Public Release: 18-Aug-2015
How having racially diverse friends can help you on the job
Those with more different-race friends seen as more helpful at work
Ohio State University

Employees with a racially diverse group of friends outside of work may actually perform better at their jobs, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that workers who had more different-race friends in their personal lives than their co-workers also tended to have a more racially diverse network of friends on the job. This broader network was linked to employees who did more tasks beyond their job responsibilities and who, under certain circumstances, had more trust in their supervisors.

"Your friends outside of work actually have this connection to how you behave in the workplace, through the shaping of your relationships on the job," said Steffanie Wilk, co-author of the study and associate professor of management and human resources at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

Wilk said that people with diverse friend networks in their personal lives tend to build similarly diverse networks in their workplaces.

"They're more likely to see their ingroup - the people they most identify with - as a broader group of people which includes those of different racial backgrounds. And we tend to help people in our ingroups," Wilk said.

"That means they are being helpful to more of their work colleagues. Supervisors notice that."

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