Organizational Romance Policies and Sexual Favoritism in the #MeToo Workplace

This book is about workplace relationships, specifically romantic ones, along with the closely related construct, sexual conduct, which can lead to happiness and joy yet also sadness and bitterness, as well as the legal and ethical challenges in situations of sexual harassment. Researchers have empirically proven that romantic relationships at work can have both positive and negative outcomes, such as increased job involvement, engagement, and work motivation among romance participants, yet at the same time decrease work group morale, especially when a hierarchal romance between a manager or supervisor and a directly reporting subordinate is involved. So, general friendships as well as sexual relationships or other sexual conduct in the workplace, including among professional colleagues, are "realities of life" for all people. And this fact is especially more prevalent today due to the widespread existence of technology and social media. In this book, the authors attempt to examine some of the important topics of sexual favoritism and office romance in the workplace from practical, legal, and ethical perspectives. Accordingly, the book addresses the laws regarding sexual favoritism in the workplace for employees, managers, and organizations to benefit from it. The three main legal areas - the general rule of isolated instances of sexual favoritism, the quid pro quo exception, and the hostile environment exception - are explained and illustrated. The legal vs. the moral dichotomy of the general rule of sexual favoritism is underscored. The book addresses some of the legal aspects of office romance, particularly how office romance can engender sexual favoritism and then cause sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. The book analyzes the topics of sexual favoritism and office romance from an ethical perspective to determine the morality of certain workplace policies and conduct. Four ethical theories are applied to make moral conclusions, to wit: Ethical Egoism, Ethical Relativism, Utilitarianism, and Kantian ethics. The positive vs. negative consequences of office romance are set forth in a balanced manner. Based on the legal and ethical analysis, the authors make several practical recommendations for management, first, generally, to avoid lawsuits for sexual harassment and discrimination and to curtail sexual favoritism, and then specifically regarding appropriate workplace romance policies and procedures, with particular attention on the so-called "love contract," and "non-disclosure agreements" (NDAs) linked to sexual harassment cases. The goal of this book is to help employers and managers to attain a workplace that is practical, effective, functional, and efficacious, but very importantly also one that is legal, fair, ethical, moral, and just. Workplace relationships are likely to form as a natural consequence of human beings working together and developing strong bonds due to mutual respect and professionalism as well as basic physical attraction. If you find yourself or some of your employees in such a relationship, "no worries," as this book will help you to navigate through it all professionally. In any workplace relationship, just make sure that how you conduct yourself is legal, fair, ethical, and moral from all perspectives.