Számítanak a barátok? – A munkahelyi barátságok jelentősége a szociális intézményvezetők szakmai kapcsolathálózatában
Némethné Schutzmann Réka
Mental Health Sciences Division
Dr. Bódizs Róbert
SE Szemészeti Klinika Mária utcai tanterme
2026-08-27 14:00:00
Interdiszciplináris társadalomtudományok
Dr. Pethesné Dávid Beáta
Dr. Pethesné Dávid Beáta
Dr. Feith Helga
Dr. Győri Ágnes
Dr. Zsembery Ákos
Dr. Girasek Edmond
Dr. Czibere Ibolya
The aim of the dissertation was to explore the role of workplace friendships in the psychosocial processes related to stress and burnout among leaders of social care institutions. The study was based on the assumption that leadership work can be understood as a practice embedded in relationships. In this approach, the workplace is both an organisational and a social environment, where other people may appear both as partners in task performance and as potential social resources.
The theoretical framework of the dissertation was provided by the Job Demands Resources model, while workplace friendships were placed at the centre of the analysis as relationships that may be connected both to work performance and to personal support. The study was based on a cross sectional survey conducted among Hungarian social care leaders.
The findings showed that the association between job demands and burnout was primarily reflected through perceived stress. Within this pattern of associations, workplace friendships appeared at several points. On the one hand, they were associated with the levels of stress and burnout. On the other hand, under certain conditions, they also modified the pattern of the relationship between stress and burnout. The results suggest that friendship ties became less salient in the earlier stage leading to stress, and more salient in the later psychosocial manifestations of strain.
The analyses also drew attention to a simple but important pattern. The significance of workplace friendships cannot be understood primarily in terms of quantity. The decisive difference appeared less in the number of ties and more in the presence or absence of friendship. Leaders who did not identify a single workplace friend showed a consistently more vulnerable pattern in relation to stress than those who reported at least one friendship tie. At the same time, the more favourable pattern associated with workplace friendships proved to be conditional. At higher levels of stress, this difference lost statistical significance, which also points to the limits of social resources.
Overall, the dissertation suggests that workplace friendships can be interpreted as relevant but conditional psychosocial resources in leadership contexts. The findings contribute to a more precise understanding of the social dimension of the Job Demands Resources model and offer new perspectives for a network based interpretation of workplace friendships and leader well being.
