e e e e I have taken interest in studying the impact of friendships on workplace
productivity and wanted to share the findings of two relevant peer reviewed
articles. The aim of article one was to answer the research question, how does
workplace friendships influence innovative behavior? e Researchers were interested
in the interaction of multiple variables to include psychological safety,
transformational leadership, innovative behavior, and workplace friendships (Cao,
2020). Researchers used Pearson’s r in SPSS 22 to analyze strength of
interactions between variables derived from the sample of 441 participants. e A
Person’s r correlation revealed a statistically significant relationship between
workplace friendships and innovative behavior, r (440) = 0.606, p< .01, thus the
null hypothesis is rejected. In interpretation of analyzed results researchers were
able to conclude there is a significant influence between workplace friendships
and innovative behavior (Cao, 2020).
e e e e Article 2 consisted of multiple research questions, but the question of interest
is how does workplace friendships impact hotel employee wellbeing? Researchers
measured a total of 4 variables to include workplace friendships, employee well-
being, organizational justice, and workplace bullying (Sung, 2019). e Researchers
collected data from a sample of 310 participants and used regression to analyze
the strength of the influence between variables. A Pearson’s r correlation revealed
a statistically significant relationship between workplace friendships and hotel
employee wellbeing,
r (309)
= 0.55,
p
< 0.01, thus the null hypothesis is rejected. e
Through data analysis the study concluded workplace friendships have a
significant positive influence on hotel employee well-being (Sung, 2019).
e e e e Both articles work together to strengthen my understanding of the importance
of organizations aiming to foster work-place friendships in efforts to improve
productivity. Both articles measured the strengths of multiple variables as it
relates to productivity, but the conclusions were the same regarding the
significance of workplace friendships. These findings inform and enrich my
personal insight as it relates to fostering work friendships to enhance work
performance and wellbeing.
e e e e I hope I was able to clearly state my interest and explain how relevant findings
enriched my personal understanding of the topic. Thank you for your time.
References
Cao, F. and Zhang, H., 2020. Workplace friendship, psychological safety and
innovative behavior in China.
Chinese Management Studies
, 14(3), pp.661-676.
https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-09-2019-0334 (Links to an external site.)
Fu-Sung, H., Yuan-an, L., & Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur. (2019). The impact of workplace
bullying on hotel employees’ well-being: Do organizational justice and friendship
matter?
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 31
(4),
1702-1719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-04-2018-0330
