THE MEDIATING ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY IN THE IMPACT OF WORKPLACE FRIENDSHIP ON CREATIVITY

Abstract

In today's demanding working conditions, it is of considerable importance for employees to feel safe and happy in their workplaces in terms of their performance. Since employees spend a significant portion of their time in the workplace, the encouragement and development of personal relationships among colleagues and the establishment of communication related to work contribute to the emergence of workplace friendships. These friendships also lead to employees receiving support, feeling relaxed, and experiencing a sense of security. Employees who freely express their ideas in the workplace are more comfortable in implementing their creative ideas. This sense of confidence they feel is also reflected in their psychology as "safety." Therefore, through the workplace friendships they establish, employees can feel psychologically secure. As a result, their performance, especially in terms of creativity, improves. The aim of this study is to determine the mediating role of psychological comfort in the impact of workplace friendships on employee creativity in organizations. To achieve this goal, data was collected through a survey technique from 500 full-time white-collar employees working in companies operating in the furniture sector in Kayseri. The surveys were conducted through face-to-face interviews, and incomplete responses were eliminated, resulting in a total of 428 valid survey responses. Firstly, Cronbach Alpha values were calculated and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to assess the validity and reliability of the collected data. Additionally, skewness and kurtosis values were examined to determine whether the data followed a normal distribution. IBM SPSS, IBM AMOS, and PROCESS 3.2 software programs were utilized for data analysis. NBased on the findings, it has been revealed that psychological comfort plays a partial mediating role in the impact of workplace friendships on creativity. In this context, it has been concluded that workplace friendships not only support creativity but also serve as a mediator in enhancing psychological comfort.