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Updated: May 19, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Role ambiguity, employee gender, and workplace friendship
Chien-Yu Chen1, Hsiao-Yen Mao, An-Tien Hsieh
1Department of Marketing and Logistics Management, Chihlee Institute of Technology, New Taipei City, Taiwan. dustinchen@mail.chihlee.edu.tw
Abstract:
The importance of workplace friendship is recognized by researchers and practitioners, but its antecedents with respect to work roles are not well understood. Employees' gender might moderate a relationship between work roles and friendships. Data from a survey of 221 international tourist hotel employees showed that a key aspect of job support, role ambiguity, was negatively related to having workplace friendships. However, employees' gender did not moderate this relationship. Role clarity (the opposite of role ambiguity) may facilitate workplace friendships.
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