Do we need friendship in the workplace? The effect on innovative behavior and mediating role of psychological safety

Employees spend a huge time of their lives at work. As a result, friendships are often formed between individuals in the workplace. Workplace friendship is a fundamental value of human nature. Forming friendships in the workplace is vital to increase satisfaction and engagement at work. The present study proposes and tests a theoretical framework to explore the workplace friendship mechanisms and their impact on the innovative behavior of employees in the Omani service sector, and to clarify the mediating role of psychological safety. The data was gathered from the employees of private service sector in Oman. An online questionnaire form was distributed to the participants and 405 valid questionnaires were analyzed by SmartPLS software using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that workplace friendship aspects namely, friendship opportunity and friendship prevalence positively affected innovative behavior. Furthermore, friendship prevalence was positively correlated in relation to psychological safety. However, psychological safety did not have a mediating role between workplace friendship and innovative behavior. The findings are meaningful for the academic research and also give some practical suggestions for managers from a new viewpoint for the evaluation of workplace friendship in the context of the service sector, in order to achieve psychological safety, and to promote the innovative behavior of employees in this sector.