sexual harassment in the workplace is pervasive. Anywhere from 25 to 85
percent of women report having experienced sexual harassment in the
workplace, yet between 70 and 90 percent do not file formal complaints.
3. Several negative outcomes result from workplace sexual harassment, including
feelings of anger, fear, and depression, eating and sleep disorders, post-
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traumatic stress disorder, as well as reduced work productivity and financial
loss.
4. Avoiding the harasser and ignoring the harassment or minimizing the
seriousness of the harassment is the most common response.
5. However, the best solution is to confront the harasser, describing his or her
actions as inappropriate, or to pursue legal action if necessary.
XIII. Making Relationship Choices: Dealing with Workplace Abuse
A. Workplace relationships and interactions always include challenges, especially
between supervisors and employees.
B. Imagine that you work at a job delivering pizzas. The work environment is
supportive and your coworkers have welcomed you with open arms. The only
exception is your manager, Elizabeth, who seems to make work life difficult.
On one particular night, she hid your money pouch to “teach you a lesson” for
leaving it on the delivery table. You spent the evening in a panic trying to find
the money, only to discover Elizabeth had it the whole time. With a smirk, she
hands you the pouch and asks, “What lessons have you learned from this
experience?” You must decide how to respond.
C. Reflect on your thoughts and feelings in this situation, as well as those of your
supervisor.
D. Identify the optimal outcome and the roadblocks to achieving that outcome.
E. Chart your course of action, considering issues related to organizational
climate, downward communication, advocacy, and workplace bullying.
