The Interface of Work and Relationships

Abstract

This article introduces the Major Contribution in this issue of The Counseling Psychologist on the interface of work and interpersonal relationships. Initially, the various lines of literature that highlight the central place that work plays in human life are reviewed and integrated. The critically important perspectives offered by the relational movement are then reviewed with a particular focus on how this emerging body of work is transforming some fundamental beliefs within psychology. The existing literature on the connections between work and relationships is summarized next with attention to identifying the considerable needs for continued research and theory development in this line of inquiry. The article concludes by providing the reader with a framework with which to derive maximal meaning from the qualitative, discovery-oriented findings presented in the three articles by Phillips, Christopher-Sisk, and Gravino; Schultheiss, Kress, Manzi, and Glasscock; and Blustein, Fama, White, Ketterson, Shaefer, Schwam, Sirin, and Skau that collectively make up this Major Contribution.