Finding ourselves at work: personal friendships among academics
Jennifer Wilkinson
Sociology and Social Policy
The University of Sydney, Australia
Paper: 30mins
As we spend more time at work and the boundaries between public and personal life continue to dissolve,
researchers have focused on work fulfillment, raising questions about what makes us happy at work and how we
compensate for work intensification and expectations of commitment associated with greedy institutions. Having
good social relationships at work is now widely recognized as essential to fulfilling work, with the potential to
provide joy and support. In empirical studies, people rate close working relationships more highly than pay.
Other research is also emerging on the particular importance of personal friendships at work. For example,
research on gay men’s work friendships concluded that friendships provided alternative sources of identification
for gay men and support for those coming out. Epidemiological research found that job strain was associated
with poorer mental and physical health, while good work relations reduced anxiety and increased perceptions of
self-control (Theorell and Karasek, 1996:13).
Despite this evidence, the literature on higher education has, with few exceptions (Blundin, 1996), paid very little
attention to the personal friendships of academics. This is surprising given the high volume of research
documenting the intensification of academic work and the effect of performance measurement in increasing
competition among colleagues. Of the smattering of research on academics’ social relationships, the emphasis is
generally on social support or social capital. However important, this approach ignores the specific properties of
friendship and thus overlooks its unique contribution to happiness of which friendship scholars have long been
aware (Lane, 1994). Aristotle argued that friendship produced happiness of the highest order, combining
pleasure and virtue. Because true friends were committed to the flourishing of the other, friendship transcended
concerns with personal utility. Much later, Georg Simmel linked sociability or friendly association to pleasure.
More recently, friendship is framed by the individualizing processes of late modernity which stress its links with
identity and potential for self-definition.
I argue that friendship’s twin potentials for individuation and sociability are crucial to friendship’s contribution to
happiness. I will show how these insights can be applied to the changing conditions of academic work. Within the
existing literature on higher education, there is a longstanding debate about the altered conditions of academic
work and the erosion of its intrinsic rewards. When scholars look at the subjective experiences of academics,
they emphasize feelings of uncertainty, fraudulence and competition. (e.g., Knights and Clarke, 2013; Barcan,
2013). While competition and friendship can sometimes overlap (Barcan, 2013), this literature still paints a
troubling and pessimistic picture of academic work without hope for change or resistance.
As a contribution to this research on academic work within higher education, this paper explores the
significance of personal friendships among academics. Drawing on in-depth interview data with 42 academics in
an Australian university, I find that personal friendships are a unique resource for academics facing tough times.
Whereas academics reported experiencing negative and competitive relations with their colleagues, they also
reported having personal friendships which provided solidarity, intimacy and the pleasure of good company. A
key finding was that while performance imperatives could undermine professional identity, personal friendships
at work supported the self and bolstered professional self-confidence.
References
Barcan, R. (2013). Academic Life and Labour in the new University :Hope and Other Choices, Ashgate, Surrey
Blunden, R. (1996). Academic Loyalties and Professional Disobedience. Higher Education Research & Development,
15(1), 13-28.
sydney.edu.au/itl/aic2016
#ACIDC2016
29 June - 01 July 2016 Knights, D. & Clarke, C. (2013). It’s a bittersweet symphony, this life: fragile academic selves and insecure
identities at work. Organization Studies, 35(3), 335-57.
Lane, R. (1994). The road not taken: Friendship, consumerism, and happiness. Critical Review, 8(4), 521-54.
Theorell, T. & Karase, R. (1996). Current issues relating to psychosocial job strain and cardiovascular disease
research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1(1), 9-26.
Contact
Email: [email protected]
sydney.edu.au/itl/aic2016
#ACIDC2016
29 June - 01 July 2016