The effect of organizational commitment and workplace friendships on intention to leave: A comparative study on generation x and y employees

The relationship between workplace friendship, organizational commitment and intention to leave has become a popular and important topic and taken up by researchers and human resources professionals across the field. Nowadays, companies organize several activities for increasing organizational commitment and decrease the intention to leave. This study focuses on the effects of organizational commitment and workplace friendships on intention to leave. The data was collected from various private sector companies in Istanbul and sent by mail to human resource management (HRM) departments. 286 survey candidates participated in the study. For this, simple random (convenience) sampling method was used. Survey method used includes four parts; personal and demographic information, workplace friendship, organizational commitment and intention to leave questions. The survey questionnaire was sent electronically by online survey application Survey Monkey. Approximately 500 professionals were received the questionnaire link form. Of the received 350 responses, 64 were eliminated. 286 valid surveys were used in the study. As a result, the research shows that for the private sector employees in various different work areas in Istanbul, workplace friendship and organizational commitment has negative relationship. There are a few empirical research studies referring to the influence on relation between workplace relationship, organizational commitment and intention to leave in Turkish literature. This study aims to maintain a contribution for Turkish business literature and fill a gap in empirical research about workplace friendships, organizational commitment and intention to leave. Key words: Workplace friendships, organizational commitment, intention to leave