Understanding the Relationship between Colleague Friendships and Work Engagement with Wellbeing; A Three Wave Study

Shimmin, Samantha (2019) Understanding the Relationship between Colleague Friendships and Work Engagement with Wellbeing; A Three Wave Study. Northumbria University Newcastle. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Objective: To understand the predictive relationship of colleague friendships and work engagement with wellbeing. The study aims to account for fluctuations within each construct whilst measuring three separate aspects of colleague friendships (colleague support, workplace friendship opportunity and prevalence). Following the findings of previous literature linking such variables to positive organisational outcomes, the current study hypothesises a positive predictive relationship to also be present between the constructs and wellbeing. Methods: Participants (all of whom employed) completed a Qualtrics questionnaire online, including 5 scales regarding colleague friendships, work engagement and wellbeing. A demographic and control survey were also included. Participants completed the same questionnaire once a week for three weeks, receiving reminder emails from the researcher at each time-point. Results: Significant positive correlations were present between each of the predictor variables and the outcome variable at all time-points. The hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the introduction of work engagement into the predictive model led to significant additional explanation of variance within wellbeing. This finding was present at each of the three time-points. The introduction of colleague friendships was only able to significantly account for wellbeing variance at the third time-point. Conclusions: The results confirm that there is a predictive positive relationship present between colleague friendship and work engagement with wellbeing over a three-week period.