WORK LONELINESS AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

We studied employee loneliness, a prevalent workplace emotion that has received very little theoretical or empirical attention within the organizational behavior field. Drawing on emotion, ego depletion and social exchange theories we developed a model of workplace loneliness in which we predicted that the withdrawal responses that result from being lonely will lead to increased employee surface acting and reduced affective commitment, thereby adversely influencing performance. We conducted a field study design with a lagged multi-rater design to test our hypotheses. The sample consisted of 672 employees and 114 supervisors across 143 work units in two organizations - a not-for-profit (public) organization, and a for-profit private company. Employees’ loneliness was measured using both self-report and co-worker ratings. Employees’ task and relational performance was measured via supervisor and work unit team member ratings. Results supported the hypothesized model where greater employee loneliness led to poorer task, team role and relational performance as mediated by lowered affective commitment and to a lesser extent increased surface acting. Limitations, implications and future research direction were discussed.