.....organisational environment can be an important source of wellbeing for individuals. This is particularly true if the environment encourages social interactions. Indeed, literature has demonstrated that social interactions in an organisation are crucial for generating positive emotions, which may in turn contribute to desirable employee outcomes such as lower cases of interpersonal conflict, reduced absenteeism, increased loyalty, and higher productivity (Biggio & Cortese, 2013). The connection between positive employee outcomes and positive organisational outcomes cannot be understated. Humans are naturally social beings, and their contact with others is as important as food and other basic needs. Since majority of adults spend a substantial portion of their life at work, the organisational environment is crucial for promoting individual wellbeing. It provides an ideal breeding ground for positive relationships. However, it is unfortunate that most organisations are yet to realise the value of social interactions. The widespread cases of unhappiness at the workplace attest to this. It is important for organisations to view social interaction at the workplace as a vital driver of employee wellbeing.An important factor that influences the nature of social interactions at the workplace is culture. Culture, which denotes the beliefs, values, norms, and practices common to a certain group of people, generally dictates the group's behaviour, perceptions, and attitudes (Henrich, 2015). It influences how people interact with one another, how they create relationships, how they communicate, how they conduct work, their approach to solving problems, and so on. Culture affects literally every aspect of human life. This means that the nature of social interaction in an organisation...

In an individualistic culture, for instance, relationships revolving around non-work issues may not be prevalent as individuals would tend to be more focused on work as opposed to social relationships. On the contrary, social relationships in a collectivist culture may be more widespread as individuals tend to value group cohesion. Therefore, culture may affect the value attached to social interactions at the workplace.
Question 2

Though literature reports mixed findings, it is increasingly argued that cultural diversity can be an important driver of organisational performance in today's world. Nonetheless, it is quite unclear whether cultural background predicts individual productivity. Generally, cultural background influences the behaviour, perceptions, values, beliefs, and attitudes of an individual (Torelli et al., 2014). Does this mean that individuals from certain cultures tend to be more productive at the workplace than others? Would an individual of European background be more productive than an individual of Chinese background, or vice versa? There is no tangible evidence to demonstrate that cultural background predicts employee productivity. Literature extensively shows that employee productivity is often driven by factors relating to the work environment such as working conditions, compensation, leadership and management style, organisational culture, interpersonal relationships, career-growth opportunities, as well as management support (Alias, Rasdi & Ismail, 2013). Employee productivity may further be driven by factors unique to the individual such as personality, character, determination, and work experience.

Even so, the influence of cultural background…