It Takes Two to Untangle: Illuminating How and Why Some Workplace Relationships Adapt while Others Deteriorate after a Workplace Microaggression

Although scholars largely assume that workplace microaggressions negatively impact the work relationship between the target and the perpetrator, relational deterioration is not the only observable relational outcome. Indeed, there are instances of relational restoration or even positive adaptation after a workplace microaggression. To coherently make sense of myriad relational outcomes, we draw on theory on relational fractures and theory on intergroup relations to build new theory that specifies how and under what conditions varied relational outcomes may emerge. We theorize that a workplace microaggression, as a relational fracture, by and large activates a target’s motivational system aimed at protecting the self at the expense of the relationship (a self-protective motivation). We then pinpoint the relational conditions under which targets may shift from a self-protective motivation to a relationship-promotive one (characterized by reflection and inquiry) and how, in turn, perpetrators may proceed (in terms of the motivational system activated). We complete our theory by theorizing the conditions under which the pair of motivational systems activated leads to shallower or deeper levels of dyadic relational repair work, with consequences for the work relationship. Our theory offers important insights that challenge, redirect, and extend scholarship on workplace microaggressions.