Risks and side effects of workplace friendships [10.05.23]
In their recent paper, Ulrike Fasbender and her co-authors from the Universities of Cologne and Florida investigate the risks and side effects of workplace friendships for coworkers and shed light on potential conflicts between their role as “employee” and their role as “friend”, subsequent resource depletion, and other likely side-effects.
Picture Source: Pixabay
Original Paper
Ulrike Fasbender a,* , Anne Burmeister b, Mo Wang c (2023)
Managing the risks and side effects on workplace friendships: The moderating role of workplace friendship self-efficacy. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 143, art. no. 103875.
Affiliation
a University of Hohenheim, Germany, (* corresponding author)
b University of Cologne, Germany
c University of Florida, United States of America
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the risks and side effects of workplace friendships for coworkers. Combining the dialectical perspective on workplace friendships with a self-regulatory perspective, we argue that workplace friendships can lead to incivility directed toward coworkers because employees experience inter-role conflict between their role as “employee” and their role as “friend”, and subsequent resource depletion. We further suggest that employees with higher workplace friendship self-efficacy are better able to manage these risks and side effects. We tested our hypotheses in two studies with time-lagged data (Study 1: 451 employees, Study 2: 499 employees) using structural equation modeling. Study 1 showed that workplace friendships are positively related to incivility via inter-role conflict and subsequent resource depletion. Work-place friendship self-efficacy buffered the indirect relation between workplace friendships and incivility. Study 2 partly replicated and extended the findings from Study 1. We found support for the serial mediation effect of workplace friendship on incivility via inter-role conflict and resource depletion and we were able to extend Study 1 by disentangling the targets of incivility. In particular, employees instigated incivility toward other coworkers rather than their workplace friends. However, the moderating effect of workplace friendship self-efficacy did not replicate. Our findings contribute to the literatures on workplace friendships and role conflicts.
See also https://www.presseportal.de/pm/118695/5529054 (in German only)
More about the Hohenheim author and her research
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