a social influence analysis of perceived organizational support

to integrate these views, I consider the strength of ties under two different assumptions: the
assumption that only frequent contact is an indicator of tie strength, and the assumption that both
frequent contact and reciprocity represent tie strength.
Hypotheses
In this dissertation, I argue that advice ties between employees will be related to
similarity in POS because they serve as a source of social information. Friendship ties, on the
other hand, will result in similarity in POS because they are utilized for social comparison.
When an employee’s friend shares his or her beliefs about how he or she is treated by the
organization with the employee, that information may serve as signal to the employee about how
the employee is treated by the organization (Felson & Reed, 1986). Finally, role models will
result in similarity in POS because employees learn from the perceptions, attitudes, and
behaviors of role models. In addition, ties that are strong should be more highly associated with
POS because they are characterized by frequent interaction, and, when reciprocal, information
sharing. I also expect that multiplex ties, such as advice-role model ties and friend-advice-role
model ties, will be particularly influential with respect to similarity in POS because they will
serve as a source of social information, social learning, and/or social comparison (See Table 1
for a summary of the hypothesized relationship in this study).
Table 1: Hypothesized Relationships Between Network Ties and POS
Tie Type Strength Theoretical Framework Outcome
H1 Advice Strong Social Information Processing Positive Relationship w/POS
H2 Advice- Strong Social Information Processing Positive Relationship w/POS
Role Model
and Social Learning
H3 Friendship Strong Social Comparison Positive Relationship w/POS
H4 Friendship- Strong Social Information Processing, Positive Relationship w/POS
Advice-
Social Comparison, and Social
Role Model
Learning
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