A growing body of research demonstrates the importance of social factors in the work environment. While inadequate social relationships in the workplace can be a significant psychosocial risk to mental health, quality interpersonal relationships can contribute to a number of positive outcomes and act as a preventive against negative outcomes. A more detailed understanding of needs that employees experience in their relationships at work can be provided by Erskine's model of relational needs, which has not yet been studied in the work environment. Erskine describes relational needs as needs that can only be met by an appropriate response from another person and as present in all relationships and throughout the entire life cycle. In my master's thesis, I focused on relationships between coworkers. I adapted the general Relational Needs Satisfaction Scale (LZRP) to the context of relationships with coworkers, examined the factor structure of the concept of relational needs in the workplace and its connections with different aspects of work. The sample of 273 participants includes employees and students in a work setting with coworkers. In addition to existing questionnaires, the online questionnaire included the Workplace Relational Needs Satisfaction Scale (LZRP-DO) and the Work-related Basic Needs Satisfaction Scale (W-BNS), which I translated and adapted into Slovene. The results show that the newly developed LZRP-DO is a valid and reliable tool for measuring the satisfaction of relational needs in relationships with coworkers. A bifactor model was the most suitable for describing the data, confirming the previously supported 5-factor structure (Protection and support, Initiative from the other, Authenticity, Having an impact, Shared experience) and the general factor. Higher satisfaction of relational needs in the work environment was connected with higher job satisfaction, work engagement, motivation and lower burnout, which supports the importance of quality interpersonal relationships among employees. The study represents an important contribution to the exploration and validation of the concept of relational needs and is its first application to the work environment. The LZRP-DO demonstrates research potential for establishing links with other aspects of the work environment and possibilities of practical use for preventive and intervention purposes.
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