Re-envisioning feeling and relating at work: An inductive study of interpersonal disconnection in organizational life.

摘要

This inductive study aims to explore the nature and significance of interpersonal disconnection in work organizations. Drawing on a relational theory of psychological development (Miller & Stiver, 1997) and a theory of social life (Sandelands, 2003), interpersonal disconnection is conceptualized as a visceral relational phenomenon---a social dynamic that involves the mutual creation of distance between people and that is evocative of a variety of painful and disruptive feelings. Data was collected through field observations and open-ended qualitative interviews at an information technology organization. Forty-eight storied accounts of individuals' experiences of interpersonal disconnection collected via the interviews were analyzed to explore what such experiences feel like, what the social dynamics of such experiences are like, and how instances of interpersonal disconnection impact organizational life.; Data reveal that interpersonal disconnection punctuates and permanently alters the social life of relationships. It unfolds as a mutually distancing dynamic such that the individuals involved move together to increase the relational distance between them in their relationship. This increase intensifies the inherent tension of the relationship and thus evokes a variety of feelings (e.g., separation, anxiety, and enervation). Individuals' attempts to move beyond the pain and disruption of these feelings set the relationship on one of three trajectories. Each trajectory is marked by a unique social dynamic: reconnection involves a mutual bridging of the relational distance created during the initial instance of interpersonal disconnection; stasis involves mutual adaptation to the relational distance; and distance creation involves further mutual distancing.; This research contributes to ongoing conversations in the organizational literature by revealing that interpersonal disconnection is not something that happens, but rather it is something that people do. It is a dynamic visceral social process that triggers other dynamic social processes, all of which permanently alter organizations' daily social fabric. This perspective enhances our understanding of how seemingly mundane interpersonal happenings not only take an emotional and psychological toll on individuals, but also how they come to have far-reaching and enduring effects on relationships and on organizational life more generally.