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Positive Interventions: Alternate Routes to Quality Workplace Relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2018

Tao Yang  and
Paresh Mishra
Tao Yang*
Affiliation:
Department of Organizational Leadership, Purdue University Fort Wayne
Paresh Mishra
Affiliation:
Department of Organizational Leadership, Purdue University Fort Wayne
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tao Yang, Department of Organizational Leadership, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN 46805. E-mail: yangt@pfw.edu
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Extract

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.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 504 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2018 

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