Preliminary communication
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AT WORK PERCEIVED BY CROATIAN AND WORLDWIDE EMPLOYEES AND BY DIFFERENT AGE, GENDER, EDUCATION, HIERARCHICAL AND COMPANY SIZE GROUPS – EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
Nina Pološki Vokić
Tomislav Hernaus
Abstract
Workplaces benefit if workers have good relationships. In other words, in years when people are said to be the only true competitive advantage, it is evident that interpersonal relations in organizations and processes of nourishing them have become essential for the organizational success. The purpose of this article was to concisely explain the importance, types and ways of improving interpersonal relations at work, as well as to explore if, and to what extent, interpersonal relations at work are influenced by employees’ backgrounds. The demographic characteristics of employees that were expected to influence their perceptions of interpersonal relations were: the country of origin, age, gender, educational level, hierarchical level, and the size of the company for which they work. The correlation analysis showed that the “country of origin” does influence interpersonal relations at work. Precisely, interpersonal relations in Croatia are, according to the respondents’ perceptions, not as good as in other countries involved in the study. For example, Croatian employees perceive the working atmosphere around them as significantly less positive in comparison with the respondents from other countries, they are significantly less frequently consulted by their superiors and rarely praised, and their superiors spend significantly less time with them. However, the research revealed that other demographic characteristics are not of significant influence, either on the overall perceptions of interpersonal relations, or on the perceptions of superior – subordinate or peer relations.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
19124
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2005.
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