Workplace friendship: a social reflexive exercise

Introduction: Our paper presents a social reflexive exercise and auto-ethnographic text for initiating and developing 'workplace friendship.' We present an interactive method in seven choreographed steps for 'reading' and 'writing' that proved useful for learning about each other. Specifically, our method elicits textual material regarding attitudes, agency and motivations that are not adequately elicited by other methods. Berman et al. (2002) define workplace friendship as "nonexclusive voluntary workplace relations that involve mutual trust, commitment, reciprocal liking and shared interests and values" (p. 218). Previous empirical research in psychology, sociology, and management commonly reveal that workplace friendship can influence employees' work-related attitudes, intentions, and behaviors such as job satisfaction, job performance, and absenteeism (Ross, 1997). Based on these functional values of workplace friendship, Hamilton (2007) suggested that when employees have trustful friends at work, they can get help or advice from their co-workers and, therefore, gain feelings of security, comfort, and satisfaction with their job at work. Method: In groups of three, 135 participants formed 45 groups. Each group held a Social Meeting outside their workplace to have an open-ended conversation. Workplace issues were taboo. Each individual evoked symbols and felt-experiences regarding their Social Meeting and posted them on an electronic bill-board which was visible to all groups. Through constructed word structures and felt experiences, we became aware of details of our social meetings. The methodologies underlying our seven step process were participant-observation, symbolic interactionism and social reflexivity. We used self-reflection to explore anecdotal and personal experience of the Social Meeting and connected our 'auto-ethnographic' contents to wider meanings and understandings (Gallop, Jane. 2002). By the end of the exercise, some fundamental and important transformations indeed took place in our groups. Results: Among the many issues 'friendship' raises, we believe it existed among us whenever enough threads of intellectual exchange and reciprocated sentiment were present. By sharing experiences from our lives, we saw some of the possibilities that auto-ethnographic text can create. A sympathy and understanding developed and a definite personal relationship was formed and acknowledged. The sharing of private thoughts were of great value in getting a sense of identity for oneself in the group. Our written descriptions of the exercise were interior maps. When we apprehended these maps, we evoked new perspectives and new possibilities. We learnt that in a safe and free setting, surrounded by words, any one can write 'friendship' into their working lives -often very good ones.