Social support at work: An integrative review

Abstract

Summary Social support can have a range of positive outcomes for both employees and organizations. Social support can lead to higher quality relationships, positive affective reactions, and increased individual performance and can buffer the negative effects of stressful demands. The power of social support has led to exponential growth in its investigation as a construct of interest in the workplace. However, this growth has come with several issues, which are the focus of this review. First, the literature is fragmented, with multiple conceptual frameworks employed to predict how social support may function in the workplace. Second, many studies are vague when defining social support, leading to diminished conceptual clarity. Third, there is no generally accepted measure of social support, and we describe problems with the structure and/or use of several commonly used measures. Finally, findings regarding the moderating effect of social support are decidedly mixed, calling into question why this might be so. On the basis of an extensive review of social support at work research, we highlight these issues, discuss how they can impede the advancement of understanding regarding social support in organizational settings, and propose an integrative framework to guide the field forward. Finally, we identify multiple areas for future investigation.

From Social Burden to Support Elicitation: Development and Validation of a New Measure of Workplace Support Elicitation Experiences

“…Social support, defined as "verbal and nonverbal communication between receiver and provider that reduces uncertainty about a situation, one's self, another, or a relationship" (Sias, 2009, p. 70), is an important aspect of social relationships in the workplace. Social support research has predominantly focused on the perceived availability or the reception of social support (Jolly et al, 2020). Recent research, however, has pointed to the importance of considering the potential costs of social support exchanges, namely the impact of being sought for support or providing support.…”

“…Not much is understood about the other actors in the exchanges (e.g., those being asked for support, those providing support). Indeed, a recent review of social support research from Jolly et al (2020) concludes by highlighting the need to explore alternative perspectives of the workplace social support process.…”

“…When colleagues provide support to the support requester, the latter employee becomes the support recipient and is likely to enjoy positive outcomes (e.g., Viswesvaran et al, 1999). Research on the availability and reception of social support are dominant in the social support literature, whereas potential and actual support perspectives require further research (Jolly et al, 2020). Moving forward, we will focus on the potential support provider perspective, briefly surveying interdisciplinary research on support elicitations before detailing the research on social burden and what is known about the potential costs and demands associated with experiencing elicitations for social support at work.…”

“…COR theory is a motivational framework that explains why people behave or feel the way they do when stressed, with the key assumption being that people strive to acquire, maintain, and protect their resources (Hobfoll, 1989(Hobfoll, , 2001. It is often used to explain the costs and benefits associated with social support processes (in that social support often creates resource reservoirs; Jolly et al, 2020), and helps explain the divergence in outcomes we anticipate between SEE-E and SEE-I. According to COR theory, psychological stress occurs in three ways: when 1) resources are lost, 2) resources are not regained after they are invested, and 3) resources are threatened with loss. When elicited for support, potential support providers are likely to evaluate the form of the elicitation as well as the costs and benefits of the potential support response, and these evaluations factor into whether the elicitation is experienced as a potential threat to one's resources.…”

Well—That was a surprise!

“…The last three articles in this year's ARCDI focus on making the workplace more positive for employees (and should reduce turnover contagion). In “Social support at work: An integrative review,” Jolly, Kong, & Kim (2021) review the literature on social support, which has been shown to improve workplace relationships, boost positive affect, and increase individual performance. Based on their review, they propose an integrative framework to guide future research on social support.…”