Loneliness in the workplace has received relatively little attention in the literature. The research surrounding loneliness tends to focus almost exclusively on personal characteristics as the primary determinant of the experience, and largely ignores the workplace as a potential trigger of loneliness. As such, personality tends to be overestimated as the reason for loneliness, whilst only modest emphasis is given to environmental factors, such as organisational environments. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis was to explore the notion of loneliness in the workplace, with a particular emphasis on examining the antecedents and outcomes of its development in work contexts. The first stage of the research included the development and empirical examination of a scale measuring work-related loneliness. A 16-item scale was constructed and tested for its reliability and factor structure on a sample of 514 employees from various organisations. Exploratory factor analysis indicated two factors best represent the data, namely Social Companionship and Emotional Deprivation at Work. For the main study, a theoretical model was constructed whereby various antecedents (personal characteristics, social support, job characteristics, and emotional climate) were hypothesised to influence the development of work-related loneliness, which in turn was thought to affect employee attitudes and wellbeing. Employees from various organisations were invited to participate in the online research via email, which generated 362 submissions from diverse occupational groups. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to assess the hypothesised model, which was evaluated against a number of fit criteria. The initial results provided limited support for the Loneliness at Work Model. Consequently, a number of adjustments were necessary to obtain sufficient fit. The modified model suggests that organisational climate (comprising climate of fear, community spirit at work, and organisational fit) serves to simultaneously predict the emotional deprivation factor of loneliness (made up of seven items) and employee attitude and wellbeing. The results indicate that environmental factors such as fear, lack of community spirit, and value congruence play a role in the experience of work-related loneliness and have an overall negative effect on employee withdrawal behaviours and job satisfaction. The findings from this study offer insight into possible areas for organisational intervention and future research.

Thesis (MA(Psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Mississippi, 2005. / Adviser: Karen Christoff. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--The Master's College, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-188).

Thesis (M.Sc.) -- Memorial University of Newfoundland. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 40-42. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Leaf iv does not have the abstract. Abstract is missing from this dissertation. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves -179-193). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Leaf iv does not have the abstract. Abstract is missing from this dissertation. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves -179-193). Also available on the Internet.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationships between mobile social media use, personality and loneliness. Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and texting were studied. Undergraduate students (N = 352) were given a survey to assess how they use social media generally, loneliness and personality traits, as well as how they used social media in specific relationships in their life—with a strong, close tie, and with a more casual acquaintance. A state of “phoneliness” is proposed where an individual’s social media use contributes to feelings of loneliness, which then in turn affect social media use. Overall, this study finds evidence to suggest social media have some emotional benefit. The more platforms one uses, the less lonely he or she is likely to be. Each social media application had initial benefits wherein moderate use was associated with decreased loneliness. However, each platform also had a point of diminishing returns (ranging from 30 minutes/day to an hour/day) after which further use either had no effect or was associated with increased loneliness. Results are discussed in light of media multiplexity theory and social presence theory.

Status and organizational position are defining cues that shape how people interact in organizations. For executives, their position in the organization can be a double-edged sword of increased influence, but also of perceived isolation from others. Hence, the longstanding concern of leaders being "lonely at the top." To examine this further, I focus on the leader's developmental network - the constellation of relationships that provide the leader with career and psychosocial support. Extending status characteristics theory, I examine how a leader's organizational position shapes the dynamics of social support, represented by the leader's developmental network. Three independent sources of data were collected: a developmental network survey of top executives (n=227), a multisource survey of the executive's co-workers (n=1008), and performance ratings obtained from the executive's superiors (n=521). Contrary to assumptions of leaders being "lonely at the top", the findings reveal a positive relationship between a leader's organizational position and the strength of the leader's developmental network. This relationship is explained by two distinct mediating mechanisms: (1) a process of social influence, where a leader's position predicts co-worker perceptions of the leader's dominance, and consequently, greater career support; and (2) a process of social connection, where the leader's position predicts co-worker perceptions of the leader's warmth, and consequently, psychosocial support. I discuss the implications of these findings for strengthening developmental networks in organizations and for research on leadership and positive work relationships.

Smartphones are the most personalized and in the meantime the most anthropomorphized computing and communication technology in our society. Existing studies, especially Computers as Social Actors studies, on anthropomorphism and social interactions focus on how to implement and elicit positive anthropomorphic effects but fail to address the motivations and dispositional factors. Through an online survey that incorporates well-tested social psychological scales, this study provides empirical evidences that smartphone users’ social dispositions including chronic loneliness, attachment style, and cultural orientations are associated with their acceptance and awareness of anthropomorphism. Findings in this study suggest that existing studies are limited to method of choice and overlooked how people adapt to communication technologies differently in real life settings. Anthropomorphic design in communication technology and anthropomorphized message in advertising strategies need further examination when targeting a diversified or specified demographic.