The Hedgehog’s Dilemma in Organizations: The Pros and Cons of Workplace Friendship
The Hedgehog’s Dilemma in Organizations: The Pros and Cons of Workplace Friendship

Summary/Abstract: There are numerous studies about the benefits of workplace friendship in organizations. Therefore, it may be assumed that well-established friendships in organizations promote effective information sharing, communication skills, increase teamwork and workplace morale among employees at work. Additionally, workplace friendships have positive effects for the organizations such as lower turnover rates, employee burnout and lower levels of intention to leave. On the other hand, just like experiencing the hedgehog’s dilemma, higher levels of workplace friendship or intimacy among group of individuals in organizations may lead to negative consequences such as the supervisor/subordinate friendship may raise the anger or feelings of unfair treatment by other individuals or may lead to untrue performance assessments. Besides, workplace friendships may cause failures to report misfits and counterproductive work behaviors accurately in the organizations. So, workflow might deteriorate and it may lead to conflicts in teamwork in organizations. In sum, in this conceptual paper, workplace friendship will be focused on and the advantages and the disadvantages of it will be outlined. Then, in the conclusion section, the recommendations will be made about how to reduce the negative effects of workplace friendships in organizations.

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