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Most managers measure success in outputs: bottom lines, quarterly gains, performance metrics, and incentives. But the forces that shape those outcomes are often invisible — rooted in relationships, communication, and how people support one another. Many management models overlook these dynamics, treating them as background noise rather than essential systems.
Kevin Rockmann, professor of management at George Mason University and CGI corporate partner faculty fellow, argues that managers often lack a nuanced understanding of how employees actually work with and through one another, not just one-on-one with their supervisors.
“We're really trying to get both researchers and practitioners to think about relationships in a different way,” Rockmann says. “And really, the movement we're working on here is to think more broadly about what relationships do in organizations.’’
For example, Rockmann’s paper in Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior—co-authored by Caroline A. Bartel of the University of Texas—draws on established research concepts of Pipes and Prisms to help managers better understand the often-overlooked importance of interpersonal relationships at work.
The Pipes metaphor captures the channels through which the work gets done. They are conduits through which these central processes, like communication and coordination, keep the organization running smoothly.
“We can’t really understand organizational effectiveness unless we understand how relationships serve as pipes,” Rockmann says. “To extend the metaphor, managers need to ask if their pipes are clogged? Or whether the pipes are even there?”
This might occur, for example, when a new hire joins an organization and their relationship with an incumbent employee helps them navigate team dynamics, answers all their questions efficiently, and ultimately enables work to get done in a timely manner.
Rockmann’s research shows that leaders should move beyond focusing solely on their own one-on-one relationships with their subordinates and view how relationships function across teams or units of employees.
Rockmann says, “My relationship as a manager with my employees matters, but it also involves looking at the Pipes—how are people connected with one another? Is each person getting the support and the help that they need? How well are we communicating and working together as a unit? So, it’s not just about my relationships, but about the relationships of the people I’m managing.”
The Prisms metaphor builds on the idea that relationships don’t just get things done more efficiently and produce results—they also impact how subordinates interpret and respond to events and information. For example, when a manager communicates openly with their subordinates about challenges like limited resources or budget cuts, subordinates are more likely to respond with empathy, seeing the situation as a shared problem rather than a failure by their manager.
“This is why we're talking about relationships as a prism or as the most understudied contextual variable in organizations,” Rockmann says. “It’s untapped potential for not only researchers, but also practitioners to think about why things are working or why things aren't working.” Prisms are the next stage of evolution in sensemaking for managers to recognize how their employees interpret workplace policies or changes, depending not just on what they are told, but also by whom and how. However, most managers still struggle to manage the “pipes,” let alone the more nuanced dynamics of how information is interpreted and processed across teams.
Rockmann believes many managers overemphasize tangible incentives — like bonuses — and underestimate the importance of high-quality day-to-day relationships. Such relationships are a lens by which employees view everything in an organization: organizational changes, opportunities, technology, and so on. When the organization becomes a hub for relational support and positive relational interactions, so many other issues organizations face become easier.
So, what can managers do? Across his work, Rockmann emphasizes making the cultivating of relationships part of the job itself, fostering collaboration in the KPIs on which employees are evaluated. Infusing such criteria into job descriptions, hiring processes, socialization experiences, and evaluation systems are all ways company leaders and line managers can signal to their subordinates that interpersonal relationships truly matter. When infused in this way relationships become more of a strategic priority, not just a “nice to have” for the organization.