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Peer Relationships

Peers provide personal and practical support

What do Usher, Kanye West, and Heather Headley have in common with the Human League, Sting, and Earth, Wind, & Fire? They’ve all had songs written and produced by Terry Lewis and James “Jimmy Jam” Harris.² Lewis and Harris first began working together in the 1980s as members of Prince’s opening band, the Time (featured in the movie Purple Rain). Jimmy Jam played keyboards and Terry played bass. They were equals, or peers, in the band, both supporting flamboyant front man Morris Day. In addition to their roles as backing musicians, they wrote songs of their own. When Prince, who managed the Time, discovered that they had penned a hit for the S.O.S. Band, he fired them. As Jimmy Jam describes, “It was really one of the worst days of our lives. We were perfectly happy being bandmembers at that point in time. But getting fired forced us to really take music production and our own songwriting seriously, and we were lucky to have lined up a couple projects at that point. All’s well that ends well, I guess.” The two catapulted to stardom when they wrote and produced Janet Jackson’s multiplatinum album Control. Since then, they’ve collaborated to produce more than 40 Number One singles, over 100 gold and platinum albums, more than a dozen movie soundtracks, and even the music for the NBA All-Star Game. But through all the fame and fortune they’ve achieved, the two still view each other primarily as musical coworkers and collaborators. “The number one thing is that we don’t do anything alone,” notes Jimmy Jam. “We approach each project as equal partners.”

Our most meaningful and intimate workplace relationships are those with our professional peers, people holding positions of organizational status and power similar to our own. Peers are the most important source of personal and practical support for employees in any type of organization, whether it’s a bank, a hospital, or a band (Rawlins, 1992). Similar to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, we also develop close peer relationships in the workplace. After all, our peer relationships are not simply professional; they’re often intensely personal.