What Is a Relationship? Edgar Schein and Peter Schein

A relationship is a set of mutual expectations about each other’s future behavior based on past interactions with one another.

We have a relationship when we can anticipate each other’s behavior to some degree.

When we say we have a ‘good relationship’, this means that we feel a certain level of comfort with the other person, comfort that is based on the sense of knowing how the other will react.

Further, we share confidence that we are both working towards a goal that we have agreed upon or take for granted.

That feeling of comfort is often what we mean by the word trust.

We ‘know’ what to expect of each other.

Our level of trust reflects the degree to which our behavior and the behavior of the other are consistent.

Credit: Edgar Schein and Peter Schein

•  Relationships ** The way in which two or more people are connected