Positive and negative workplace relationships, social satisfaction, and organizational attachment

Abstract

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 99(3) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2014-16232-001 ). Some information about the data collection and a citation were missing from the published version. The data reported in this article were part of a larger data collection effort, some of which were reported in another published article (Zagenczyk, Scott, Gibney, Murrell, & Thatcher, 2010). The nature and scope of the overlap between these articles were fully disclosed during the review process. The complete citation appears below.] We examine how employees’ centrality in the networks of positively valenced ties (e.g., friendship, advice) and negatively valenced ties (e.g., avoidance) at work interact to affect these employees’ organizational attachment. Using 2 different samples (154 employees in a division of a food and animal science organization and 144 employees in a product development firm), we found that employees’ centrality in positive and negative tie networks at work were related to their organizational attachment indirectly via their impact on employees’ satisfaction with their workplace relationships. Further, interaction results in both studies suggest that the effect of employees’ centrality in positive tie networks on their satisfaction with workplace social relationships was stronger when employees had more negative relationships but was irrelevant when employees had fewer negative ties. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)