The supervisor POS–LMX–subordinate POS chain: Moderation by reciprocation wariness and supervisor's organizational embodiment

Abstract

SummaryWe present three studies providing an increased understanding of the interdependence between perceived organizational support (POS) and leader–member exchange (LMX). Using employees from a social service agency and new hires from a variety of organizations, we report evidence for a relational chain leading from supervisors' perceptions of support by the organization (supervisor POS) to the formation of high‐quality LMX relationships with their subordinates (first link), who interpret high‐quality LMX as support from the organization (subordinate POS, second link) and, ultimately, repay the organization with increased dedication and effort (examined here in terms of reduced withdrawal behavior). The relationship between supervisor POS and LMX with subordinates was strongly moderated by supervisor fear of exploitation in exchange relationships (reciprocation wariness), holding only for supervisors with low reciprocation wariness. Consistent with the view that employees perceive the organization as partly responsible for treatment received from supervisors, LMX was found to be more strongly related to POS when employees highly identified their supervisors with the organization (supervisor's organizational embodiment), and this interaction extended to reduced withdrawal behavior. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The influence of transformational leadership on followers’ affective commitment

“…The moderating effect of SOE in the relationship between transformational leadership and POS with consequences for affective commitment is in agreement with prior results on SOE reported by Eisenberger and his colleagues (Eisenberger et al, 2010;Eisenberger et al, 2014;Shoss et al, 2013). In conjunction with the present findings, the empirical evidence gathered so far on SOE indicates that the more employees perceive their supervisor to share a common identity with the organization, the more employees attribute their supervisor's treatment to the organization.…”

“…Therefore, following Becker's (2005) recommendation, we control only for age in the analyses we ran in order to reduce model complexity. Furthermore, as explained above, given the results previously found by Eisenberger and his colleagues (Eisenberger et al, 2010;Eisenberger et al, 2014), we decided to control for leader-member exchange and its interaction with SOE. To measure leader-member exchange, we used the 7-item scale of Graen and Uhl-Bien (1995).…”

“…In the same vein, Shoss et al (2013) showed that, to the extent SOE was high, employees' abusive supervision was related to reduced POS, which in turn was associated with increased counterproductive work behavior and reduced performance. Finally, Eisenberger et al (2014) recently found that leader-member exchange is more strongly related to POS when employees highly identified their supervisors with the organization (i.e., high supervisor's organizational embodiment), and this interaction extends to reduced withdrawal behavior.…”

“…Respondents rated their agreement with each statement using a 5-point Likert-type scale (1=not at all; 5=frequently if not always).SOE. In line with the measure used byEisenberger et al (2014) andShoss et al (2013), we relied on 5 items to assess employees' SOE. Four items were taken from the original scale developed by Eisenberger and his colleagues (2010) (e.g., "My supervisor is representative of my organization").…”

Perceived Organizational Support for Enhancing Welfare at Work: A Regression Tree Model

“…Indeed POS seems characterized by specific psychological processes: the reciprocity norm, —the employee's felt obligation to care about the organization's welfare and to help the organization reach its mission—, the fulfillment of socio-emotional needs—leading employees to identify positively in the organization—, the development of beliefs that the organization recognizes and rewards increased performance (i.e., performance-reward expectancies; Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002; Eisenberger et al, 2014; Kurtessis et al, 2015). …”