Abstract
Human social behavior is largely driven by our innate motivation to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships with others. In the workplace, it is natural for employees to form various types of relationships as these connections serve the important need to belong, affiliate, and feel accepted. A different, and somewhat controversial, type of interpersonal workplace relationship that is becoming increasingly more prevalent is work spouse. A work spouse refers to a co- worker with whom one has a close platonic bond similar to the bond of marriage. Despite the widespread media attention and the increasing prevalence of this particular workplace relationship, this phenomenon has not garnered much attention among organizational scholars. Thus, we aim to conceptualize work spouse as a unique interpersonal relationship. Further, we offer a research agenda aimed at examining the consequences of having this type of relationship for the employee, the organization, and bystanders in both the work and family domain.
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