Master of Arts (M.A.), Xavier University, 2018, Psychology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of heterosexual interracial workplace romances on co-worker perceptions of an organization and job performance of romance participants. Previous research (Barratt & Nordstrom, 2011; Brown & Allgeier, 1996; Golebiowska, 2007; Herman & Campbell, 2012) has examined attitudes toward interracial romances and perceptions of workplace romances separately. As a result, research on perceptions of and attitudes toward interracial workplace romances was missing in the literature. The hypotheses of the study predicted power dynamics and race combinations to have a significant main effect on co-worker perceptions of the organization (i.e., work environment, social climate, and overall worker morale) and mean aggregate job performance of romance participants. Participants were 244 users of Amazon's Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing site that allows for quick recruitment of participants who provide relatively high-quality data. The results indicated hierarchical workplace romances have a negative effect on the work environment, social climate, and overall worker morale. Exploratory analyses revealed hierarchical workplace romances have a significant negative effect on perceived job satisfaction. The analyses also showed a significant interaction between power dynamics and race combinations on turnover intentions. Follow-up tests revealed that hierarchical workplace romances with a Black male supervisor led to higher turnover intentions compared to hierarchical workplace romances with a White male supervisor, regardless of the race of the supervisee. Future research should examine the effect of other workplace romance combinations on key workplace-related outcomes, including rating fairness of job performance.

Committee: Morrie Mullins Dr. (Committee Chair); Dalia Diab Dr. (Committee Member); Mark Nagy Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Psychology; Social Psychology