OMG! My Boss Just Friended Me: How Evaluations of Colleagues’ Disclosure, Gender, and Rank Shape Personal/Professional Boundary Blurring Online

• Published in: Academy of Management journal Vol. 65; no. 1; pp. 35 - 65
• Main Authors: Rothbard, Nancy P., Ramarajan, Lakshmi, Ollier-Malaterre, Ariane, Lee, Serenity S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Briarcliff Manor Academy of Management 01.02.2022
• Subjects: Colleagues; Disclosure; Employees; Friendship; Gender; Gender differences; Human resource management; Mixed methods research; Personal information; Professional relationships; Self disclosure; Social networks
• ISSN: 0001-4273; 1948-0989
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2018.0755

We propose and test a relational boundary-blurring framework, examining how employees' evaluations of colleagues' characteristics drive their decisions to connect with colleagues as friends online. We use a multi-method approach across four studies to investigate how self-disclosure of personal information, gender, and rank shape warmth evaluations of colleagues and subsequent boundary blurring decisions on online social networks such as Facebook. Study 1, a large archival study using a nationally representative sample, finds that connecting as friends with colleagues online is prevalent. Study 2, examining employees across several industries, shows that people experience connecting as friends with colleagues online as boundary blurring. Two experimental studies (Studies 3 and 4) ascertain that employees are more likely to connect as friends online with colleagues who engage in more (vs. less) self-disclosure and are less likely to connect with bosses (vs. peers). Further, self-disclosure, gender, and rank interact, such that employees are more likely to connect with female bosses who disclose more, compared to those who disclose less, and compared to male bosses, regardless of self-disclosure. Our work contributes to boundary management research by demonstrating that employees' decisions to blur the personal/professional boundary online crucially depends on whom they are blurring the boundary with.