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International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie
Oct, 2023;58 (5): 486-497.

The honey-trap of workplace friendship: Developing and testing a three-way interaction model to understand when and why workplace friendship triggers employee withdrawal behaviour.

Shuai Wang, Yuxin Liu, Yu Hu, Jianwei Zhang, Shujie Li, Yun Chen
Author Information
  1. Shuai Wang: School of Business Administration, Shandong Women's University, Jinan, China. ORCID
  2. Yuxin Liu: International Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China.
  3. Yu Hu: International Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China.
  4. Jianwei Zhang: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
  5. Shujie Li: School of Business and Tourism Management, Yunnan University, Yunnan, China.
  6. Yun Chen: International Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China.
PMID: 37332092 DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12925

Abstract

Although previous research has found that workplace friendship has beneficial effects on employees' and organisations' consequences, knowledge regarding the complexity and dark sides of workplace friendship is limited. Our purpose is to develop and test a three-way interaction model that explains when and how negative outcomes of workplace friendship are likely to unfold considering both individual personality and contextual conditions. Based on the stressor-emotion model, we argue that workplace friendship may also be a stressor due to its conflicting and contradictory dual roles, which in turn triggers negative employees' emotions, thus, leading to withdrawal behaviour. Furthermore, we propose that emotional reactivity and task interdependence are individual and contextual factors that induce and catalyse the negative effect of workplace friendship. By analysing the data from 429 respondents, the result supported our hypotheses. Overall, our research provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for future research on the dark sides of workplace friendship.

Keywords

Dark sides Emotional reactivity Task interdependence Withdrawal behaviour Workplace friendship

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Grants

  1. CEAA2020047/Grant of Key Program for Beijing Educational Science Planning during the 13th Five-Year Plan Period, 2020
  2. 22AZD026/Key Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China
  3. 72074024/National Natural Science Foundation of China
  4. 2023RCYJ06/Research Project for High-level Talent Introduction of Shandong Women's University
  5. CEAA2020047/the Grant of Key Program for Beijing Educational Science Planning during the 13th Five-Year Plan Period, 2020
  6. 22AZD026/the Key Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China
  7. 2023RCYJ06/the Research Project for High-level Talent Introduction of Shandong Women's University

MeSH Term

Humans
Friends
Honey
Workplace
Personality
Emotions
Journal Article
Article has an altmetric score of 1

Word Cloud

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