Abstract
THE MEDIATING ROLE OF JOB ENGAGEMENT IN THE EFFECT OF WORKPLACE FRIENDSHIP ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Friendships established in personal life are more optional based on preference. In business life, a certain environment of friendships is formed involuntarily to fulfill a shared or related task. Workplace friendships consist of informal relationships formed by two members of the organizational setting. Employee performance in an organization is shaped by individual skills, desires, physical condition of the workplace, environmental and institutional conditions. The output of the activities that the employees attempt to achieve organizational goals is expressed as employee performance. Job engagement, which is another variable of the study, is defined as emotional and intellectual participation that supports the motivation of employees to increase their performance in their job roles. In this context, the effects of workplace friendship of healthcare professionals on employee performance and job engagement were examined in this study. In addition, the mediating role of job engagement in the effect of workplace friendship on employee performance has been examined. In the study, 404 survey data were collected online from healthcare professionals. As a result of the research, a positive and statistically significant relationship was found between workplace friendship, job engagement and employee performance, while it was concluded that job engagement had a mediating role in the effect of workplace friendship on employee performance.
Keywords
Workplace Friendship, Job Engagement, Employee Performance.
