Consensual Relationship Agreements
By: Vickie Gonzalez
Bus 520 – Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Professor: Dr. Marilyn Carroll
October 24th, 2012

Workplace romances are now one of the challenges that organizations of all sizes have to address. How they address them varies from organization to organization. Some businesses and organizations strictly prohibit them in any form or fashion, while others prohibit them when the participants are in certain roles within the organization. Some companies have chosen not to address the issue at all and others are using a more formal method of documenting and mitigating the risk they feel these relationships pose. One of the methods of documenting, and potentially mitigating, this risk is known as a consensual relationship agreement or CRA. In the text that follows I will argue for the use of CRA’s in the workplace. Secondly, I will present a counter argument for the use of CRA’s. Then we will then look at the ethical principles involved in the use of CRA’s. Lastly I will present another option that may be available for addresses these consensual relationships. First, let’s look at what brought about the need for CRA’s. On June 28th, 1914 Gavrilo Princip, of Sarajevo, assassinated the Archduke and heir to the throne of Austria, Franz Ferdinand (Collins, 2008, p. 9). Thirty-seven days later World War I began, and with it, so did what some see as the beginnings of women entering the workplace. The Munitions of War Act of 1915 moved twenty-one percent of Britain’s wives, sisters, mothers and daughters into the workforce (Woolacott, 1994, p. 17). Factory workers became soldiers and the women in their lives became factory workers. By 1941, and the United States’ entrance into World War II, 18.9 million American women had entered the workforce as well (Weak-Baxter, 2010, p.14). Japan had attacked Pearl