Men’s work friendships pay off more than women’s: UK study
Key Points
- Durham University Business School tracked almost 150 employees over their first ten months in a job, surveying them on their friendships at four points.
- Women were more likely to befriend friends of friends, forming larger and more reciprocated workplace friendship groups.
- Men formed fewer, more selective one-to-one friendships, typically with other men and often where the relationship served their goals.
- The researchers suggest the difference may contribute to the gender pay gap through unequal access to networking, resources and influence.
- The study calls on employers to create more equal networking opportunities across the workforce.
Men form fewer but more strategic friendships at work than women, according to new research from Durham University Business School published in the journal Social Networks.
Andrew Parker, Professor in Leadership at Durham University Business School, worked with colleagues from William and Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business and Università della Svizzera Italiana to compare how male and female employees build friendships in the workplace.
The researchers ran a longitudinal study on almost 150 employees, following them through their first ten months at an organisation and surveying them about their friendships at four points over that period.
Women were more likely to befriend a friend of a friend, producing larger cliques and friendship groups at work.
Those friend-of-a-friend ties were also more likely to be reciprocated, and more likely to be with other women.
Men rarely formed friend-of-a-friend connections, instead building specific one-to-one friendships with other men – particularly where they saw the relationship as useful to their own goals.
The researchers read this as a difference in what each group gets out of the relationship. Women’s friendships appeared to focus on the friendship itself rather than what it could deliver, while men’s were more selective and more instrumental.
“Creating friendships at work is vital for employee morale, support and also productivity – with studies showing that people who have a close friendship at work are more likely to be engaged in their work, more productive and more innovative,” said Parker.
“In fact, our research shows that female friendships are often contributing to the stability of an organization, whereas men’s friendships are more focused on their own benefits,” said Parker.
A difference in pay
The researchers said this split could be feeding the gender pay gap.
On their reading, women’s workplace friendships deliver less in the way of networking, resources and influence, while the intentionality behind men’s friendships makes preferential treatment more likely.
However, the researchers stopped short of measuring that effect directly.
Their recommendation to employers is to widen the opportunities all staff have to network across the business, so that everyone has the same chance to build the kind of relationships that carry career benefits.
