a social influence analysis of perceived organizational support
a social influence analysis of perceived organizational support
a social influence analysis of perceived organizational support
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
on their daily tasks. Examining this perspective, Orphen (1994) found that POS was positively<br />
related to work effort <strong>of</strong> employees.<br />
Besides obligating employees to have higher levels <strong>of</strong> performance, POS is expected to<br />
reduce withdrawal behavior in employees. Withdrawal behaviors include absenteeism, turnover<br />
intentions, and turnover. Generally, it is expected that employees who feel <strong>support</strong>ed by their<br />
organizations will be less inclined to leave and seek work elsewhere because <strong>of</strong> the strong<br />
exchange relationship they have with their employer. In addition, employees with high levels <strong>of</strong><br />
POS are expected to help their organizations succeed by attending work consistently. As<br />
expected, Allen et al. (2003) demonstrated that the positive relationship between POS and<br />
<strong>organizational</strong> attitudes makes employees less likely to seek employment with other<br />
organizations. Further, employees with high POS are less likely to intend to quit (Wayne et al.,<br />
1997; Masterson et al., 2000) or be absent from work (Eisenberger et al., 1986).<br />
Summary and Discussion <strong>of</strong> Perceived Organizational Support Research<br />
Figure 1 depicts the extant research on POS. Over the past fifty years, researchers have<br />
examined organizations and employees in the context <strong>of</strong> a rapidly changing business<br />
environment and society, drawing on work from the <strong>social</strong> sciences. Eisenberger’s initial work<br />
on POS drew on <strong>social</strong> exchange theory, the reciprocity norm and attribution theory. Research<br />
examining antecedents and outcomes <strong>of</strong> POS reveals that favorable treatment in the form <strong>of</strong><br />
fairness, <strong>organizational</strong> representatives, and human resource practices creates a felt obligation<br />
within employees to reciprocate favorable treatment by holding attitudes favorable to the<br />
organization and the job and behaving in a manner that helps the organization to reach its goals<br />
(Eisenberger et al., 2001; see Figure 1 for a model summarizing the extant research on POS.).<br />
However, the extant research deals only with the intrapsychic processes that are related to the<br />
26