TY  - CHAP
A1  - David, Natalie A.
A1  - Coutinho, James A.
A1  - Brennecke, Julia
ED  - Gerbasi, Alexandra
ED  - Emery, Cécile
ED  - Parker, Andrew
T1  - Workplace friendships
BT  - antecedents, consequences, and new challenges for employees and organizations
T2  - Understanding workplace relationships
N2  - Workplace friendships, i.e., when work colleagues are also friends, are a widespread phenomenon in organizations which has attracted increasing research interest in recent decades. Numerous studies have investigated consequences of workplace friendships and found positive outcomes, such as increased employee job satisfaction or organizational performance, as well as negative outcomes, such as decreased knowledge-sharing between different friendship cliques. Other studies have examined what shapes workplace friendships, focusing on determinants such as personality or the spatial composition of organizations. Finally, an increasing number of studies focus on multiplex workplace friendships, where employees who are friends are also linked by a specific work-focused relationship. In this chapter, we first take stock of the literature on workplace friendships by providing an overview of their antecedents and consequences at the individual, the group, and the organizational level, and review the smaller body of research on multiplex workplace friendships. Second, we critically discuss practical implications of workplace friendships, focusing on their relevance to three current challenges for employees and organizations: the increase in virtual work, social inequalities in organizations, and the increased overlap of professional and private life. Finally, we provide recommendations for organizations on how to address these challenges and effectively manage workplace friendships.
Y1  - 2023
SN  - 978-3-031-16639-6
SN  - 978-3-031-16640-2
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16640-2_11
SP  - 325
EP  - 368
PB  - Palgrave Macmillan
CY  - Cham
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Brennecke, Julia
A1  - Coutinho, James A.
A1  - Gilding, Michael
A1  - Lusher, Dean
A1  - Schaffer, Graham
T1  - Invisible iterations: how formal and informal organization shape knowledge networks for coordination
JF  - Journal of management studies
N2  - This study takes a network approach to investigate coordination among knowledge workers as grounded in both formal and informal organization. We first derive hypotheses regarding patterns of knowledge-sharing relationships by which workers pass on and exchange tacit and codified knowledge within and across organizational hierarchies to address the challenges that underpin contemporary knowledge work. We use survey data and apply exponential random graph models to test our hypotheses. We then extend the quantitative network analysis with insights from qualitative interviews and demonstrate that the identified knowledge-sharing patterns are the micro-foundational traces of collective coordination resulting from two underlying coordination mechanisms which we label ‘invisible iterations’ and ‘bringing in the big guns’. These mechanisms and, by extension, the associated knowledge-sharing patterns enable knowledge workers to perform in a setting that is characterized by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. Our research contributes to theory on the interplay between formal and informal organization for coordination by showing how self-directed, informal action is supported by the formal organizational hierarchy. In doing so, it also extends understanding of the role that hierarchy plays for knowledge-intensive work. Finally, it establishes the collective need to coordinate work as a previously overlooked driver of knowledge network relationships and network patterns. © 2024 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
KW  - coordination
KW  - hierarchy
KW  - informal organization
KW  - knowledge sharing
KW  - multiplexity
KW  - social network
Y1  - 2024
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13076
SN  - 0022-2380
SN  - 1467-6486
SP  - 1
EP  - 42
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Oxford
ER  -