a social influence analysis of perceived organizational support
a social influence analysis of perceived organizational support
a social influence analysis of perceived organizational support
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Empirical Measurement <strong>of</strong> Perceived Organizational Support<br />
Following the introduction <strong>of</strong> the POS concept, Eisenberger et al. (1986) tested their<br />
expectation that employees develop global perceptions <strong>of</strong> <strong>organizational</strong> <strong>support</strong> by creating a<br />
measure <strong>of</strong> POS. This measure was an important contribution because it empirically captured<br />
employees’ beliefs concerning the extent to which the organization was committed to them, and<br />
therefore made it possible to test the proposed <strong>social</strong> exchange approach to the employee-<br />
organization relationship.<br />
To develop the POS measure, Eisenberger and colleagues (1986) created thirty-six<br />
statements “representing various possible evaluative judgments <strong>of</strong> the employee by the<br />
organization and discretionary actions the organization might take in diverse situations to benefit<br />
or harm the employee” (501). These statements, labeled the Survey <strong>of</strong> Perceived Organizational<br />
Support (SPOS), were administered to 361 employees in various <strong>organizational</strong> settings.<br />
Employees reported the extent to which they agreed with each <strong>of</strong> the statements using a seven-<br />
point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree.<br />
Results indicated that employees responded to SPOS items in a consistent manner,<br />
demonstrating that employees develop global beliefs regarding the extent to which the<br />
organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. Further, factor <strong>analysis</strong><br />
revealed that items loaded higher on the POS factor than they did on a second factor, indicating<br />
that the scale was unidimensional. To create a scale that could be administered to employees in a<br />
more timely fashion, Eisenberger et al. (1986) selected the seventeen highest-loading items for<br />
the short version <strong>of</strong> the SPOS. The first study assessing the relationship between POS and an<br />
outcome variable (absenteeism) revealed that the reliability coefficient <strong>of</strong> the SPOS was .93<br />
(Eisenberger et al., 1986).<br />
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