Workplace Relationship Quality and Employee Information Experiences

A multi-level analysis of team climate and interpersonal exchange relationships at work

“…We would therefore expect workplace friendship to play a role in determining the relationship between LMX and TMX. This notion was supported in a field study conducted by Sias (2005), who found that the quality of information employees received from coworkers or supervisors was related to the extent to which they were satisfied with their communication.…”

“…A review of research suggests that workplace friendship is positively related to employees' job satisfaction, job performance, job involvement, team cohesion, and organizational commitment; it is negatively associated with employees' turnover intentions and negative emotions (e.g., Berman et al, 2002;Morrison, 2004;Nielsen, Jex, & Adams, 2000;Riordan & Griffeth, 1995;Winstead et al, 1995). Although these findings are important for the advancement of research on workplace friendship in relation to employee outcomes, several researchers (e.g., Nielsen et al, 2000;Sias, 2005;Sias & Cahill, 1998) have noted that there is still little understanding of which factors predict workplace friendship.…”

“…Friendships create social ties and affective bonding, enabling team members to experience relational meanings about their interpersonal relationships, including TMX (Duck & Pittman, 1995). Workplace friendships are unique interpersonal relationships that employees develop and maintain by choice-not compulsion-and they are willing to spend time with one another beyond their formal role expected within other relationships in organizations (Sias, 2005;Sias & Cahill, 1998). This voluntary interdependence assists with functions such as decision making and influence sharing, and it provides an instrumental and emotional support system for team members.…”

The importance of context when applying social cognitive theory in organizations

“…Although some workplace friendships can have adverse effects (see Litwin and Hallstein 2007), empirical research suggests that co-worker friendships can have favourable outcomes for both employees and organizations (Berman et al 2002;Sias 2005;Tse et al 2008). In a study comparing team processes of co-workers who were friends and co-workers who were acquaintances, Jehn and Shah (1997) found that friendship teams generally were more communicative, cooperative, and encouraging than acquaintance teams.…”

Work as a Source of Positive Emotional Experiences and the Discourses Informing Positive Assessment

“…Work environments are more than simply places where people gather to complete tasks, they are social arenas replete with emotional dramas (Fineman, 2008). Organizational members make friends (Feeley, Hwang, & Barnett, 2008;Sias, 2005), give and receive social support (Gómez), and even cultivate budding romances (Horan & Chory, 2009) at their jobs. Belonging-connection identified human connections as best work experiences, articulating the importance of social embeddedness through relationships, social support, and teamwork (267 responses).…”