Basic determinants of workplace friendship relations and their organizational consequences

Workplace friendships in organizations apparently have individual and organizational effects. Research on workplace friendships has generally focused on individual and organizational consequences of these friendships. Interest related to formation of workplace friendships has received little attention either theoretically or empirically. Thus, the question of how and why workplace friendships develop between employees based was the focus of this dissertation. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale which is specific to Turkish culture to be used to study the dimensions of workplace friendships and to understand the nature of these friendships as an important social aspect of organizations. It further aimed to explore the moderating role of perceived coworker support, satisfaction from coworkers, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on the relationship between workplace friendship and intention to leave. In this study, mixed research methods approach including quantitative and qualitative techniques as interview, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and model testing was used. A reliable and valid scale of workplace friendships was developed using hotel employees in one of the main attraction centers of Turkey, Antalya as participants. Significant relationships between workplace friendships and organizational consequences were found. In addition, ideas for further research were discussed.