Impact of Demographic Characteristics on Workplace Friendship: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

Although demographic characteristics are the most analyzed variables in the literature on workplace friendship, their effects on its formation and development remain unclear, owing to conflicting results. To draw generalizable conclusions, this study employed meta-analytical techniques to examine the relationships between employees’ demographic characteristics and their workplace friendship, and investigated whether collectivism and year of data collection moderated this relationship. Seventy-seven empirical pieces of literature and 219 correlations (N = 34,856) were included in the final meta-analysis. Our findings revealed that male employees acquired more workplace friendships than female employees, and that organizational tenure, hierarchical position, and education were positively related to workplace friendships. However, employees’ age and marital status had no significant effect on workplace friendships. Furthermore, the results of the moderating effects analysis suggested that, as collectivism diminished and data collection was delayed, the impact of certain demographic characteristics on workplace friendships became weaker.