Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

Key Takeaways
• According to Patricia Sias, people engage in workplace relationships for several
reasons: mentoring, information, power, and support. Jessica Methot has further
suggested that we engage in coworker relationships for trust, relational maintenance,
and the ability to focus.
• Kathy Kram and Lynn Isabella have explained that there are three different types
of workplace relationships: information peer, collegial peer, and special peer.
Information peers are coworkers we rely on for information about job tasks and
the organization itself. Collegial peers are coworkers with whom we have moderate
levels of trust and self-disclosure and more openness that is shared between two
individuals. Special peers, on the other hand, are coworkers marked by high levels
of trust and self-disclosure, like a “best friend” in the workplace.
• Patricia Sias and Daniel Cahill created a list of influencing factors on coworker
relationships. First, we are simply more drawn to some coworkers than others.
As such, traditional notions of interpersonal attraction and homophily are at play.
A second influencing factor involves contextual changes. Often there are specific
contextual changes (e.g., moving offices, friendship opportunity, and friendship
prevalence) that impact the degree to which people develop coworker friendships.
Finally, communication changes as we progress through the four types of coworker
friendships: acquaintance, friend, close friend, and almost best friend.
• Patricia Sias and Tarra Perry describe three different ways that coworkers can
disengage from coworker relationships in the workplace. First, individuals can
engage in state-of-the-relationship talk with a coworker, or explain to a coworker
that a workplace friendship is ending. Second, individuals can make the cost of
maintaining the relationship higher than getting out of the relationship, which is
called cost escalation. The final disengagement strategy coworkers can utilize,
depersonalization occurs when an individual stops all the interaction with a
coworker that is not task-focused or simply to avoids the coworker.
Exercises
• Think about your workplace relationships with coworkers. Which of Patricia
Sias’s four reasons and Jessica Methot’s three additional characteristics were at
play in these coworker relationships?
• Kathy Kram and Lynn Isabella describe three different types of peers we have in
the workplace: information peer, collegial peer, and special peer. Think about
your workplace. Can you identify people who fall into all three categories? If not,
why do you think you don’t have all three types of peers? If you do, how are these
relationships distinctly different from one another?
• Think about an experience where you needed to end a workplace relationship with
a coworker. Which of Patricia Sias and Tarra Perry’s disengagement strategies did
you use? Do you think there are other disengagement strategies available beyond
471
Interpersonal Communication