Emotional Spousal Support Can Have Unintended Organizational Outcomes
Management field studies make it clear that emotional spousal support has a positive effect on individual and organizational outcomes. However, this does not mean that all spousal supports are the same. Even when it is based on good intentions, spousal support can have unintended negative consequences. Using multiple case analyses, this research shows that spousal support efforts to protect life-partners from potential harm and to boost their self-confidence levels, if not checked, can lead to decrease in cooperation with in the work environment and ultimately affect the organization in a negative way. When vigilance and confidence levels get hyped up, they lead to distrust and a false sense of independence, both of which are critical factors that decrease the cooperation levels within the work environment. The goal of this study is to help researchers and practitioners improve the efficacy of spousal backing by highlighting that under certain circumstances spousal support can do more harm than good.