Bringing to Light What’s Been Cast to the Shadows: Marginalized Relationships and Narratives at Work

The management literature is rich with theoretical and empirical insights into the processes and outcomes associated with interpersonal relationships at work. Whereas some workplace relationships and relational experiences have received a great deal of scholarly attention, others have been cast to the shadows. In this presenter symposium, we offer five papers uncovering the processes and consequences associated with taboo, counter-normative, and marginalized relational experiences in the workplace. Specifically, our symposium shines a spotlight on oft-overlooked relationships and relational experiences, including unrequited love in the workplace, workplace romances, relational experiences of Black women executives, and luck’s existence in employees’ relationships and careers. The theoretical and empirical papers included in this symposium offer novel contributions to the workplace relationships literature and its intersections with identity, careers, and gender and diversity, generating fruitful avenues for future research. A model of unrequited love in the workplace Presenter: Nikhil Awasty; Michigan State U. Presenter: Rebecca Mitchell; U. of Colorado Boulder Presenter: Lance Ferris; Michigan State U. Who I am through you: A self categorization model of dynamic romantic commitment at work Presenter: Keith Norman Leavitt; Oregon State U. Presenter: Trevor Watkins; U. of Oklahoma Risky or risqué?: The role of stigmatized identity in workplace romance formation Presenter: Emily Dunham Heaphy; U. of Massachusetts, Amherst Presenter: Emily Poulton; U. of Georgia Peer and CEO perceptions about their expectations for and challenges of senior black women Presenter: Marla Baskerville Watkins; Northeastern U. Presenter: Jamie Jocelyn Ladge; Northeastern U. Presenter: Alexis Nicole Smith; Oklahoma State U. Presenter: Pamela Carlton; Springboard – Partners in Cross Cultural Leadership Toward a theory of luck and inequality in careers Presenter: Erin Marie Reid; McMaster U. Presenter: Lakshmi Ramarajan; Harvard U.