I hope this letter finds you well!
Your letter concerning the literature review you performed were exceptional
findings as they relate to peer-reviewed articles examining the concepts of
friendships in the workplace and how friendships can impact employee
engagement and performance. As you know, employee engagement and
performance is directly tied to the criticality of success for organizations that
seek to perform well in the marketplace. Ensuring that we can engage employees
is critical. It is equally critical that we seek to establish parameters wherein we
can equally increase their performance in the professional environment as well.
In examining your research, one research study design that we could utilize may
include studying the independent variable of the amount of friendships present in
the workplace. Our dependent variable of interest would be self-report measures
on how likely the employee is to remain engaged with the organization or this
could be a study of self-reported measures of self-observed performance. What I
think is quite unique about this design is it would allow us to examine if more or
less friends may lead to greater self-report measures. That is, identification of a
descriptive-type research design that examines the correlation between the
number of friends present and these self-report measures.
In keeping with the context of your findings I also found a research article that I
think you may find interesting. This research article examined the relationship of
workplace friendships as it relates to open innovation in the context of innovative
and sustainable ecosystems in the workplace (Abdulmuhsin & Tarhini, 2022). The
study included an online survey that was conducted with 2381 firms (N = 381)
which utilized a structural equation model (SEM) to test the hypotheses of
establishing and improving open innovation. Findings were consistent with wise
leadership having a significant impact on open innovation through building
workplace friendships (Abdulmuhsin & Tarhini, 2022). This study outlined
significant contributions to that of open innovation and the impact it has on
workplace friendships.
Overall, well-done on your empirical findings! I look forward to hearing from you,
Abdulmuhsin, A. A., & Tarhini, A. (2022). Impact of Wise Leadership, Workplace
Friendships on Open Innovation in Family Firms: A Developing Country Perspective.
Journal of Family Business Management, 12(1), 1-23. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1108/JFBM-04-2020-0028
