Abstract:

This paper has focused on an uncared issue on the part of human resource management that of homesickness and loneliness. This research emphasizes the importance of addressing blue-collar employees’ homesickness and loneliness at work in terms of their possible effects for work behaviors. Better understanding of these effects is expected to contribute to the organizational behavior literature on a rather neglected topic about expats. The research presents evidence from research on blue-collar employees in Turkey, who are working in an Istanbul based electrical contracting company and coming from other cities. In the study, the relationship among the variables of homesickness, loneliness, performance, and two dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior (altruism and conscientiousness) are examined. Survey method was used to gather data from 150 participants and the analysis was conducted with SPSS 20. According to the results of the study, homesickness and loneliness are positively related and they have been found to negatively affect performance and the two dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior. The moderating role of relatives’ presence in the construction yard was also searched and partial support was obtained. Although employees experienced homesickness in terms of difficulty to adapt to their new environment, they could still demonstrate conscientiousness if they had a relative at workplace. The overall aim of this research was to investigate the concept of homesickness and loneliness in the workplace. Study results are hoped to shed light on issues related to training, and management of stress for employees and developing a supportive network in the organization.

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