Men's and Women's Organizational Peer Relationships: A Comparison Janie Harden Fritz

Abstract

A study of differences in men's and women's information, collegial, and special organizational peer relationships was conducted on a large, diverse sample (n = 666) in order to explore whether (1) work friendships tended to be same-or cross-sex and (2) whether same-sex work relationships had features and functions similar to nonwork same-sex relationships. Results were generally supportive of findings outside the organizational context for men's and women's relationships, but several interesting patterns were noted across relationship types that suggest different relational trajectories for men's and women's relationships. Specifically, the number of relationships claimed by men and women were similar, but women's collegial relationships were higher on several relational functions than men's, and women's special peer relationships were stronger than men's in several areas. This study shows that the work setting as a context is, for friendship purposes, similar to nonwork contexts.

Differences in Information Seeking Among Organizational Peers: Perceptions of Appropriateness, Importance, and Frequency

“…Participants were randomly provided with one of three versions of a survey packet. In each survey packet, participants were provided with a description of an information peer, a collegial peer, or a special peer based on the descriptions used in previous research studies by Fritz (1997), Kram and Isabella (1985), and Myers and Johnson (2004). These descriptions differed in (a) whether the coworker was an acquaintance, friend, or close friend; (b) the amount of social interaction in which they engaged with the coworker and the extent to which their interaction was work- or task-related; (c) the amount of emotional support, feedback, and confirmation provided by the coworker; and (d) whether the relationship would be continued if they did not work with the coworker.…”

“…Although organizational members engage in a greater number of information peer relationships than either collegial or special peer relationships (Fritz, 1997), there are several advantages to having collegial and special peers. When organizational members report having collegial and special peers, they generally are better informed about the organization (Sias, 2005), experience greater cohesion with colleagues (Cahill & Sias, 1997), have greater task knowledge (Kramer, 1994), and are better adjusted to their organization (Kramer, 1996) than employees who have information peer relationships.…”

“…Based on the aforementioned differences among the peer relationship types, it seems logical that employees not only will perceive information seeking with special peers to be more appropriate and more important than with information or collegial peers due to the trust, support, and openness that characterizes special peer relationships, but they also engage in information seeking more frequently with special peers than with information or collegial peers. However, as Fritz (1997) contended, employees tend to have a higher proportion of information peer relationships than either collegial or special peer relationships. In two studies examining peer relationships, both Sias (2005) and Kramer (1996) reported that less than 25% of their sample consisted of special peers, which supports Fritz’s contention.…”

Perceptions of organizational politics and organizational citizenship behavior: The moderating role of workplace friendship

“…Secondly, practically people as being social, try to make friends (Lincoln and Miller, 1979); (Mehra et al, 1998). So it is very important to inform and aware the advancing employees about the consequences and pros and cons of their work efforts to make friendly relationship with others in the workplace because relationship with others in the organization is very essential for adjustment in the organization (Harden Fritz, 1997). Thus, practically and scientifically, how workplace friendship works under a highly political environment and how it moderates the relationship of POP and OCB is an important area to be explored.…”

Creating Sustainable Workplace Environments: An Exploratory Study of Social Energy Expenditure in Cross-Sex, Heterosexual Organizational Friendships

“…Although research on same-sex friendships is common (Caldwell & Peplau, 1982;Reisman, 1990), scholars are turning their attention toward cross-sex friendships (Akbulut & Weger, 2015;Guerrero & Chavez, 2005). Some communication and social psychology scholars have explored the specifics of cross-sex, heterosexual friendships in a workplace context (Fritz, 1997;McBride & Bergen, 2015;Riordan & Griffeth, 1995;Sias, Smith, & Avdeyeva, 2003). In general, workplace friendship differs from acquaintanceship.…”