WORKPLACES ROMANCES: ITS EFFECTS AND INFLUENCE

TO OTHER EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE

IRISH FE S. ALCUIZAR
REYNALD V. ROSARIO

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(Financial Management)

SEPTEMBER 2021
WORKPLACES ROMANCES: ITS EFFECTS AND INFLUENCE

TO OTHER EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE

An Undergraduate Thesis

presented to

the Faculty of the College of Business Administration

Christ the King College de Maranding, Inc.

Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

(Financial Management)

by

IRISH FE S. ALCUIZAR

REYNALD V. ROSARIO

SEPTEMBER 2021

i
 Christ the King College de
Maranding, Inc.
Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte 9211 PHILIPPINES
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPROVAL SHEET
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of
Science in Business Administration major in Financial Management, this
undergraduate thesis entitled “WORKPLACES ROMANCES: ITS
EFFECTS AND INFLUENCE TO OTHER EMPLOYEES’
PERFORMANCE” prepared and submitted by Irish Fe S. Alcuizar, and
Reynald V. Rosario has been examined and is recommended for
acceptance and approval for oral examinations.

MARIA ESPERANZA S. MACASARTE, PhD

Adviser
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration major in Financial
Management with a grade of ________.
PANEL OF EXAMINERS

ARLENE N. BACUS, MBA

Chairman

SR. MA. HAZEL A. MEJORADA, MSOLTC MARIA ESPERANZA S. MACASARTE, PhD

Member Member

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

Bachelor in Secondary Education major in Mathematics.

ii
 ARLENE N. BACUS, MBA
Dean, College of Business Administration
DEDICATION

This intellectual piece of work is dedicated to

their loving parents,

for their boundless support, emotionally, financially, and spiritually;

their loved ones,

for their stable inspiration and hope for them to become prosperous; and

to

the Almighty God, for the wisdom He has bestowed upon them.

All thanks be to Him.

IFSA

RVR

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The researchers express their gratitude and appreciation to the

following persons who helped much to the success of this study:

To their adviser, Maria Esperanza S. Macasarte, PhD., for the

suggestions, support, and supervision to make this study successful;

To their instructor in research and at the same time the editor, Marjun

D. Ligan, MBA, for the teachings, guidance, and knowledge that he imparted

to help improve this study;

To their Panel of Experts, Sr. Ma. Hazel A. Mejorada, MSOLTC, and

Arlene P. Bacus, MBA, for their developmental suggestions and inputs for the

development of this research;

To the CBA teachers at Christ the King College de Maranding, for their

efforts for the content validation of the test;

To their parents, words cannot express how much they mean to them

for being always there to serve and understand the educational and financial

needs;

To GOD, for the peace, joy, and glory showered upon them; and

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 To all of you, thank so much!
IFSA
ABSTRACT RVR
Title: WORKPLACES ROMANCES: ITS EFFECTS AND INFLUENCE TO
OTHER EMPLOYEES

No. of Pages -
Researchers - Irish Fe S. Alcuizar
Reynald V. Rosario
School - Christ the King College de Maranding
Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte
Degree - Bachelor in Business Administration
Major in Financial Management
Year Completed - 2023
Keywords - workplace, romances, effects, influence
employees
Lala, Lanao del Norte, Philippines

v
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

TITLE PAGE i

APPROVAL SHEET ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

CHAPTER

1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction 1

Theoretical Framework

Conceptual Framework

vi
 Statement of the Problem

Hypotheses

Scope and Delimitation

Significance of the Study

Definition of Terms

2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDY

Related Literatures

Related Studies

Insights

3 RESEARCH METHODS

Research Design

Research Environment

Respondents and Sampling Procedures

Research Instruments and Their Validity

Data Gathering Procedures

vii
 Statistical Treatment

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

5 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

Conclusions

Recommendations

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

A Letter for the President

B Letter for the Executive Vice President

C Letter for the Vice President for Research Extension

& Development

D Letter for the Vice President for Academic Affairs

E Letter of the Dean of the College of Business

F Letter for the Barangay Captain

G Letter for the Respondents

viii
CURRICULUM VITAE

LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

ix
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

A Schematic Paradigm

B Locale of the Study

C Flow Chart

x
 Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction

In an organization many things can be happen. Meet a lot of people,

seeing different faces. Many people meet and socialize in the workplace sharing

each other’s ideas and build trust to each other. which can be one of the reasons

that lead into workplace romance.

Many people meet and socialize in the workplace which increases the

potential for romantic involvement, workplace romance occurs when two people

within an organization acknowledge romance to each other and act upon these

emotions, sharing romantic feelings and forming a positive relationship with

someone. However, despite the obvious considerable influence of romantic

relationship in organizational performance including employees’ behavior,

boundaries between work and personal lives particularly unfavorable perception

of romantic relationship in the workplace. Pursuing romance in workplace are

traditionally regarded as problem for the organization

Some organizations prohibit relationships with spouses in the workplace or

so-called Workplace Romance. But in reality, Workplace Romance is something

that is common in organizations both on a global scale as well as in companies in

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Indonesia. On one hand, Workplace Romance is personal issues, but on the

other hand it also has a direct impact on the organization.

Workplace romance contribute to both, the positive and negative effect and

the improvement and deterioration of different behavioral and performance-

related outcomes in performance and in the organization. Workplace romance

have a negative rather than a positive influence on work performance. And also,

workplace romance can be act as a stress factor for the other employees in the

organization. And allowing the romantic behavior in the office can causes tension

and discomfort for other employees and it can also lead to complaints of

favoritism and discrimination and also, most workplace romance that end

eventually can cause emotional exhaustion, inadequate job performance, or job

transfer and also romantic relationship may do harm to employees in their

organizational behavior.

According to Saad, 2014, that the relationships that coworkers begin to

develop with one another have become even more important as they help to

foster cohesiveness, trust, and an overall healthy and efficient work environment.

But with this increase in time at the workplace comes an increase in the

possibility of a different type of relationship developing: a workplace romantic

relationship (or WRR). The topic of romance within the workplace is an issue of

professional ethics, as it not only has the ability to affect the couples’ relationship

outside of the workplace, but also that these relationships create many issues

within the workplace.

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 Robert E. Quinn is a key figure in early research of WRRs and he found

that there are three main motivations behind a person entering a WRR: 1) love,

2) job motivation (promotions, advancement, etc.), and 3) ego (personal

excitement, satisfaction, adventure, sex).

Researchers Cowan and Horan (2014) also found that additional

motivations for people entering into WRRs include time spent with coworkers,

ease of opportunity due to proximity, and similarity due to a shared occupation.

This study aims to know the effects and influences to other employees’

performance on workplace romance. Perceptions of romance and behavior

should not be happened at work. Romantic workplace relationship has been

known to create employees’ distraction, hesitation, anxiety, stress and it can

cause of losing the sense of focus to other employees. Those who date superiors

lose trust from coworkers because of the possibility of unfair advantages they

might receive. Romantic actions in workplace can cause of awkwardness, lack of

communication, jealousy, conflict and anger to their co-employees.

This study will be conducted during the first semester of the school year

2021- 2022 before the final exam of 1st semester in 2nd batch. This will investigate

and analyze the effects and influence to other employees’ performance on

workplace romances to the varied workplaces employees within the locality of

Barangay Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte. In providing good and right insights

to administrators and managers on an employee’s romantic involvement

influences job engagement and performance is one of the valuable tasks that an
13
employer should do, the researchers develop this study and believe that it is their

duties and responsibilities to share and inform the ways an employers should do,

confidently saying that they are very much concerned more of their future

undertakings.

Theoretical Framework

This study was anchored on the theories that support the ideas on

Theory on Connectionism by Edward L. Thorndike (1910); Theory on Purposive

Behaviorism by Edward Tolman (1932); Social Learning Theory by Albert

Bandura (1977); Psychosexual Theory by Sigmund Freud (1905); and Moral

Development Theory by Lawrence Kohlberg (1977).

The learning theory of Thorndike represents the original S-R framework of

behavioral psychology: Learning is the result of associations forming between

stimuli and responses. Such associations or “habits” become strengthened or

weakened by the nature and frequency of the S-R pairings. The paradigm for S-

R theory was trial and error learning in which certain responses come to

dominate others due to rewards. The hallmark of connectionism (like all

behavioral theory) was that learning could be adequately explained without

referring to any unobservable internal states.

14
 Tolman (1932), on his theory described purposive behavior as behavior

directed toward some ultimate goal. Much of Tolman’s research was done in the

context of place learning. In the most famous experiments, one group of rats was

placed at random starting locations in a maze but the food was always in the

same location. Another group of rats had the food placed in different locations

which always required exactly the same pattern of turns from their starting

location. The group that had the food in the same location performed much better

than the other group, supposedly demonstrating that they had learned the

location rather than a specific sequence of turns.

Moreover, the Social learning theory of Albert Bandura (1977), can be

used effectively in the workplace to observe and model productive behaviors.

However, social learning does not occur passively. Attention, retention,

reproduction, and motivation are required in order to benefit from social learning

practices. Through exposing groups of children aged three to six to aggressive

behavior, Bandura sought to prove that human behavior is learned

observationally through modeling, or by observing others—and that these

observations can guide actions and result in imitated behaviors in subjects later

on. This social learning can also be utilized to teach people positive behaviors.

Significantly, Freud (1905) Theory on Psychosexual sated that

sour personality develops from a conflict between two forces: our biological

aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives versus our internal (socialized) control

15
over these drives. Our personality is the result of our efforts to balance these two

competing forces. This Freudian motivation theory posits that unconscious

psychological forces, such as hidden desires and motives, shape an individual's

behavior, like their purchasing patterns.

Moral development is an important part of the socialization process. Its

development prevents people from acting on unchecked urges, instead

considering what is right for society and good for others. Lawrence Kohlberg

(1977) was interested in how people learn to decide what is right and what is

wrong. His theory can help business owners and managers assess how their

employees and other key stakeholders interact with the organization and its

leadership at various stages of growth. In promoting the moral development in

an organization, he presented the following ways to promote moral development

and pro-social behavior: offering a warm, nurturing, empathetic relationship

between parent and child; consistently behaving in a moral manner; and teaching

respect through your parenting style.

Conceptual Framework

Workplace romance induces both positive and negative effects (e.g.,

sense of hostility and decreased productivity) on employee behavior suggested

that workplace romance can contribute to both the improvement and

deterioration of different behavioral and performance-related outcomes of

16
employees and organizations. It is being emphasized that love affairs between

employees relate favorably to job performance. Aside from being a beneficial

influence on employee behavior, workplace romance also engenders satisfaction

with one’s life.

The Figure A as the schematic diagram shows the illustrations of the

relationships of the independent and dependent variables, and the output of the

study. First, the independent variables show the demographic profile of the

respondents and the workplaces romances. While in the dependent variables

the researchers presented the effects and influence to other employees’

performance. And lastly, the output centered to the awareness program.

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 Independent Variables Dependent Variables
Output

S
Impacts to Proprietors
Start Up in T
 Determining Success
Small Business R
and Failures
 Entrepreneurial
 Planning Attributes A
 Investment  Enable Factors
T
 Trends
 Resources Challenges to E
 Strategies Proprietors
 Time
G
 Funds
I
 Balancing Growth
and Quality
C
 Sustainability
PLANNING

Socioeconomic Profile
of the Respondents
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 Age
 Gender
 Educational
Attainment
 Figure 1. Schematic Paradigm
Statement of the Problem

This study determined the Workplace Romances: Its Effects and Influence

to other employees’ Performance.

1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 age;

1.2 gender;

1.3 civil status;

1.4 position;

1.5 years as employee; and

1.6 years in a relationship?

2. What are the workplace romances in terms of:

2.1 companionate;

2.2 passionate;

2.3 fling;

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 2.4 mutual user; and

2.5 utilitarian?

3. What are the effects to other employees’ performance in terms of:

3.1 cause emotional exhaustion;

3.2 inadequate job performance; and

3.3 favorable and positive relationship?

4. What are the influences to other employees’ performance in terms of:

4.1 perception;

4.2 credibility;

4.3 morale; and

4.4 environment?

5. Is there a significant relationship between the demographic profile of the

respondents to the effects and influence to other employees’

performance?

6. Is there a significant relationship between the demographic profile of the

respondents to the influence to other employees’ performance?

7. Is there a significant relationship between workplace romances to the

effects to other employees’ performance?

8. Is there a significant relationship between workplace romance to the

influence to other employees’ performance?

9. What possible awareness program can be drawn base on the result of the

study?
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Hypotheses

Hypotheses is null forms are formulated and tested empirically at 0.05

level of significance.

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between the socioeconomic profile

of the respondents to the effects to other employees’ performance.

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between the socioeconomic profile

of the respondents to the influence to other employees’ performance.

Ho3: There is no significant relationship between the workplace romances

to the effects to other employees’ performance.

Ho4: There is no significant relationship between the workplace romances

to the influence to other employees’ performance.

Scope and Delimitations

This study focused on Workplace Romances: Its Effects and Influence to

other Employees’ Performance. Part I – Demographic Profile: age, gender, civil

status, position, years as employee, and romance period; Part II – Workplace

Romances: companionate, passionate; fling; mutual user, and utilitarian; Part III

– Effects to other Employees’ Performance: cause emotional exhaustion,

inadequate job performance, and favorable and positive performance; and Part

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IV – Influence to other Employees’ Performance: perceptions, credibility, morale,

and environment.

The study will be conducted at any business establishments in Maranding,

Lala, Lanao del Norte. The respondents of this study are the the employees of

the different establishments. There `will be one hundred (100) employees to be

survey within Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte.

Significance of the Study

As future business employees it is important and essential in the field of

business to be more aware on workplace behavior. Therefore, it is logical to look

for effective ways to improved and be aware on good and right relationships in

the workplace. Employing new techniques and strategies that can be helpful in

terms of behavior in the workforce, that can find new and interesting way to cope

unwanted behavior and relationships in business. The awareness plan may lead

to basic change for the policies and guidelines in the workplace for employees’

performances.

Also, it could boost self-confidence that makes them knowledgeable and

hardworking to run their own businesses in the future. The present study aimed

of knowing the effects and influence to other employees’ performance in

workplace romances. The findings of this study will be useful for ABM and CBA

aspiring students.

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 Evaluating and determining the better way of achieving greater amount of

using employees’ performance was considered as part of an on-the-job training.

The training serves as a guide for the school administrators, CBA teachers, CBA

students, parents, community and future researchers to find out where they are

now and how far they have achieved, and in what direction they need to go. This

study proved to be beneficial among the school administrators, teachers,

students, employees, parents, and future researchers.

School Administrators. The result of this study served as a basis for

curriculum development and improvement. So that they may base this study for

the assistance of the future researchers.

Teachers. Through their guidance this helped the business students to be

a good future business employer or employees.

Students. To helped them realize how important being aware of the

necessities are in working with other employees who engage in a relationship in

the workplace.

Employees. To ensure that the workplaces they are working free from

any unwanted relationships. They can achieve this by being aware and

conscious of their relationships to other employees.

Parents. This give them the guide on how to be prudent and decent in the

workplace.

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 Future Researchers. This study served as a guide and references for

other researchers who would be interested in studying as baseline information in

the conduct of future similar study.

Definition of Terms

To understand the study more, the following terms are defined

conceptually and/or operationally based on how they use in the study.

Cause Emotional Exhaustion. As used in the study, it appertains to the

state of feeling emotionally worn-out and drained as a result of accumulated

stress from your personal or work lives, or a combination of both.

Companionate. As used in the study, it relates in relating to or having the

manner of companions; specifically: harmoniously or suitably accompanying.

Credibility. As used in the study, it attributes to a judgment that the

audience makes about how believable the communicator is, adds psychologist

Dan O'Keefe. And it's important because people often choose to respond to a

persuasive message based not on the content but on their perception of the

communicator.

Effects. As used in the study, it means a change which is a result or

consequence of an action or other cause.

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 Employees’ Performance. As used in the study, it reflects on how a

member of staff fulfils the duties of their role, completes required tasks and

behaves in the workplace.

Environment. As used in the study, it means the surroundings or

conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.

Favorable and Positive Relationship. As used in the study, it cites a

characterized by open communication, friendliness, social and interpersonal

support, cohesion and feelings of group spirit.

Fling. As used in the study, it refers to a short period of enjoyment or wild

behavior.

Inadequate Job Performance. As used in the study, it indicates to a

participant has failed to perform at a satisfactory level in relation to reasonable

individual performance measures established by the company in advance for the

participant.

Influence. As used in the study, it narrates to the capacity to have an

effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or

the effect itself.

Moral. As used in the study, it connects to a person's standards of

behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.

Mutual User. As used in the study, it pertains to something that goes both

ways, such as when two people feel the same way about each other or when two

people like the same person.

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 Passionate. As used in the study, it accredits of showing or caused by

strong feelings or a strong belief.

Perceptions. As used in the study, it points to a process by which

individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give

meaning to their environment.” ... In simple words we can say that perception

is the act of seeing what is there to be seen.

Workplace Romances. As used in the study, it applies to a romance

between people who work together.

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