Relationships Matter Working Group

When a work culture and interpersonal relationships are good, there is no doubt that this can have a therapeutic effect on all members of a team, as well as those turning to those services for help.

“It is vital that person-to-person relationships are acknowledged and valued in every interaction as a fundamental aspect of health and wellbeing. We want people to share their own experiences of their working environments to aid our understanding of the important elements of workplace relationships within this sector."
Dr Maeve Hurley
Relationships in Practice Trainer and Founder of Ag Eisteacht

Since then, the Relationships Matter Working Group has been exploring how we can support practitioners’ relationships with each other. Working with Dr Sinéad Hanifan, we have gathered a panel of health and social care professionals in community settings in Ireland to facilitate further research into how we can support practitioners’ relationships with each other.

Using the Delphi research technique, we have designed a scientifically robust measurement tool – the Workplace Relationship Scale  – to provide an objective assessment of the quality of work-based relationships.

This is now ready, and we are planning the next steps in this project.

Our goal is to enhance our understanding of the impact that interpersonal relationships in the workplace can have on the health and wellbeing of both service providers and users of their services.

  • The Workplace Relationships scale includes 51 items across three stakeholder subscales (co-worker, supervisor, manager).
  • Each subscale can be used separately if required.
  • Statistical analysis shows that this scale has both construct and content validity and has a high-reliability value as measured by Cronbach’s alpha (ranging from 0.876 to 0.964).

If you are interested in learning more about the Workplace Relationship Scale, please contact Sabrina Moris on: fern.higginsatkinson@relationshipsinpractice.ie