Genuine Friendship Research Articles

Commercial friendships in pubs: Defining the quality, levels, and process

This research explores commercial friendship within Dutch pubs, focusing on the transition from transactional to personal interactions between bartenders and guests. The study uses semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to reveal that commercial friendship shares many similarities with non-commercial friendship but differs in important aspects. We found six levels of commercial friendship that range from minimal interactions, categorized as 'guest,' to deep, personal connections identified as 'best friend.' We identified three dimensions of commercial friendship quality: activities, self-disclosure, and social support. A critical finding is the 'tipping point'—a stage in the relationship development where interactions shift from professional to personal, characterized by mutual personal disclosure and balanced social support, redefining professional relationships. These findings demonstrate that commercial environments can foster genuine friendships, and provide valuable insights for enhancing interpersonal relationships within the hospitality industry.

What marketers of after-school educational services and educators can learn from children’s perceptions of intelligence

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the marketing opportunities for after-school educational services in the Chinese context by examining children’s perceptions of intelligence using visual methodology.Design/methodology/approachAltogether 30 Chinese children aged 9–12 studying in grades four to six were asked to draw what comes to mind for two statements: “This is an intelligent child” and “This is a child of average intelligence.” After doing the drawings, the children were interviewed face-to-face to answer questions about the personalities and social relationships of the children depicted in the two drawings that they had produced.FindingsA child described as intelligent was imagined wearing glasses, studying hard and obtaining excellent academic results. A child described as of average intelligence was imagined as having many friends, playing a lot and experiencing tension with parents over studies. Participants had a restrictive view of intelligence and associated intelligence with academic success. They endorsed both a growth mindset and a fixed mindset of intelligence. On the one hand, they endorsed a growth mindset of intelligence as they associated intelligence with personal efforts and practices. On the other hand, participants endorsed a fixed mindset of intelligence as they tended to avoid challenges and appeared to be threatened by the success of others. Participants imagined that an intelligent child would experience poor relationships with friends.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings were based on a nonprobability small sample. The study did not investigate the socialization process of such perceptions.Practical implicationsEducational services and nonschool activity service providers can position themselves as agents to help students develop meta-analytical skills in embracing challenging tasks. Marketers can develop courses and learning materials that teach children different learning strategies. They can use incentives to encourage persistence and resilience in meeting challenges. This study uncovered the emotional and social needs of intelligent children. A new market segment was identified that targets children with high intelligence. Educational service providers can design curricula and activities to support high-performing children in developing empathy and good communication skills. Educators can assist those who perform well academically to nurture genuine friendships and improve social relations with peers.Social implicationsThe prevalence of the private tutoring industry in the Chinese context may introduce educational disparity, as families with low resources will not be able to afford these services. Nonprofit organizations can provide similar educational services at a low cost to bridge the gap. The narrow view of intelligence expressed by participants, and their lack of awareness of the wide range of types of intelligence, indicates that education service providers can develop the confidence of a child with average intelligence through appreciation of his or her unique talents beyond academic achievements.Originality/valueThis study explores attributes associated with intelligence among Chinese children using an innovative visual method. The marketing implications can apply to other societies where the after-school tuition market is prevalent.

A Study on Employee Engagement and Ethic of Friendship

This abstract presents a comprehensive overview of the relationship between employee engagement and the ethic of friendship, highlighting the potential benefits and challenges associated with cultivating friendships in the workplace. Friendship in the workplace is characterized by mutual trust, support, and a sense of camaraderie between employees. When fostered effectively, it can have a profound impact on employee engagement, job satisfaction, and overall well-being. Genuine friendships in the workplace can create a sense of belonging and encourage collaboration, leading to increased employee productivity, creativity, and loyalty. Additionally, workplace friendships have been linked to lower turnover rates and improved employee retention. Employee engagement and ethical practices are critical factors for fostering a positive work environment and enhancing organizational success. However, an often over looked aspect is the role of friendship within the workplace and its influence on employee engagement and ethical behaviour.

Almost an Ally, but Not Quite: Intersectionality and Postcolonial Insistence in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India

In this paper I seek to analyse the events in A Passage to India by E. M. Forster to argue that it is impossible for a coloniser to develop a genuine friendship with his/her colonised counterpart. Using postcolonial theory, and particularly Homi K. Bhabha's concept of ‘mimicry,’ this paper demonstrates why the desperate attempt by the colonised to become friends with the coloniser fails. This is an effort to discover an answer to the question that the author poses in his novel. The author poses the query in one of the first chapters of the book. In this paper, I analyse the hypothesis that colonised people frequently strive to imitate the values and customs of their oppressors in an attempt to be seen as their actual allies, but fail miserably. This will be analysed by looking into the various points of intersectionality that are present throughout Forster’s novel.

Nietzsche and Friendship

Nietzsche and Friendship

Nemesis in Mordor: The Possibility of Posthuman Savagery

Innovative computer games can sometimes serve as valid simulations of real sociocultural processes, exploring hypotheses about the possible impact of future technology on civilization. In February 2021, Warner Brothers was granted a patent for an artificial social intelligence system that it first used in Shadow of Mordor, a very popular computer game based on the legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien, but reversing his humanistic and precautionary values. The main theme of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was development of genuine friendship in a crusade to destroy a technology that gave its user superhuman powers at the cost of replacing sympathy with total selfishness. Shadow of Mordor and its successor Shadow of War promoted sadism and enslavement as tools for transcending human limitations, implicitly slandering transhumanism. This article surveys this troubling dynamic in four parts: (1) a conceptual introduction drawing upon a diverse literature about the human dimensions of current technological progress, (2) an overview of recent developments in the genre of Tolkien computer games, (3) a close examination of how the Nemesis multiagent system was designed, and (4) an initial assessment of public reactions to the Shadows expressed through videos and text comments on YouTube.

Fierce as the Wind by Tara Wilson Redd

Reviewed by: Fierce as the Wind by Tara Wilson Redd Elizabeth Bush Redd, Tara Wilson Fierce as the Wind. Lamb, 2021 [304 p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781524766917 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781524766931 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-10 As breakups go, Miho's is a rotten one: the boy, who would henceforth be referred to only as Scumbucket, did not just cheat on her but regarded her all along as side chick to his real beloved, who is now pregnant. This is a huge blow to Miho's already shaky self-esteem, especially as her crew of friends will head off to mainland colleges after the summer, leaving her on Oahu with a pizza delivery job and a disabled father who keeps pushing her to apply to college and prepare for a future worthy of her artistic talent. Best friend X knows she needs distraction and purpose, and he piques her interest in an Ironman triathlon; with her awesome cycling skills from the pizza gig, she's a third of the way there, and X and the crew take on roles in her training. Bad breakup, true-blue friends, and a girl saved by sports sounds like a pretty trite plot combo, but Redd hones each facet to near perfection. The cast of secondary players is affectionately developed (even X demolishes the gay guy sidekick trope with his mastery of genuine friendship); Miho leaps realistic hurdles apart from heartbreak and training (she's priced out of Ironman and holds her own solo "Miho-man" race); the crew devises clever workarounds to accomplish a lot on the cheap; and Redd provocatively explores what charity looks like from the perspective of a multiracial, financially challenged teen. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Makna Persahabatan Sebuah Tinjauan Dari Perspektif Filsafat

This article is meant to be a philosophical reflection on the meaning of friendship. As evident from its sub-titles, the article is divided into four parts. First, it deals with the notion of friendship, in which the genuine friendship, or in Aristotle’s term called the perfect form of friendship, is distinguished from the egoistic or the imperfect forms. Referring to Aristotle’s account of friendship, the perfect form of friendship is a friendship in which each friend values the other for their own particular qualities, for their own sake, for their virtuous character and not for the pleasure or utilities they can provide. The imperfect forms of friendship usually do not last long, because the tie of friendship will get loose and finally dissolved when it does not bring either pleasure or utilities each friend wants. Second, following Aristotle, I try to explain why friendship is considered important for human happiness. Third, the element of right and duty that get involved in the personal relation of friendship is being addressed. Finally, due to the increasing importance of online communication nowadays, especially during this pandemic corona virus outbreak, I would like also to address the opportunities and challenges of online friendship or the relation of friendship mediated by social media. In this regard, the opportunity to foster online friendship is bigger under the model of moral friendship according to Kant and Kierkegaard in which universal love is emphasized, and Nietzsche’s model in which the agonistic nature of friendship is highly valued, than under the Aristotle’s model.

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Young Arnisadors: The Curricular and Co-Curricular Challenges

Arnis has been identified as a combative, full-contact sport in the context of the school's co-curricular activities, in which students may have acquired meaningful learning, skills, and physical well-being. This qualitative study explores the experiences of arnis players or arnisadors in their curricular and co-curricular pursuits; has utilized non-probability purposive sampling; and employed Colaizzi's seven-step phenomenological method as a reference in interpreting and formulating relevant themes that reflect the curricular and co-curricular experiences of the participants. Data collection was carried out employing interviews and observation methods. Relative themes that emerged from this study were commitment, milestones, physical development, self-discipline, realization, pride and passion, training, competition, camaraderie, support, and aspiration. Curiosity and peer influence were the main factors that led participants to join the arnis team, and the rigors of the training changed their perspective towards the fulfillment of curricular and co-curricular objectives. Significant benefits from joining Arnis have been highlighted, such as sound health, asthma healing, physical and character development, and other positive attributes have been enhanced. Their aspiration as senior practitioners would be to share the kind of discipline, advancement, and expertise they have achieved with the beginners to express gratitude to the team. Furthermore, it was revealed that the ideal peer influence would lead to something beneficial, such as an affiliation to a sport like Arnis. At the same time, the loco parentis is essential for the role modeling to student-athletes who have been successful in managing difficulties due to genuine friendship and love. And the support of teammates, coaches, family, and school.

A Window on Young Bob Lusch: Reflections of an Early Student

The paper is a first-person account of Professor Robert F. Lusch’s early academic career at the University of Oklahoma during the late 1970s and early 1980s by one of his earliest students. The author describes and reflects on what some might consider a tumultuous period in marketing’s disciplinary evolution and suggests how these early years might in fact inform us of Professor Lusch’s later prolific contributions and deep impact on our discipline. Though perhaps more known for his uniquely critical thinking and his seminal contributions to the foundational elements of marketing, the author also tries to shine a light on Bob Lusch as a dedicated teacher, a tireless mentor and as a peerless educator—whose genuine care and friendship to his students knew no bounds. Though on this occasion his passing saddens us as he left us too early, the legacy of this exceptional scholar and educator will always be fondly remembered by his students and friends and will have a profound impact on all future students of marketing.

Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley

Reviewed by: Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley Alaine Martaus Knisley, Lucy Stepping Stones; written and illus. by Lucy Knisley; color by Whitney Cogar. Random House Graphic, 2020 [244p] Library ed. ISBN 978-1-9848-9685-8 $23.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-5931-2524-3 $20.99 Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-9848-9684-1 $12.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-9848-9686-5 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-6 City girl Jen has her life turned upside down when her parents split and her mom moves to a farm in this graphic novel. Formerly happy on her own with her drawing pad, Jen’s now faced with daily chores, weekends working the farmers’ market, and her mom’s fault-finding new boyfriend, who has two daughters of his own, including a bossy know-it-all Jen’s age. Still, as she learns to care for baby chickens, uses her art to advertise the farm’s produce, and reluctantly bonds with her new sort-of-siblings, Jen realizes her new life may have its own rewards after all. Drawn from the author’s childhood experiences, this fish-out-of-water coming-of-age tale shines with its colorful farm-life palette and its heartfelt authenticity. While the underlying story may be a familiar one, every misadventure with chicks, frogs, snakes, and stepsisters reads like fresh fare. Meanwhile, Jen’s awkwardness, her struggles with math, and her grudging acceptance of her new life make her a relatable heroine that readers will root for. The book ends with Jen learning to take pride in her talents, accepting other’s flaws, and finding genuine friendship with her former nemesis, an audience-pleasing level of happiness both imperfect and real. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Exploring the impact of a group-based tablet-PC training program in older adults

There are several barriers to older adults using internet and information and communication technology (ICT). It has been suggested that appropriate training is necessary to support the learning process and is an important issue with regards to digital inclusivity for older adults. This study explored the impact of a tablet-PC training program for older adults, provided in a group setting. Thirteen community-dwelling older adults attended the program (ten one and half hour training sessions, taking place once every 2 weeks) and completed pre- and post- assessments. After the intervention, participants showed significantly higher levels of ICT acceptance (87.6 vs. 113.5, p=0.002) and proficiency (109.5 vs. 132.7, p=0.003) than before the intervention. However, they did not showed improvement in feelings of loneliness, symptoms of depression and global cognitive function. Qualitative analyses indicated that the intervention enabled older adults to become more up to date with the information society and promoted tablet-PC acceptance. Although it helped older adults to feel less isolated, it did not enable them to form genuine friendships. The intervention was effective in improving older adults' digital literacy and promoting ICT acceptance, allowing the digital divide to be narrowed.

Establishing ethical Guanxi (interpersonal relationships) through confucian virtues of Xinyong (trust), Lijie (empathy) and Ren (humanity)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine empirically how managers establish ethical guanxi (interpersonal relationships) with their business partners to prevent potential ethical incidences in Chinese and Western business contexts.Design/methodology/approachThe present study is guided by a qualitative, abductive approach and draws on in-depth interviews with ten senior managers in five urban New Zealand organisations.FindingsThe results point out that guanxi (interpersonal relationships) purely working through renqing (reciprocity) is not sustainable, because it perpetuates a never-ending cycle of favours, once exchanging favours stopped or disappeared, then business relationships dwindled. To establish an ethical guanxi model, the authors found that xinyong (trust) is the foundation, and its enlargement stimulates lijie (empathy) that transfers pure business relationships to a genuine friendship which enhances ethical decision-making. They also posit that once managers are embodied with lijie, then they will have the virtue of ren to behave like junzi (ideal Confucian ethical person) whose business actions tend to be intrinsically guided by a sense of obligation to do something right that will work for diverse stakeholders’ interests, for the prosperity of organisations and society.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that managers should take Confucian virtues of xinyong (trust) and lijie (empathy), because they will trigger ren (humanity) as an intrinsic value. In this way, it is more likely for them to become junzi (ideal Confucian ethical person) whose business actions are intrinsically guided by a sense of obligation to do something right that benefits various stakeholders, organisations and society.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the extant literature on preventing ethical incidents of guanxi (interpersonal relationships) by drawing a framework of ethical guanxi, which is built on Confucian virtues of xinyong (trust), lijie (empathy) and ren (humanity). Further, this paper strongly suggests that companies should educate their staff to become more humane to make moral decisions in daily management practice.

Befriending Services for Culturally Diverse Older People

ABSTRACTBefriending services may address loneliness and social isolation amongst older people. However social diversity is rarely reported in investigations of befriending services. The views of non-users are also rarely explored. In this research, we explored older adults’ experiences of, and attitudes towards, a befriending service, among service users and non-service users, drawing on interviews and focus groups with 76 older adults, 10 volunteer visitors, and 20 service providers. Participants agreed that the befriending service helped alleviate social isolation and loneliness and that supportive services to foster connection are needed. Barriers to engagement included lack of knowledge, appropriateness of services and feeling undeserving. The befriending service was most successful when a match went beyond a transactional ‘professional-client’ relationship to resemble genuine friendship, underpinned by mutual interests and norms of reciprocity and reliability. We also identified five clear ideas about what characterizes an ideal supportive service; supported opportunities for getting out, genuine and reciprocal relationships, reliability, visitor characteristics, and connecting people to their culture. Befriending adds to social networks, and enhances connectedness to the community. Loneliness is alleviated when mutually beneficial and genuinely reciprocal relationships develop. However, group interventions or connections to community groups may be more appropriate for some.

Is Betrayal in EVE Online Unethical?

Betrayal is common in EVE Online. While not all gameplay based on deception is wrong, betraying a genuine friendship is wrong in any context. While some neo-Aristotelians have argued that perfect friendship is impossible online, it is possible for imperfect people to become Aristotelian character-friends even across imperfect communications channels. Good people are disposed to form friendships when they spend large amounts of time with others; people who make a hobby of feigning friendship are displaying bad character. While the possibility of betrayal does make EVE more interesting as a test of social skills for all players, that does not justify the actions of those who choose to betray.

Thirty Minutes over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story by Marc Tyler Nobleman

Reviewed by: Thirty Minutes over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story by Marc Tyler Nobleman Elizabeth Bush Nobleman, Marc Tyler Thirty Minutes over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story; illus. by Melissa Iwai. Clarion, 2018 [40p] ISBN978-0-544-43076-1 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R 7-10 yrs In December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; in spring of 1942, the U.S. retaliated with the Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo; in autumn of 1942, the Japanese retaliated for the retaliation with an attack on the American mainland. [End Page 84] Pilot Nobuo Fujita was catapulted from the narrow deck of a submarine towards the coastal forest of Oregon, with a mission to drop a pair of bombs that would start a forest fire and spread to residential areas. When the fire failed to ignite, he repeated the mission several weeks later, and at that point the Japanese believed those two bombs had detonated and claimed the missions as victories. Over the years, Fujita came to regret his role in the bombings: "He never discussed his Oregon raids, though they were rarely out of his mind." In 1962, in an attempt to drum up tourism, the town of Brookings, Oregon invited Nobuo Fujita to be an honored guest at a Memorial Day observance that "would be a symbol of reconciliation not just between individuals—but between nations." Genuine friendship and reciprocal visits were the happy outcome, continuing until Fujita's death in 1997. This picture book recounts a shadowy corner of the World War II homeland story, and the text is skillfully complemented by Iwai's line and watercolor illustrations. The result is a respectful and balanced representation of a soldier's wartime mission, protesters who value peace but mistrust an old enemy, and open-minded and -hearted former foes who are ready and willing to move forward and heal. An author's note will be included in the bound book. EB Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Play Away! Why Cheating is Morally Okay

A lack of faithfulness in romantic relationships is often called a lack of morality. But things become less clear when taking a closer look using Hohfeldian incidents: while it is only supererogatory not to have sex with someone else than one’s partner, not prohibiting them from doing so is a moral obligation to protect their liberty to act freely. There is no significant difference between having sex and other activities like playing football or between genuine friendships and good romantic relationships. Thus, the latter should, like the former, focus on the joy and positive feelings both parties can get – with each other or a third one. ----- Bibliographie: Mayerhoffer, Daniel: Play Away! Why Cheating is Morally Okay, 360°, 1-2017, S. 66-75. https://doi.org/10.3224/360grad.v12i1.05

Questioning the Virtual Friendship Debate: Fuzzy Analogical Arguments from Classification and Definition

Arguments from analogy are pervasive in everyday reasoning, mathematics, philosophy, and science. Informal logic studies everyday argumentation in ordinary language. A branch of fuzzy logic, approximate reasoning, seeks to model facets of everyday reasoning with vague concepts in ill-defined situations. Ways of combining the results from these fields will be suggested by introducing a new argumentation scheme—a fuzzy analogical argument from classification—with the associated critical questions. This will be motivated by a case study of analogical reasoning in the virtual friendship debate within information ethics. The virtual friendship debate is a disagreement over whether virtual friendships are genuine friendships. It will be argued that the debate could move away from its current impasse, caused by unproductive metaphysical and logical assumptions, if extant arguments are reinterpreted as fuzzy analogical arguments from classification, and subjected to a new set of critical questions which would replace the quest for facts of essence about friendship with an emphasis on empirical data, persuasion, and definitional power.

Friendship, Value and Interpretation

AbstractA widely held view concerning the justification of associative duties is the so‐called relationships view, according to which associative duties within personal relationships arise because of the value of those relationships. Against this view, it has been argued that there can be cases of undemanding friendships, that is, genuine friendships with no associative duties. In this article, I argue that undemanding friendships do not show that associative duties are not grounded in the value of the relationship that gives rise to them by providing an interpretivist account of the normativity of friendships. I argue that friendships are complex values that need to be interpreted in order to determine which response to them would be appropriate, and that understanding one's friendship as undemanding is one valid interpretation of the value of friendship. Subsequently, I demonstrate that this solution is not ad hoc, because friendship is not the only complex value that needs to be interpreted.

Editorial

It is a great pleasure to publish the abstracts of the 2017 Annual Meeting of the AACPDM. It means a lot to us to be the Academy's official journal, in terms of converging objectives in promoting excellence in research and providing multidisciplinary scientific education, as well as having genuine friendships with so many of its members. While abstracts are effectively the most up-to-date record of research in any field, it is important to bear in mind that although they have been selected from the best submissions, they have not been as fully reviewed as other forms of scientific communication. They are meant to serve as a basis for discussion, which can be a very constructive form of review, and as an archive for the dynamism expressed at the meeting. We would be glad to consider any papers that derive from the meeting for publication in DMCN. I will be participating in the meeting together with other members of the editorial board, and we will be very happy to discuss any editorial issues. With best wishes,