The secret life of pets: The intersection of animals and organizational life

• Published date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2465
• Author: Yejun Zhang,Samuel H. Matthews,Min (Maggie) Wan,Thomas K. Kelemen
• Date: 01 September 2020

THE INCUBATOR

The secret life of pets: The intersection of animals and

organizational life

Thomas K. Kelemen

1,2

| Samuel H. Matthews

3

| Min (Maggie) Wan

4

|

Yejun Zhang

5

1

Price College of Business, University of

Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA

2

College of Business Administration, Kansas

State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA

3

College of Business Administration,

University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa,

USA

4

McCoy College of Business, Texas State

University, San Marcos, Texas, USA

5

Robert C. Vackar College of Business &

Entrepreneurship, University of Texas Rio

Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, USA

Correspondence

Samuel H. Matthews, College of Business

Administration, University of Northern Iowa,

244 Curris Bldg., Cedar Falls, IA 50614, USA.

Email: samuel.matthews@uni.edu

Summary

Although often overlooked, pets and other animals intersect with organizations in

interesting, important ways. We seek to define how various animals intersect with

organizations, highlight opportunities for theory development, and illustrate impor-

tant areas for future research. We also explore how pandemics such as COVID-19

might affect the animals we highlight.

KEYWORDS

animals, COVID-19, human-animal interaction, pets

1|INTRODUCTION

“Maybe it's animalness that will make the world right

again: the wisdom of elephants, the enthusiasm of

canines, the grace of snakes, the mildness of ant-

eaters.”— Carol Emshwiller

As an integrated part of modern life, animals play the role of

domestic companions, give physical and emotional support to humans,

and provide value to many types of organizations (e.g., search and res-

cue dogs, zoo animals). Animals are also becoming more present in

organizations due to employees and customers who bring their pets

into the workplace. In addition, the integration of pets into individuals'

family lives also plays an important role in employees' work-family

dynamics. Even though animals are becoming more present in organi-

zational life and play an influential role in employees' lives, manage-

ment research has lagged behind these social trends. Therefore, we

seek to define the ways in which animals intersect with organizations,

highlight opportunities for theory development, and illustrate impor-

tant areas for future research. Further, as we are writing this

Incubator, COVID-19 is currently wreaking havoc on governments,

organizations, and individuals. Thus, in each section, we also mention

how pandemics such as COVID-19 might affect the animals we are

highlighting.

2|DIFFERENT WAYS ANIMALS INTERSECT

WITH ORGANIZATIONS

The way in which animals intersect with organizational life has not

been well defined or well described in prior research. Given this lack

of overall clarity, it is not surprising that research that deals with ani-

mals and organizations has been relatively scattered and disorganized.

To provide more precision about how animals relate to organizations,

we posit four types of animals that intersect with organizations:

(a) animals who work alongside humans, (b) animals as the focus of

organizations or employees, (c) companion animals brought into the

workplace by employees or customers, and (d) employees' companion

animals that stay at home. Below, we describe each of these four cat-

egories of animals in more detail.

The first and second authors contributed to this article equally.

Received: 29 October 2019 Revised: 3 June 2020 Accepted: 9 June 2020

DOI: 10.1002/job.2465

694 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J Organ Behav. 2020;41:694–697.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job