Friendship in Socially Isolating Work Environments

Abstract

Our aim was to assess the relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment in the call centre environment. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to collect the data. Three call centres within a South African financial institution were sampled. Self-report questionnaires were distributed in order to obtain quantitative data, while qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews with call centre operators. The results of the quantitative analyses revealed a positive relationship between workplace friendship and organisational commitment in two of the three call centres. From the qualitative analysis, four themes were identified: the alienating nature of call centre work resulting in lack of commitment to the call centres; high commitment to the financial institution in which the call centres were based; structural and managerial constraints on friendship formation; and agency, on the part of call centre operators to resist the structural and managerial constraints on friendship. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.