Perceived organizational support

Perceived organizational support (POS) is the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being and fulfills socioemotional needs. POS is generally thought to be the organization's contribution to a positive reciprocity dynamic with employees, as employees tend to perform better to reciprocate received rewards and favorable treatment. This idea bloomed from Eisenberger and Rhoades' organizational support theory. Perceived organizational support (POS) is the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being and fulfills socioemotional needs. POS is generally thought to be the organization's contribution to a positive reciprocity dynamic with employees, as employees tend to perform better to reciprocate received rewards and favorable treatment. This idea bloomed from Eisenberger and Rhoades' organizational support theory. According to the POS website: Research on POS began with the observation that managers' concern with their employees' commitment to the organization is positively correlated with employees' focus on the organization's commitment to them. For employees, organizations serve as important sources of socioemotional resources like respect and care, as well as tangible benefits like wages and medical benefits. POS can also be used to offer an explanation for organizational cynicism. Organizational cynicism is related to job satisfaction; it is an attitude toward an organization reflecting one's beliefs about his or her experience as part of the organization. Just as POS explains employees' feelings of value, meaning, identity, etc., it explains employees' feelings of discouragement and distance from their organization. Psychologist James Dean studied employees and found that the biggest cause of cynicism was change that was perceived to be out of the employee's control. Eisenberger and Rhoades found that changes made within the organization were less supported by employees when the changes were perceived to be out of their control. POS is also related to employee commitment, which can be negatively affected by a sense of helplessness in the event of change. In fact, organizational commitment, increased performance, and reduced withdrawal behaviors were found to be most the most strongly related to POS in Levy's study. By studying the relationship between OC and POS, Byrne and Hochwarter found that people who feel high OC may 'negatively construe' POS. POS is higher when employees think that they will benefit directly from an organizational change. Changes and improvements to outside facets of the organization can be under-appreciated if the benefits are indirectly related to the organization in which the employee works. There is a certain value that comes from a tangible benefit. Organizational support theory says that in order to meet socioemotional needs and to assess the benefits of increased work effort, employees form a general perception concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. Such POS would increase employees' felt obligation to help the organization reach its objectives, increase their identification with the organization, and contribute to their expectation that improved performance would be rewarded. Behavioral outcomes of POS would include increased in-role and extra-role performance, increased organizational commitment, and decreased withdrawal behaviors such as absenteeism and turnover. Although there were relatively few studies of POS until the mid-1990s, research on the topic has burgeoned in the last few years. Rhoades and Eisenberger's meta-analysis covered some 70 POS studies carried out through 1999, and over 300 studies have been performed since. The meta-analysis found clear and consistent relationships of POS with its predicted antecedents and consequences. The three common antecedents of perceived organizational support are fairness, supervisor support, and organizational rewards and job condition. When employees perceive that they are receiving fair treatment in comparison to their coworkers, they perceive more support. The equity theory says that employees feel entitled to what they are given as workers based on their inputs to the job. Therefore, fairness can be perceived even if the rewards differ in size, based on employee rank. Fairness can also be described as procedural justice, or the fairness of happenings in the organization. The politics of the organization, or the promoting of self-interest, are often related to employees' perceptions of procedural justice.