When freedom and control walk hand in hand: friendship in the workplace

Abstract

Purpose – While workplace friendship is often idealized in the literature as well as in practice, this paper problematizes the uncritical endorsement of the phenomenon by drawing attention to its inherent power implications. Design/methodology/approach – Empirically, the paper is based on a three-month ethnography in an organization which encourages workplace friendship at work by deliberately blurring boundaries between work and non-work. Findings – While being friends with colleagues at work is framed as a free choice among organizational members, who supposedly form these friendship bonds autonomously and organize fun activities in a self-directed manner, our study also shows that forming workplace friendship and engaging in fun activities can be a social expectation rather than purely an individual choice. Research limitations/implications – We explore this seemingly paradoxical tension between freedom and control through Foucault’s notion of biopower, which works through the mobilization rather than restriction of people’s autonomy and targets the behaviour of entire populations by shaping their environment. By applying this lens, we contribute to the theorizing of workplace friendship by framing it as a “technology of control” that works through mechanisms of “biocracy” (Fleming, 2012, 2014). Practical implications – Our analysis suggests that, when instrumentalized, workplace friendship may become “performative” and lose its supposedly spontaneous, beneficial and innocent character. Friendship is then a “performance” in which people can succeed or fail, thus potentially harming rather than promoting their wellbeing at work. Originality/value – Locating our analysis within the literature on workplace friendship and organizational control, the paper contributes an understanding of workplace friendship as “performative.” It moreover provides clarity and conceptual precision on how “biocracy” as a form of biopower compares to and expands our understanding of normative and neo-normative control.