Making sense of coworker friendships : choice, constraint, and (imagined) boundaries.
Workplace friendships are commonly assumed to be voluntarily chosen ties. But are these relationships purely a matter of personal choice? This study has three main concerns: it seeks to understand the different ways by which individuals negotiate and make sense of friendships with peer coworkers; it...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Final Year Project |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51665 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Workplace friendships are commonly assumed to be voluntarily chosen ties. But are these relationships purely a matter of personal choice? This study has three main concerns: it seeks to understand the different ways by which individuals negotiate and make sense of friendships with peer coworkers; it examines how freedom of choice in friendship may be circumscribed by social arrangements over which one has limited control; and it questions taken-for-granted distinctions between spheres of personal-life and work-life. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews, findings suggest that 1) besides personal choice, the development of workplace friendship is also shaped by the social organization of the workplace over which one has limited control; 2) the patterning of friendships represents a measure of individual agency within one’s socially governed friendship experience; and 3) boundaries separating work-life and personal-life are often blurred in the doing of workplace friendships. This study may add to existing workplace friendship literature, with a qualitative focus on individuals’ subjective meanings. |
|---|