I hope you are doing well! Excellent review of the two articles and their
subsequent exploration into friendships in the workplace and the impact that
friendships can have on employee or workforce engagement and performance.
Based on the findings that you uncovered from the two previous articles, I would
like to propose that we create our own descriptive study and analysis into how
remote interaction given the public health crisis of COVID-19 can impact the
development of friendships in the workplace. I wanted to expand on the current
study that you discussed related to the first study by Guohao et al that provided
viable assessment that friendships fulfill a social need. As you know, remote
learning in a professional environment can create a unique dynamic of study in
the environment wherein friendships can be built and established. Through a
descriptive study and analysis, I would like to perform this research with you to
determine the impact that remote work can have on establishing friendships in
the workplace.
In defining the variables of interest, some of our dependent variables may include
self-report measures such as trust and team-building. These variables could be
assessed on a Likert scale (scale) level of measurement through the deployment
of surveys. The independent variable in our analysis could be the comparison of
in-person and remote-type work environments as a nominal level of measurement.
This would further contribute to the understanding of how in-person and remote
environments in the workplace can lead to varying degrees or levels of friendships
in the workplace.
I wanted to share with you one additional article that I discovered that examines
the aspect of remote environments and the impacts that it has on creating
friendships in the workplace. The study identified used a small sample of social
workers to explore friendship experiences during COVID-19 through survey
analysis. The method employed within this study utilized two measures, the
Workplace Friendship Scale as well as a Likert scale for determining well-being
during the pandemic (Gates et al., 2021). Descriptive statistics using a
multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) statistical analysis was conducted.
Findings were consistent with showing correlation and promise that regardless of
the workplace environment, in-person or virtual, interpersonal relationships can
ultimately develop. Given that this has significant applicability in the real-world
today, I think this would be a wonderful research endeavor for us to undertake.
References
Gates, T. G., Bennett, B., & Yadav, R. (2021). Workplace Friendships while
Teleworking during COVID-19: Experiences of Social Workers in Australia.
International Social Work, 42(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/00208728211058774
