Perceived supervisor support: Contributions to perceived organizational support and employee retention.

Three studies investigated the relationships among employees' perception of supervisor support (PSS), perceived organizational support (POS), and employee turnover. Study 1 found, with 314 employees drawn from a variety of organizations, that PSS was positively related to temporal change in POS, suggesting that PSS leads to POS. Study 2 established, with 300 retail sales employees, that the PSS-POS relationship increased with perceived supervisor status in the organization. Study 3 found, with 493 retail sales employees, evidence consistent with the view that POS completely mediated a negative relationship between PSS and employee turnover. These studies suggest that supervisors, to the extent that they are identified with the organization, contribute to POS and, ultimately, to job retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support.

Administered a survey of perceived organizational support (SPOS) to 361 employees (among them postal clerks, financial trust company employees, and manufacturing firm workers) and 71 private high school teachers in 2 studies. Teachers also completed an exchange-ideology questionnaire that measured their belief that work effort should depend on treatment by the organization. Results show that (a) employees in an organization form global beliefs concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being, (b) such perceived organizational support reduces absenteeism, and (c) the relation between perceived organizational support and absenteeism is greater for employees with a strong exchange ideology than those with a weak ideology. These findings support the social exchange view that employees' commitment to the organization is strongly influenced by their perception of the organization's commitment to them. Perceived organizational support is assumed to increase the employee's affective attachment to the organization and his/her expectancy that greater effort toward meeting organizational goals will be rewarded. It is concluded that the extent to which these factors increase work effort depends on the strength of the employee's exchange ideology favoring the trade of work effort for material and symbolic benefits. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commitment and employee behavior: Comparison of affective commitment and continuance commitment with perceived organizational support.

The social exchange view of commitment (R. Eisenberger et al, 1986) suggests that employees' perceptions of the organization's commitment to them (perceived organizational support [POS]) creates feelings of obligation to the employer, which enhances employees' work behavior. The authors addressed the question of whether POS or the more traditional commitment concepts of affective commitment (AC) and continuance commitment (CC) were better predictors of employee behavior (organizational citizenship and impression management). Participants were 383 employees and their managers. Although results showed that both AC and POS were positively related to organizational citizenship and that CC was negatively related to organizational citizenship, POS was the best predictor. These findings support the social exchange view that POS creates feelings of obligation that contribute to citizenship behaviors. In addition, CC was unrelated, whereas AC and POS were positively correlated, with some impression management behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social exchange in organizations: Perceived organizational support, leader–member exchange, and employee reciprocity.

Social exchange (P. Blau, 1964) and the norm of reciprocity (A. W. Gouldner, 1960) have been used to explain the relationship of perceived organizational support and leader–member exchange with employee attitudes and behavior. Recent empirical research suggests that individuals engage in different reciprocation efforts depending on the exchange partner (e.g., B. L. McNeely and B. M. Meglino; see record 1995-15542-001). The purpose of the present study was to further investigate these relationships by examining the relative contribution of indicators of employee–organization exchange and subordinate–supervisor exchange. Structural equation modeling was used to compare nested models. Results indicate that perceived organizational support is associated with organizational commitment, whereas leader–member exchange is associated with citizenship and in-role behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work--family conflict, perceived organizational support, and organizational commitment among employed mothers.

This study investigated the impact of work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) on women's organizational commitment and examined both the direct and moderating effects of their perceive& organizational support. Participants were 143 professional employed mothers with at least 1 preschool-age child. The study found that WIF was positively related to continuance organizational commitment but unrelated to affective commitment, and FIW was not related to either form of organizational commitment. Results also indicated that perceived organizational support exhibited a main effect on both types of commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support for safety and employee safety voice: The mediating role of coworker support for safety.

In the present study, we modeled 2 sources of safety support (perceived organizational support for safety and perceived coworker support for safety) as predictors of employee safety voice, that is, speaking out in an attempt to change unsafe working conditions. Drawing on social exchange and social impact theories, we hypothesized and tested a mediated model predicting employee safety voice using a cross-sectional survey of urban bus drivers (n = 213) in the United Kingdom. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that perceived coworker support for safety fully mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support for safety and employee safety voice. This study adds to the employee voice literature by evaluating the important role that coworkers can play in encouraging others to speak out about safety issues. Implications for research and practice related to change-oriented safety communication are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support, discretionary treatment, and job satisfaction.

A diverse sample of 295 employees drawn from a variety of organizations was surveyed to investigate (a) whether the relationship between the favorableness of job conditions and perceived organizational support (POS) depends on employee perceptions concerning the organization's freedom of action and (b) whether POS and overall job satisfaction are distinct constructs. The favorableness of high-discretion job conditions was found to be much more closely associated with POS than was the favorableness of low-discretion job conditions. No such relationship was found between job conditions and satisfaction. To decide how much the organization values their contributions and well-being, employees distinguish job conditions whose favorableness the organization readily controls versus job conditions whose favorableness is constrained by limits on the organization's discretion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships among organizational family support, job autonomy, perceived control, and employee well-being.

The authors analyzed data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 3,504) to investigate relationships among availability of formal organizational family support (family benefits and alternative schedules), job autonomy, informal organizational support (work-family culture, supervisor support, and coworker support), perceived control, and employee attitudes and well-being. Using hierarchical regression, the authors found that the availability of family benefits was associated with stress, life satisfaction, and turnover intentions, and the availability of alternative schedules was not related to any of the outcomes. Job autonomy and informal organizational support were associated with almost all the outcomes, including positive spillover. Perceived control mediated most of the relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature.

The authors reviewed more than 70 studies concerning employees' general belief that their work organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support; POS). A meta-analysis indicated that 3 major categories of beneficial treatment received by employees (i.e., fairness, supervisor support, and organizational rewards and favorable job conditions) were associated with POS. POS, in turn, was related to outcomes favorable to employees (e.g., job satisfaction, positive mood) and the organization (e.g., affective commitment, performance, and lessened withdrawal behavior). These relationships depended on processes assumed by organizational support theory: employees' belief that the organization's actions were discretionary, feeling of obligation to aid the organization, fulfillment of socioemotional needs, and performance-reward expectancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support: Inferior versus superior performance by wary employees.

Retail employees in Study 1 and employees from multiple organizations in Study 2 completed a questionnaire investigating the moderating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on the relationship of employees' fear of exploitation in exchange relationships (reciprocation wariness) and their in-role and extra-role job performance. When POS was low, reciprocation wariness was negatively related to in-role and extra-role job performance. With high POS, reciprocation wariness was positively related to extra-role performance and either positively related to in-role performance (for retail employees) or showed no reliable relationship with in-role performance (for the multiorganizational sample). In deciding on their work effort, reciprocation-wary employees considered how much the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. Implications for employee–employer exchange relationships and workforce cynicism are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective commitment to the organization: The contribution of perceived organizational support.

Three studies examined the interrelationships among work experiences, perceived organizational support (POS), affective commitment (AC), and employee turnover. Using a diverse sample of 367 employees drawn from a variety of organizations, Study 1 found that POS mediated positive associations of organizational rewards, procedural justice, and supervisor support with AC. Study 2 examined changes of POS and AC in retail employees over a 2-year span (N?=?333) and a 3-year span (N?=?226). POS was positively related to temporal changes in AC, suggesting that POS leads to AC. Study 3 found a negative relationship between POS and subsequent voluntary employee turnover that was mediated by AC in retail employees (N?=?1,124) and in poultry- and feed-processing workers (N?=?262). These results suggest that favorable work conditions operate via POS to increase AC, which, in turn, decreases employee withdrawal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of the role of perceived support and employee commitment in employee-customer encounters.

The authors examined the relationships between perceived organizational support, organizational commitment, commitment to customers, and service quality in a fast-food firm. The research design matched customer responses with individual employees' attitudes, making this study a true test of the service provider-customer encounter. On the basis of a sample of matched employee-customer data (N = 133), hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that perceived organizational support had both a unit-level and an employee-level effect on 1 dimension of service quality: helping behavior. Contrary to affective organizational commitment, affective commitment to customers enhanced service quality. The 2 subdimensions of continuance commitment to the organization--perceived high sacrifice and perceived lack of alternatives--exerted effects opposite in sign: The former fostered service quality, whereas the latter reduced it. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of research on employee-customer encounters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rehabilitation employee organizational withdrawal behavior.

Conducted a selected 6-state follow-up of 85 rehabilitation employees who left state rehabilitation agency settings over a 1-yr period. Little advancement potential, little job satisfaction, stress/burnout, and personality differences were the primary reasons as to why Ss withdrew. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support and police performance: The moderating influence of socioemotional needs.

Police patrol officers were surveyed to investigate how the strength of socioemotional needs affects the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and work performance. The association of POS with driving-under-the-influence arrests and speeding citations generally increased with strength of the needs for esteem, affiliation, emotional support, and social approval. Patrol officers with strong socioemotional needs, but not those with weak needs, showed a positive relationship between POS and performance. The findings are consistent with social exchange views that maintain (a) work effort is encouraged by the receipt of socioemotional resources, (b) POS fulfills a variety of socioemotional needs, and (c) the value of POS and the obligation to reciprocate with high performance increase with the strength of socioemotional needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The moderating effects of employee tenure on the relation between organizational commitment and job performance: A meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis investigated the correlation between attitudinal commitment and job performance for 3,630 employees obtained from 27 independent studies across various levels of employee tenure. Controlling for employee age and other nuisance variables, the authors found that tenure had a very strong nonlinear moderating effect on the commitment-performance correlation, with correlations tending to decrease exponentially with increasing tenure. These findings do not appear to be the result of differences across studies in terms of the type of performance measure (supervisory vs. self), type of tenure (job vs. organizational), or commitment measure (Organizational Commitment Questionnaire [L. W. Porter, R. M. Steers, R. T. Mowday, & P. V. Boulian, 1974] vs. other). The implications and future research directions of these results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of situational constraints, role stressors, and commitment on employee altruism.

This study investigated relations between 3 work-related stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, and organizational constraints) and altruistic behavior in the workplace. It was predicted that each stressor would be negatively related to altruism and that these relations would be moderated by affective commitment (AC). Data from 144 incumbent-supervisor dyads revealed that all 3 stressors; were weakly and negatively related to altruism. Two of these relationships were moderated by AC, although not as predicted. Organizational constraints were positively related to altruism among those reporting high levels of AC but negatively related among those reporting low levels of AC. The pattern was exactly opposite for role conflict. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond the three-component model of organizational commitment.

This article offers a conceptual critique of the three-component model (TCM) of organizational commitment (Allen & Meyer, 1990) and proposes a reconceptualization based on standard attitude theory. The authors use the attitude-behavior model by Eagly and Chaiken (1993) to demonstrate that the TCM combines fundamentally different attitudinal phenomena. They argue that general organizational commitment can best be understood as an attitude regarding the organization, while normative and continuance commitment are attitudes regarding specific forms of behavior (i.e., staying or leaving). The conceptual analysis shows that the TCM fails to qualify as general model of organizational commitment but instead represents a specific model for predicting turnover. The authors suggest that the use of the TCM be restricted to this purpose and that Eagly and Chaiken's model be adopted as a generic commitment model template from which a range of models for predicting specific organizational behaviors can be extracted. Finally, they discuss the definition and measurement of the organizational commitment attitude. Covering the affective, cognitive, and behavioral facets of this attitude helps to enhance construct validity and to differentiate the construct from other constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social support, self-efficacy, and adjustment to abortion.

Prior to their having a 1st trimester abortion, women's perceptions of social support from their partner, family, and friends and self-efficacy for coping were assessed. Depression, mood, physical complaints, and anticipation of negative consequences were measured after the 30-min recovery period. As predicted, perceived social support enhanced adjustment indirectly through its effects on self-efficacy. Women who perceived high support from their family, friends, and partners had higher self-efficacy for coping. Higher self-efficacy, in turn, predicted better adjustment on the psychological measures but not on the physical complaint measure. No direct path between social support and adjustment was observed. In addition, women who told close others of their abortion but perceived them as less than completely supportive had poorer postabortion psychological adjustment than either women who did not tell or women who told and perceived complete support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discriminant validation of measures of job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.

Discriminant validity of measures of job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment was empirically evaluated using data collected from a sample of 577 full-time employees of a 327-bed Veterans Administration Medical Center. The {lisrel vi} computer program was used to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of items from measures of these three concepts and to evaluate relations between other job-related variables and the three attitudinal measures. Results of these analyses indicated that the measures of job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment assess empirically distinct concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment.

In this article, we summarize previous empirical studies that examined antecedents, correlates, and/or consequences of organizational commitment using meta-analysis. In total, 48 meta-analyses were conducted, including 26 variables classified as antecedents, 8 as consequences, and 14 as correlates. Statistical artifacts were found to account for the variance between studies in only one meta-analysis that used attendance. Type of organizational commitment (attitudinal vs. calculative) was proposed as a moderator variable and was found to account for significant between-study variance in 9 of 18 comparisons. Theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to the measurement of various forms of organizational commitment, its interrelations with other forms of attachments, and its role in causal models of behavior in organizations are reviewed. Directions for future research are highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)