Lisa J. Matthewman

Romantic relationships in organisational settings: attitudes on workplace romance in the UK and USA

Purpose – Research illustrates that workplace romance is on the rise and has potentially negative and beneficial consequences. The purpose of this paper is to understand, from an individual manager and employee perspective in the UK and USA, what personal experience individuals had on workplace romance and what this meant to them personally and in terms of company policy.Design/methodology/approach – A thematic analysis approach was taken to understand what experiences individuals had on workplace romance and how this experience should be reflected in company policy. The research utilised qualitative interviews which were preferred over other methods, such as focus groups by the participants. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded to formulate themes in the research.Findings – The sample consists of 21 employees and 15 managers from Maryland, Oregon, Pennsylvania and England. Regardless of whether participants were from the USA or England, their opinions were similar. Managers and entry lev...

Top Managers in Local Government: influences on development

This paper describes a study of factors that have influenced the career development of senior managers in local government. It extends earlier work on business chief executives and chief officers of police carried out by Margerison and Kakabadse. It was found that the influences could be categorized into three main groups: two kinds of personal attributes – ability factors, motivational factors – and the third group comprising situational factors. Certain of the individual factors are consistent with the findings from competency research. While there are some differences from the earlier research the extent of the similarity is more striking, suggesting the enduring importance of many influencing factors across both time and employment sector.

Long-Term Reward Patterns Contribute to Personal Goals at Work Among Finnish Managers:

The research addresses the impact of long-term reward patterns on contents of personal work goals among young Finnish managers (N = 747). Reward patterns were formed on the basis of perceived and objective career rewards (i.e., career stability and promotions) across four measurements (years 2006–2012). Goals were measured in 2012 and classified into categories of competence, progression, well-being, job change, job security, organization, and financial goals. The factor mixture analysis identified a three-class solution as the best model of reward patterns: high rewards (77%), increasing rewards (17%), and reducing rewards (7%). Participants with reducing rewards reported more progression, well-being, job change, and financial goals than participants with high rewards as well as fewer competence and organizational goals than participants with increasing rewards. Workplace resources can be a key role in facilitating goals toward building competence and organizational performance.