THE IMPACTS OF DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES ON WORKPLACE LONELINESS: A RESEARCH IN THE SERVICE SECTOR

The aim of the study was to determine whether workplace loneliness differs according to demographic variables. The sample of the study consists of 211 white collar personnel working in the service sector. The concept of workplace loneliness was examined in two dimensions as social friendship and emotional deprivation. Firstly, the concept of workplace loneliness has been explained and the studies about the concept have been included. Then, studies examining the concept of demographic variables are included. The scales measuring workplace loneliness were evaluated under the title of the research method and validity and reliability analyzes of the “Workplace Loneliness” scale developed by Wright, Burt, and Strongman (2006) were also performed. The goodness of fit results obtained from the analysis was compared with Wright et al. (2006) in comparison with DFA analysis. Demographic variables were determined as age, gender, education, marital status, management, and professional experience. In this study, Mann Whitney U-Test and Kruskal Wallis H-Test were used to analyzing the differences between demographic variables and workplace loneliness. Other studies on demographic variables of workplace loneliness were also included. According to the analysis results, no significant difference was found between the loneliness and demographic variables determined in this sample. According to these findings, established hypothesis H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 were rejected. The comments about the results were interpreted in the related title and results section. Again, the findings are supported by previous researches and discussed in the conclusion. In the conclusion part, suggestions were given to future studies and information about the limitations of the research was also given.

Keywords

Workplace loneliness, social companionship, emotional deprivation, validity, demographics variables