Navigating Relationship Tensions: Role of Paradoxical Mindsets and Response Repertoires in Managing Employee–Organization Relationships During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Management Communication Quarterly

Publication Date

8-1-2026

Abstract

Situated within an interpretive approach, this study examined senior corporate executives’ discursive construction of tensions encountered while managing employee-organization-relationships (EORs) over remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and the strategies employed to manage these tensions. In-depth interviews with 17 communication and employee relations executives from the Fortune, Forbes, and LinkedIn best employer lists for 2021 and 2022 revealed four key tensions: organizational identity (people and planet versus profit), dialogic (one voice versus many voices), diversity (exclusion versus inclusion), and boundary (work versus home). Our interviews also revealed corporate internal crisis communication (ICC) strategies to navigate these tensions, such as empathetic leadership communication and purpose communication. Participants foregrounded transcendent (more-than) strategies alongside selection (either-or) and balance (both-and) strategies. Implications for theory and practice across employee relationship management, ICC, and tensions in a post pandemic world where change, uncertainty, and remote work persists are discussed.

ISSN

0893-3189

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Volume

40

Issue

3

First Page

432

Last Page

466

Disciplines

Business | Communication

Keywords

Covid-19 pandemic, employee-organization-relationship, EOR, internal crisis communication, paradox, relationship management, tensions

Scopus ID

105023579988

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

Link to Full Text

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