Do Work Besties Spill The I-Tea? The Relationship Between the Dimensions of Workplace Friendship and the Facets of Knowledge Sharing Among It Services Professionals from It Services Companies in the Philippines

Abstract

Cultivating knowledge sharing is essential to the success of IT services companies. However, no prior research has investigated how knowledge sharing can be fostered in the IT services and Philippine context. To address this gap, this study examined the relationship between the dimensions of workplace friendship by Nielsen et al. (2000) and the facets of knowledge sharing by van den Hooff and de Ridder (2004) among IT services professionals from IT services companies in the Philippines. Guided by Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) social capital theory, data were collected through a cross-sectional survey of 267 respondents recruited via Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn using convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling. Responses were analyzed using weighted mean calculations, Pearson correlations, and simple linear regressions. The results showed that the professionals have high levels of friendship opportunity, friendship prevalence, knowledge donating, and knowledge collecting. Moreover, the findings revealed that both dimensions of friendship prevalence positively predicts the two facets of knowledge sharing. These results underscore the need for organizational leaders and HR practitioners in IT services firms in the Philippines to foster a workplace that promotes positive social interactions and enables the formation of mutually supportive friendships to encourage IT services professionals to engage in knowledge sharing.