Stronger than me: Recrafting relationship narratives after relational turbulence

Abstract

Organizations are built on a network of formal and informal relationships. They are critical for organizational performance and individuals’ well-being, and provide an important resource for responding to the turbulence created by external crises. We develop a dyad-level construct, the relationship narrative (“who we are”), to explore the impact of external crises on workplace relationships. We theorize that the motivation and affective themes that define relationship narratives establish a narrative arc of either connection or disconnection. These narrative arcs underpin robust and fragile relationships, respectively, and shape how partners re-establish relationship narratives. External crises create relational turbulence and uncertainty by disrupting relational cohesion and affective climate, and trigger an attentional shift from the relationship to the individual. They create turning points within relationships, opening the possibility for partners to strengthen (reintegrate) their relationships but also creating the risk that relationships will worsen (fragment). How relational partners approach repairing disruptions to relational cohesion and regulating post-crisis affect determines which of four post-turbulence relationship narratives – resilient, habitual, fracture, disintegration – emerges from partners’ relationship repair efforts. The path to each of these relationship narratives is contingent on the broad narrative arc that underpinned partners’ pre-crisis relationship narrative.