Research is a way to advance a field so it is imperative to gain skills on
critiquing articles. Hopefully you’ve found that reading empirical articles is
becoming easier with the skills you have gained throughout this course. One
important thing to examine is operational definitions – how did the researcher
quantify or examine the variables of interest? For instance, my research is in
biological psychology. I enjoy measuring cortisol, neurotransmitter levels, and
physiological responses like heart rate or EEG. Others prefer likert-based scales
and surveys. But, is the survey based on state (current) or trait (enduring)
qualities? There are many options out there, which is why it is important to
carefully evaluate articles when reading them. Target population is also
important. If a study was conducted in a different culture, how might that
inform your study?
Additionally, you may be finding that a lot of the research articles go beyond
what we’ve covered in class. There are numerous research designs and
statistical analyses, and we simply will not cover them all (even after having
PSYC 515). However – be assured you are developing the foundation
necessary to understand these studies, and with this knowledge base and
some additional inquiry, I have no doubt you can now better critically evaluate
research as we continually strive to be truth-seekers. I wanted to alert you to
some recent findings concerning a topic that interests us both, which is the
relationships between friendships at work and job satisfaction. The first article
I came across has three hypotheses with the goal of the research to examine
how supervisor integrity and ardent employee behavior is affected or even
changed by workplace friendship (Guohao et al., 2021). The article surveyed
employees from 20 different service industries in Pakistan with a sample size
of 266 (N-266). One of the variables was affective responsibility and a 5-point
Likert scale was used to measure this variable. The second variable was
employee ardent behavior. Control variables were gender, age, education, how
long they had been working at their jobs, and how much they made. The two-
tailed analysis used was descriptive statistics and correlation, and the findings
supported supervisor integrity in behavior is positively associated with proactive
behavior by employees (r+0.315, p<0.001) (Guohao et al., 2021). The
researchers wanted to demonstrate that having friends in the workplace can fill
a social need, bettering the workforce through friendship and attachment.
In the second article, a study researched friendships of differing ages and how
in the workplace there were positive aspects in this regard, but there were also
negative aspects such as interplay encounters. The sample size was N=186.
There were six hypotheses, the first three one-directional and the last three
bidirectional. The dyad test used Likert scales to provide a working method for
the constructs. The variables were friendship, perceived oneness, willingness to
cooperate, role conflicts, job satisfaction, and turnover desires (Fasbender &
Drury, 2021). Control variables were age and gender. The results showed that
there were both positive and negative correlations, including job satisfaction
and turnover intentions, but these were not attributed to a desire to cooperate
and feelings of oneness.
The papers were similar to the extent that they showed that friendship at work
can enhance the job in a social aspect and give more meaning and depth to
going to work, but at the same time conflicts can cause jeopardy where there
was once a oneness of attitude. I am further reminded of what the Bible says,
“to do nothing out of selfish desire or to better only oneself, but to humble
yourself and value others higher than your own desires, always looking out for
the interests and needs of others” (Philippians 2:3-4, paraphrased). I will
continue to study these aspects as they have merit in my own place of
employment.
References
English Standard Version Bible (2001) Crossway. Wheaton, Il. (original work in
1611)
Fasbender, U., & Drury, L. (2021). One plus one equals one: age-diverse
friendship and its complex relation to employees’ job satisfaction and turnover
intentions. European journal of work and organizational f f psychology, 1-14.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2021.2006637 (Links to an external site.)
Guohao, L., Pervaiz, S., & Qi, H. (2021). Workplace friendship is a blessing in
the exploration of supervisor behavioral integrity, affective commitment, and
employee proactive behavior – An empirical research from service industries of
Pakistan. Psychology research and behavior management, 14, 1447-1459.
https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S329905
