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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disseminating <strong>organizational</strong> information, I argue that advice ties that will be most important in<br />
shaping employees’ interpretations <strong>of</strong> what happens in organizations, and therefore will be<br />
important in shaping employees’ POS. This is because employees go to their advice ties to get<br />
information that helps them to make sense <strong>of</strong> the organization, while they go to friends for<br />
counseling and companionship (Fisher, 1982). Indeed, a study <strong>of</strong> newly-hired accountants<br />
showed that employees’ advice ties were related to their knowledge <strong>of</strong> the organization, while<br />
friendship ties were not (Morrison, 2002). Further, advice ties were related to employees’<br />
perceptions regarding the fairness <strong>of</strong> <strong>organizational</strong> policies and procedures as well as their<br />
beliefs about how fairly they were treated by supervisors (Umphress et al., 2003). By interacting<br />
with others in an advice network, beliefs about the organization will be shared either directly<br />
through discussion <strong>of</strong> <strong>organizational</strong> <strong>support</strong> or indirectly through conversations concerning<br />
other work-related topics. Through this interaction, individuals involved in advice relationships<br />
are exposed to others’ beliefs about <strong>organizational</strong> <strong>support</strong>.<br />
Hypothesis 1: An employee’s <strong>perceived</strong> <strong>organizational</strong> <strong>support</strong> will be positively related<br />
to the <strong>perceived</strong> <strong>organizational</strong> <strong>support</strong> <strong>of</strong> coworkers with whom that employee has<br />
strong advice relationships.<br />
Like advice ties, I argue that employees will adopt similar perceptions <strong>of</strong> <strong>support</strong> to those<br />
<strong>of</strong> their role-model advice ties. Such ties provide information about treatment provided by the<br />
organization. However, the fact that these advice ties also serve as role models is significant<br />
because employees emulate the perceptions, attitudes and behaviors <strong>of</strong> role models. When<br />
employees are uncertain about how to interpret the treatment that they receive from the<br />
organization, the evaluations <strong>of</strong> role model advice ties will be influential, even more influential<br />
than advice ties. The more employees seek out their role models for information or advice<br />
related to <strong>organizational</strong> treatment in the organization, the more similar employees’ evaluations<br />
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