perceived organizational support thesis

The effects of perceived organizational support on employees’ sense of job insecurity in times of external threats: an empirical investigation under lockdown conditions in China

• Original Article
• Published: 24 March 2023
• Volume 22 , pages 1567–1591, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Luyang Zhou 1 , 2 ,
• Shengxiao Li 2 ,
• Lianxi Zhou 3 ,
• Hong Tao   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5274-0196 1 , 2 &
• Dave Bouckenooghe 4  

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This study examines how perceived organizational support (POS) can be leveraged to provide employees with guided responses to disruptive events. Specifically, this study addresses a previously overlooked yet practically relevant aspect of POS—its communicative role in managing employees’ feelings of job insecurity. Drawing on the social identity perspective and research on individuals’ psychological states of uncertainty, we argue that POS can have both direct and indirect influences on the sense of job insecurity in times of external threats. With this in mind, we used COVID-19 and resulting lockdowns in China as specific context examples of a disruptive event to administer a two-wave lagged survey measuring POS, perceived control, lockdown loneliness, and job insecurity. Theoretical arguments are put forward regarding organizational support for fostering individuals’ social identity and emotional well-being under deeply disruptive work situations. Overall, this study offers insights into how managers may develop risk management and organizationally adaptive practices.

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Introduction

Disruptive events have been on the rise in recent years, spinning from labor disputes and demonstrations to the shortage of global supply chains and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Gustafsson et al., 2021 ; Lin et al., 2021 ; Oehmen et al., 2020 ). Unfortunately, organizations have little influence or control over the occurrence of these adverse events (Hartmann & Lussier, 2020 ). As the impact of the current COVID-19 disruption demonstrates, the toolbox for organizational adaptive responses needs to be updated and further developed (Butt, 2021 ; Haak-Saheem, 2020 ; Henry et al., 2021 ; Liu et al., 2020 ). The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has spread long-lasting anxiety among communities and has fostered a general sense of insecurity at the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural levels, dramatically disrupting everyday life and business activities (Debata et al., 2020 ; Horn et al., 2021 ; Probst et al., 2020 ). Under these circumstances, an unprecedented magnitude of uncertainty has been experienced collectively regarding the threats and challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak. From a conceptual point of view, experienced uncertainty can derail how individuals respond to external threats and shape how they adapt themselves to their organizations’ responses to disruptive events (e.g., Liu et al., 2022 ; Slaughter et al., 2021 ; Tuan, 2022 ).

To our knowledge, few studies thus far have investigated the impact of organizational adaptive practices on employees’ responses to external threats under high levels of uncertainty (Oehmen et al., 2020 ). In response, the current research examines the communication function of perceived organizational support (POS) in relation to employees’ emotional responses, as well as perceived job insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989 ; Dutton et al., 2010 ) was used along with prior research on emotions under the state of uncertainty (Slaughter et al., 2021 ). The social identity perspective, as it relates to employee identity and identification in the organization, is often used as a theoretical lens to explain different forms of work-related identities and organizational outcomes (Dutton et al., 2010 ). POS has been shown to manifest itself in communicative functions for supportive work conditions and reinforcement of the socioemotional needs of employees (Brown & Roloff, 2015 ; Neves & Eisenberger, 2012 ). Additionally, POS has often been linked to organizational response strategies and management communication effectiveness, especially in cases when employees are exposed to disruptive events (Gustafsson et al., 2021 ; Kurtessis et al., 2017 ). Drawing from this line of research, the underlying role of POS in how employees respond to external threats from workplace disruptions was examined.

External threats can trigger high levels of fear of uncertainty, which has negative repercussions for individuals’ well-being and ontological insecurity—that is, a person’s sense of “being” in the world (Campbell et al., 2020 ). We believe that POS can manifest itself in the working life of employees in disruptive situations of uncertainty by fostering the employee’s emotional attachment and identification with the organization (Slaughter et al., 2021 ). For instance, a state of uncertainty that is experienced as threatening to the self instills a stronger reliance on emotions (or affective inputs) that are closely linked to the self (Faraji-Rad & Pham, 2017 ). That is, when a threatening situation emerges, there is automatically greater adaptive attention to the self (Campbell et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, a sense of uncertainty also stimulates information-seeking behaviors (Fung et al., 2018 ; Huang & Yang, 2020 ; Kahlor, 2010 ). In this context, organizations can arguably be positioned as a more authentic source for information seeking in the face of a disruptive external threat and, thus, fulfill a key role in shaping affectively driven inputs to ward off the fear of uncertainty. Interestingly, cross-cultural research has suggested that in the case of exposure to external threats, perceived organizational support is more receptive in Eastern cultures, for employees are culturally more likely to see the self as interdependent. Additionally, they are more attuned to organizational support as an identity-related cue (Rockstuhl et al., 2020 ).

The effects of disruptive events and psychological states of uncertainty could be contingent upon the perception of being in control (e.g., Brown & Siegel, 1988 ; Klein & Helweg-Larsen, 2002 ; Thompson et al., 1993 ). The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked extreme uncertainty and substantial fear among people, particularly during lockdowns and other social restrictions (Brodeur et al., 2020 ). As such, it is important to consider the contingent role of internal locus of control on how POS translates into employees’ responses to disruptive situations. Individuals with high perceived control are more likely to maintain an active mindset, triggering more pronounced adaptiveness to organizational efforts for alleviating disruptive situations. In general, it is anticipated that organizations can leverage the role of POS in shaping individuals’ affective inputs (that is, lockdown loneliness under the COVID-19 pandemic), which leads to their subsequent judgments of job insecurity, a particularly important facet of ontological insecurity in deeply unsettling work situations. Henceforth, such causal relationships may be contingent on the perceived locus of control over the threatening nature of the phenomenon (Morgeson et al., 2015 ).

The context for this study entails survey data collected from two waves during the lockdown periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. The goal of the study is to unravel the POS effects on employee responses to such disruptive events in the Chinese context. In doing so, we deepen our understanding of POS literature and more specifically enhance our insights into management’s adaptive practices aimed at fostering employees’ social identification in Eastern cultures (Rockstuhl et al., 2020 ). In short, the disruptions and uncertainties that have arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic offer an excellent field context to illustrate how insights from research on organizational support help to improve our understanding of employees’ job insecurity.

Theoretical background

Perceived organizational support (POS) refers to an employee’s general perception about the organization’s readiness to respond to their socioemotional needs and value their contributions to the organization (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002 ). The concept of POS was developed to explain the development of employee commitment to an organization (Eisenberger et al., 1986 ). To date, a large body of research shows that POS has a considerable impact on a wide range of organizational outcomes, including employees’ increased job satisfaction, productivity, and psychological well-being (Kurtessis et al., 2017 ). A core perspective adopted to explain POS effects is social identity theory (e.g., Ashforth & Mael, 1989 ; Tajfel, 1978 ). According to social identity theory, the key role of POS is in building the self-identification of the employee with the organization (or organizational identification) that matters in developing organizational commitment (Lam et al., 2016 ). Rockstuhl et al. ( 2020 ), drawing on a cross-cultural meta-analysis of POS effects, found that the social identity perspective offers a solid explanation for POS effects in the context of Eastern cultures. In a broad sense, organizational identification refers to an individual’s psychological attachment to an organization (Ashforth & Mael, 1989 ) and mirrors the underlying link or bond that exists between the employee and the organization (Dutton et al., 1994 ). One central assumption seems that when people receive favorable identity-relevant cues from membership in an organization, they are more likely to internalize organizational values that can help them to act in ways that benefit the organization (He & Brown, 2013 ).

The centrality of being well informed about organizational issues and the emphasis on one’s role as an important member in contributing to the organization’s success shape employees’ development of emotional intimacy and feelings of self-worth with the organization. Such emotional attachment translates into increased organizational identification (Sguera et al., 2020 ; Smidts et al., 2001 ). Hence, management communications will signal an organization’s approval, care for, and respect to its employees and offer important cues for employees’ identity formation and sensemaking of POS effects (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002 ; Yue et al., 2021 ). In this regard, employees who perceive their organization as supportive are likely to incorporate organizational membership into their social identity. Perceived support helps to encapsulate attention to relational ties that bind people together (Dutton et al., 1994 ). Additionally, in cultures that promote vertical collectivism, these relationship-based identities are more likely to be salient in explaining POS effects (Rockstuhl et al., 2020 ). Drawing from these studies, this paper intends to finetune the understanding of how POS shapes employees’ sense of job insecurity under disruptive situations.

Research hypotheses

The direct effect of perceived organizational support on job insecurity.

When people’s normal and anticipated lives are disrupted, they experience insecurity, uncertainty, and anxiety (Freedy et al., 1994 ). Disruptions can shake people’s confidence in “the continuity of their self-identity and the constancy of their social and material environment of action” (Giddens, 1991 , p. 92), resulting in ontological insecurity. Giddens ( 1991 , p. 37) describes ontological security as a “person’s fundamental sense of safety in the world and includes a basic trust of other people,” and obtaining this trust is “necessary in order for a person to maintain a sense of psychological well-being and avoid existential anxiety.” The extent to which people experience ontological insecurity is associated with feelings of job insecurity, particularly when the workplace is disrupted in unforeseen ways (Lin et al., 2021 ). Job insecurity in this sense reflects a perceived threat to the continuity and stability of employment as it is currently experienced (Shoss, 2017 ). While the fear of losing one’s job can be imaginative and visualized under external threats (Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984 ), the perception of job insecurity is not just about financial losses, but also encompasses the emotional and affective aspects of the threat to self-identity in the workplace, particularly in the Asian context (Rockstuhl et al., 2020 ). For this reason, organizations may find themselves in the position to help employees better cope with the negative emotional arousal of job insecurity by reestablishing organizational identification and trust in a world that is perceived as stable and predictable (Gustafsson et al., 2021 ).

POS qualifies as a socioemotional need for affiliation, self-control, and psychological support, which are all valued aspects that contribute to psychological resilience and subjective well-being (Baran et al., 2012 ). In this regard, POS manifests itself as a key communicative function for supportive work conditions and reinforcement of the socioemotional needs of employees (Brown & Roloff, 2015 ; Neves & Eisenberger, 2012 ). This communicative function becomes more critical in times of major organizational changes (Gigliotti et al., 2019 ) or crisis situations (Callison & Zillmann, 2002 ). Extending the communicative function of POS, an organization may foster employees’ sense of security, as manifested by providing emotional comfort, facilitating problem resolution, and reinforcing social attachment (Bowlby, 1988 ; Feeney & Collins, 2015 ). By redirecting individuals’ attention to organizational identification, POS enables employees to make sense of their social environment and their position within it and guides their behavior and evaluations (Ashforth & Mael, 1989 ; Dutton et al., 1994 ). In view of the heightened threats and uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is argued here that POS serves as an important social resource for creating a sense of social identity that helps alleviate people’s psychological depletion of cognitive and emotional resources during prolonged lockdowns (e.g., Faraji-Rad & Pham, 2017 ). By fulfilling a restored sense of collective good and organizational identity, POS is likely to reduce employees’ perception of job insecurity in times of external threats. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Perceived organizational support (POS) leads to a decreased level of employees’ sense of job insecurity in times of external threats.

Emotional well-being as a mediating path

Emotional well-being refers to one’s ability to produce positive emotions, moods, thoughts, and feelings and adapt in the face of adversity and disruptive situations (Slaughter et al., 2021 ). It entails emotional states and self-appraisal over external threats and uncertainty. Job insecurity is related to multiple health outcomes, including but not limited to psychological strain and subjective well-being (Campbell et al., 2020 ; Cheng et al., 2012 ; Shoss, 2017 ). When job security is at risk, people tend to experience heightened levels of uncertainty draining their emotional well-being (Campbell et al., 2020 ). Despite these insights, relatively unchartered territory remains the study of how uncertainty-triggered emotions relate to felt job insecurity in times of external threats. In this context, Faraji-Rad and Pham ( 2017 ) noted that uncertainty triggers people’s greater attention to the self-relying on their momentary feelings, moods, and emotions to reaffirm the self-status. This research suggests that feelings of fear and uncertainty increase people’s reliance on affective inputs in making meaningful connections to the self. Interestingly, such reliance on feelings may also improve people’s ability to predict future outcomes (Pham et al., 2012 ). Hence, emotional well-being should be especially valuable in gauging one’s sense of job insecurity under external threats and uncertainty.

Relevant to the external threat of the COVID-19 outbreak, people have experienced global lockdowns and closures of nonessential business as part of efforts by governments to stymie the spread of the virus. These widespread lockdowns have caused a great deal of depression, loss of freedom of movement, social isolation, anxiety, and loneliness, compounded by uncertainty about work in the shape of fears about future job prospects and heightened feelings of job insecurity (Debata et al., 2020 ; Probst et al., 2020 ). In particular, the so-called lockdown loneliness or the situational emotions of anxiety, fear, and social isolation that accompany lockdown experiences (Cable, 2020 ; Luchetti et al., 2020 ) have been at the top of the mental health crisis during periods of pandemic disruption (Brodeur et al., 2020 ; Hamermesh, 2020 ). Henceforth, lockdown loneliness is considered a specific state of emotional well-being and how the indirect relationship between POS and employees’ sense of job insecurity can be explained through this emotional state is examined.

Organizations have an important role to play in offering a supportive role to employees when social isolation and its negative impact on psychological well-being risks spiraling over to the workplace (Bentley et al., 2016 ). Organizations provide access to resources, which help employees cope with external threats and challenges. In the case of the loss of such resources or the threat of losing resources, an enormous strain is placed on coping abilities to deal with challenging and stressful situations (Palmwood & McBride, 2019 ). As a considerable amount of resources is consumed when individuals cope with traumatic events, the impact of resources on psychological well-being in times of a crisis is particularly relevant. With their fundamental socioemotional needs fulfilled, individuals with ample resources are more likely to be able to adapt and cope with the psychological distress caused by disruptive traumatic events, whereas individuals with limited or depleted resources are even more psychologically vulnerable to the adverse consequences of trauma caused by such events. In this context, as threatening as COVID-19 is, it is the availability of resources that determines people’s emotional coping with the uncertainties caused by the pandemic. In a situation such as COVID-19, social support in the form of POS is very relevant to helping employees cope with emotional discomfort by restoring their sense of the self in relation to organizational identification. Based on the above observations, we argue for the salient and impactful role of affective inputs in judgment and behaviors under states of uncertainty (Faraji-Rad & Pham, 2017 ), translating the impact of POS on job insecurity through the mediating role of lockdown loneliness. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Lockdown loneliness mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and employees’ sense of job insecurity.

The contingent influence of perceived control

Perceived control is defined as the belief in one’s ability to exert control over situations or events (e.g., Lee et al., 1990 ; Skinner, 1996 ; Spector, 1986 ) and has a rich research tradition. Multiple theories have attempted to identify the underlying processes that explain the emergence of perceived control, as well as the power of the locus of perceived control on human functioning, such as mental health and behavioral actions (e.g., Ajzen, 2002 ; Brown & Siegel, 1988 ; Rotter, 1966 ; Skinner, 1996 ).

Common to these theories is the notion that there is a fundamental psychological need and desire for control over one’s situation and that there are processes (or means) to enact that control (Liu et al., 2012 ). Advanced arguments point to the importance of understanding perceived control as a more generalized and powerful way of thinking about individual-environment dynamics, particularly relevant to coping with adverse situations or negative life events (Hobfoll, 2002 ; Klein & Helweg-Larsen, 2002 ).

Perceived control has instrumental value to assist people in coping with the strain from a traumatic event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Hobfoll, 1989 , 2011 ). The coping function of perceived control is pivotal in mitigating the effect of stressful events on health outcomes (e.g., Poon, 2003 ; Schmitz et al., 2000 ). For instance, Schmitz et al. ( 2000 ) found that the relationship between stressors and burnout was stronger among nurses who attributed protection from an aversive event to a less stable external origin (lack of perceived control) in comparison to those who attributed the cause of protection to the self or an internal origin. Similarly, Poon ( 2003 ) noted that perceived control moderates the effect of organizational politics on job stress and the intention to quit. The adverse effects of organizational politics on job stress and turnover intentions only occurred when employees reported low levels of perceived control.

Recognizing the central role of perceived control in mental health, studies have suggested that attributions of negative life events to uncontrollable causes are likely to shape feelings of anxiety, stress, and psychological well-being (Brown & Siegel, 1988 ; Kehner et al., 1993 ). In the case of a traumatic large-scale event, the attribution of protection against its detrimental impact is often a function of the event’s characteristics rather than stable internal characteristics. As it stands, an event becomes severe and threatening to the self when it is perceived as novel, disruptive, and critical (Morgeson et al., 2015 ). Additionally, the same event can be interpreted and responded to very differently by different individuals (Lin et al., 2021 ). Low levels of perceived control may be indicative of resource depletion, causing a negative loss spiral and thus making it more difficult for people to adapt and embrace supportive social conditions (e.g., organizational support). In contrast, individuals who perceive the external threat as temporary and more controllable (i.e., high levels of perceived control) may maintain an active mindset, leading them to be more adaptive to organizational efforts toward alleviating disruptive lockdown loneliness (or improving emotional well-being). Based on the above, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Perceived control over an external threat moderates the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and lockdown loneliness, such that the relationship is more pronounced when perceived control is high versus low.

Research context

Our research framework was tested in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two-wave lagged survey data were collected during the periods of pandemic lockdowns across different regions in China. COVID-19 has caused enormous disruptions to the taken-for-granted norms, beliefs, and routines that comprise our experiences of the world in general and the workplace in particular (Brammer et al., 2020 ; De Massis & Rondi, 2020 ; Liu et al., 2020 ; Spicer, 2020 ). Given its magnitude and scale of disruptiveness, COVID-19 represents an opportunity for scholars to develop a more nuanced understanding of managerial actions and implications with regard to threats caused by catastrophic events.

Survey description and procedure

The survey design started soon after the COVID-19 outbreak in China. To mitigate sampling bias, a proportionally stratified probability sampling approach was used. Using the respective numbers of infected COVID-19 cases across different regions of China as of July 29, 2020 (the time when the first-wave survey was conducted), our target population was divided into three strata. The first stratum was Hubei Province (with the epicenter Wuhan city included), where the COVID-19 pandemic was the most severe, reporting 68,135 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province and representing 77.7% of the 87,680 total cases of infection in China. The Province’s permanent resident population of 2019 was approximately 4.2% of the Chinese population. The second stratum consisted of provinces of moderate severity, including Guangdong, Henan, Zhejiang, Hunan, Anhui, and Heilongjiang. By July 29, 2020, there were a total of 7177 confirmed COVID-19 cases in these provinces, 8.2% of the total cases in China, with each province having approximately 1000 cases or more. The permanent resident population of this stratum in 2019 was approximately 31.5% of the total Chinese population. The third stratum represented all other provinces of the lowest severity. By July 29, 2020, there were a total of 12,368 confirmed COVID-19 cases in this stratum, accounting for 14.1% of the total cases in China. The permanent resident population of this stratum in 2019 was approximately 64.3% of the total Chinese population.

Taking the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and the population proportions in the above three strata into account, we targeted approximately 20% or 400 observations collected in the first stratum and approximately 40% or 800 observations in the second and third strata. Since the severity of the pandemic varied enormously across these three strata, our sampling method would reasonably ensure that respondents in the survey were better represented across major regions in China. While each stratum was involved in different levels of lockdown restrictions, national protocols were strictly implemented regardless of the location.

Two specialized data service companies (GrowthEase and WJX) in China were commissioned in administering the surveys. A total of 2157 online questionnaires were completed, with a valid sample of 1805 observations. Breaking down the data, 358 (19.8%) respondents were taken from the first stratum, 745 (41.3%) from the second stratum, and 702 (38.9%) from the third stratum, providing a good representation of the target population. Additionally, the data collection procedure had protocols in place to guarantee that all respondents were employed at the time of the lockdown, had experienced the pandemic lockdowns and were employed during the period of disruption.

This study relied on psychometrically robust scales to measure the core constructs. Unless otherwise noted, the response anchors for all measurement items had five-point Likert formats ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Table 1 offers a more detailed description of the scales used.

• Perceived organizational support

A 4-item scale was adapted to measure POS by referring to the research on thriving through adversity and communicative functions of POS (Brown & Roloff, 2015 ; Feeney & Collins, 2015 ). This scale yielded excellent internal consistency (Cronbach α  = .858).

Lockdown loneliness

A 5-item scale for lockdown loneliness was adapted based on the scale for measuring loneliness by Hughes et al. ( 2004 ) and Schrempft et al. ( 2019 ). Related to our conceptualization, these measures mostly reflect emotional well-being during the lockdowns. The reliability for this scale was very good (Cronbach α  = .880).

• Job insecurity

This variable was adapted from Anderson and Pontusson ( 2007 ) and Carr and Chung ( 2014 ) using a 4-item scale to measure employees’ sense of job insecurity under the COVID-19 lockdown. The multi-item scale demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach α  = .884).

• Perceived control

Perceived control over the COVID-19 pandemic was measured with a 5-item scale adapted from previous studies (e.g., Frazier et al., 2011 ; Mirowsky & Ross, 1991 ; Newsom et al., 1996 ). The scale reflects people’s beliefs about the controllability of the novel coronavirus, as well as their ability to control threats and uncertainties. This scale yielded excellent reliability (Cronbach’s α  = .851).

Control variables

The different regions in our sample implemented different levels of lockdown restrictions. These differences might affect the hypothesized relationships of interest and therefore should be controlled for. The variables included are lockdown status (full restrictions vs. semi restrictions), work status (working from home vs. not working temporarily), family companions, gender, age, levels of education, and income.

Control for common method variance

To minimize potential concerns about common method variance (CMV), attention was paid to the research design and data collection phases, as suggested in the literature. Following the suggestion of Podsakoff et al. ( 2003 ), statistical testing for the presence of CMV was conducted. Harman’s single-factor test, using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), showed that a single factor accounted for 30.21% of the covariance among the measures, below the threshold of 50% (Harman, 1976 ). As an extension of Harman’s single-factor test (e.g., Fuller et al., 2016 ), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test whether all the variables specified in the study loaded onto one common factor. The fit of the one-factor CFA model (CFI = .444, TLI = .332, χ 2 (65) = 7135.373) was compared with that of our four-factor measurement model (CFI = .984, TLI = .979, χ 2 (59) = 260.408). The four-factor CFA model generated a significantly better fit (ΔCFI = .540, ΔTLI = .647, Δ χ 2 (6) = 6874.965, p  < .001), reducing concerns about the potential for CMV (Lattin et al., 2003 ).

In addition, we also applied a CFA marker procedure by Williams et al. ( 2010 ). The method factor is a conceptually unrelated marker variable, namely, a 12-item mindfulness scale (Cronbach’s alpha = .795), developed by Feldman et al. ( 2007 ). According to Williams et al. ( 2010 ), the marker factor loadings are forced to be equal in the Method-C model and are freely estimated in the Method-U model, while in the Method-R model the substantive factor correlations are restricted to values obtained with the Baseline Model. As shown in Table 2 , the latent marker variable effects were significant (Δ χ 2  = 22.049, Δ df  = 1, p  < .001, Baseline vs. Method-C), and CMV was significantly different for all the indicators (Δ χ 2  = 218.783, Δ df  = 12, p  < .001, Method-C vs. Method-U). Comparing the Method-U and Method-R models showed that the marker variable did not significantly bias factor correlation estimates (Δ χ 2  = 11.703, Δ df  = 6, p  > .05, Method-U vs. Method-R), thus providing further evidence for alleviating concerns about CMV.

Analyses and results

Assessment of the measurement model.

Prior to testing the hypothesized framework, the measurement model was assessed in terms of construct reliability and convergent and discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981 ; Hair et al., 2010 ). Construct reliability reflects internal consistency in scale items measured by composite reliability. As shown in Table 1 , all composite reliability scores were acceptable. Convergent validity refers to the extent to which measures of a specific construct “converge” or share a high proportion of variance in common (Hair et al., 2010 ). Consistent with the recommendations in the literature (e.g., Hair et al., 2010 ), factor loadings and average variance extracted (AVE) were examined for convergent validity. The results showed that the factor loadings are strongly related to their respective constructs, with standardized loadings all above the .70 threshold (Hair et al., 2010 ). The AVE for each construct varied from .647 to .716 and thus exceeded the .50 threshold (Fornell & Larcker, 1981 ). Overall, these tests offered strong support for the convergent validity of the scales used in this study.

To establish discriminant validity, or the extent to which a construct is truly distinct from other constructs (Hair et al., 2010 ), the amount of variance captured by the construct (AVE) and the shared variance were compared with other constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981 ). In support of discriminant validity, all AVE estimates were greater than the corresponding interconstruct squared correlation estimates. In addition, the measurement model was adequate, CFI = .984, TLI = .979, RMSEA = .043, 90% C.I. of RMSEA = [.038, .049], SRMR = .024, \({{\chi^{2} } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\chi^{2} } {df}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {df}}\)  = 4.414, p  < .001. Finally, the descriptive statistics and correlations between the constructs are displayed in Table 3 .

Structural model evaluation

To test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling (SEM) and latent moderated structural equations were conducted (LMS, Klein & Moosbrugger, 2000 ) using Mplus 8.3. We first estimated the mediation-effect-only model, that is, excluding the interaction effect (i.e., POS × Perceived Control), which yielded a satisfactory model fit, CFI = .960, TLI = .953, RMSEA = .045, 90% C.I. of RMSEA = [.042, .049], and SRMR = .054, \({{\chi^{2} } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\chi^{2} } {df}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {df}}\)  = 4.665, p  < .001. Next, we estimated the complete model with the interaction effect included. Adding the interaction significantly improved the model fit (− 2ΔLL = 13.396, Δ df  = 1, p  < .001) (Gerhard et al., 2015 ). Footnote 1 As shown in Fig.  1 , POS had a significant, negative effect on job insecurity ( c  = − .181, p  < .001), suggesting that perceived organizational support helps alleviate employees’ sense of job insecurity and thus confirms Hypothesis 1. Moreover, in support of Hypothesis 2, the mediation effect of POS on job insecurity via lockdown loneliness ( a 1 ×  b  = − .075, p  < .001) was obtained. POS improves lockdown loneliness ( a 1 = − .165, p  < .001), which in turn shapes one’s sense of job insecurity ( b  = .455, p  < .001).

Structural estimates of research model. Notes a 1 ×  b is the mediating effect of POS on job insecurity through lockdown loneliness. a 2 ×  b indicates that the moderation effect is mediated via lockdown loneliness

Furthermore, the results also indicated that the interaction between POS and perceived control had a significant, negative effect on lockdown loneliness ( a 2 = − .093, p  < .001). In support of Hypothesis 3, the results suggest that the impact of POS on lockdown loneliness was more pronounced as perceived control increased. More interestingly, we also observed a moderated mediation via lockdown loneliness for the perception of job insecurity ( a 2 ×  b  = − .043, p  < .001). To further assess the pattern of the moderating effect, we used subgroup analysis. The sample was divided into two groups based on a median split (e.g., DeCoster et al., 2011 ). The low (high) perceived control subgroup comprised respondents below (above) the median. The Wald test of parameter constraints within Mplus indicates that the effects of POS on lockdown loneliness between the low and high perceived control groups were significantly different (− .095 vs. − .314, low vs. high perceived control; \(\chi^{2}\)  = 14.859, df  = 1, p  < .001). For a further understanding of the pattern, Fig.  2 graphically illustrates the moderation effect of POS and perceived control on lockdown loneliness. At low levels of perceived control (1 SD below the standardized mean), the regression line was tilting to the higher right; at high levels of perceived control (1 SD above the standardized mean), the regression line tilted to the lower right.

Graphical illustration of the moderating effects of perceived control

Follow-up robustness test

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, China has continued to implement stringent restrictions and regional lockdowns in highly affected areas. During the second wave of the lockdown period in Xi’an city from December 2021 to January 2022, the second round of data was collected using a similar sampling approach and survey questionnaire as described earlier. GrowthEase, one of the two data service companies used previously, were commissioned to administer the online survey. A total of 1680 questionnaires were completed, with a valid sample of 1460 respondents. All the respondents confirmed that they were living in Xi’an city, experiencing the lockdown, and were employed during the pandemic. Next, these data were used to test the robustness of the original findings.

First, the convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement scales were assessed with the Xi’an dataset. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the measurement model was adequate, CFI = .987, TLI = .983, RMSEA = .043, 90% C.I. of RMSEA = [.037, .049], SRMR = .026. All items loaded high onto their respective constructs and were statistically significant ( p  < .001). The composite reliability of the constructs ranged from .848 to .921, the average variance extracted (AVE) ranged from .653 to .760, and Cronbach’s alphas ranged from .842 to .919.

Next, the LMS method was used to estimate the structural equation model. In line with the previous results, POS had a significant negative effect on lockdown loneliness ( a 1 = − .186, p  < .001), lockdown loneliness resulted in a significant positive effect on the perception of job insecurity ( b  = .466, p  < .001), and the mediation effect of POS on the perception of job insecurity via lockdown loneliness was also significant ( a 1 ×  b  = − .087, p  < .001). These findings suggest that both the direct and indirect effects of POS on job insecurity (via lockdown loneliness) remain statistically significant and as impactful as before. However, the interaction between POS and perceived control on lockdown loneliness was not significant ( a 2 = .022, p  = .604). Furthermore, no significant mediated moderation effect was detected ( a 2 ×  b  = .010, p  = .605). These findings may suggest that the event impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer perceived as novel and critical, as observed in the first wave of data collection.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major global challenges for organizations and has impacted their need to learn to adapt rapidly (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020 ; Cooke et al., 2021 ; Horn et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2020 ). As the event impact made abundantly clear, there is a set of external threats that occur irregularly and unpredictably; these include natural disasters, foreign invasions, civil war, and rapid economic, institutional, and technological changes. External threats are much harder for businesses to anticipate and control for, yet they are often extremely disruptive to people’s lives and can have catastrophic consequences for industries and companies. With this in mind, organization studies should go beyond the contemporary circumstance mindset and help organizations to be better prepared for other disruptive events that may occur in the future. In view of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its allied consequences for employees in terms of perceived ontological insecurity and employment uncertainty, the role of perceived organizational support (POS) was examined in managing employees’ sense of job insecurity.

Mainly drawing on social identity theory and supportive findings from research on emotions under psychological states of uncertainty, it is argued that POS as a favorable social identity cue helps to mitigate the fear of threats to the self and, as such, leads to an improved sense of job insecurity. Alternatively, POS may help to foster individuals’ reliance on emotions and other affective inputs in assessing job insecurity under disruptive uncertainty. As such, lockdown loneliness, as a specific manifestation of emotional well-being, is a pivotal mediating mechanism in explaining the impact of POS on job insecurity. As people likely respond to the same external threat to varying degrees and have different beliefs in their ability to exert control over the situation (Lin et al., 2021 ; Morgeson, 2005 ), the variable of perceived control was incorporated into the framework and its moderating influence on the effect of POS on lockdown loneliness was identified. Based on two-wave lagged survey data collected during lockdowns across multiple cities in China, the proposed research framework was largely confirmed, offering support for a range of important theoretical contributions and practical implications.

Theoretical contributions

The current study has several important theoretical contributions. First, the research provides an emerging perspective on organizational adaptive practices to external threats. Specifically, by focusing on event-induced ontological insecurity and employees’ concerns with workplace disruption, the framework offers useful insights into the role of POS in managing organizational responses to employees’ socioemotional needs and reactions in times of threats and challenges. Although POS has been widely studied in the literature, we believe that it is important to further deepen its theoretical relevance in the context of disruptive events. The approach brings the social identity perspective and uncertainty-based emotions to the forefront, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the psychological underpinnings of POS effects. Additionally, the adopted perspective appears more salient for Eastern cultures, where social identity theory has been found to be a more pivotal theoretical framework to account for POS effects (Rockstuhl et al., 2020 ). In general, this study has paved the way for future work to uncover the interplay surrounding organizational adaptive practices and employees’ reactions to disruptive situations.

Second, the majority of previous research has shown a direct relationship between employees’ job insecurity and their psychological well-being under contemporary circumstances (Shoss, 2017 ). Scholars have shown that job insecurity has detrimental consequences for employees’ mental health and affective commitment to the organization. However, what has been largely overlooked is emotional inputs in shaping employees’ sense of job insecurity. As the disruptiveness of the COVID-19 pandemic continues globally, the focus on addressing people’s emotional well-being has emerged as a top priority (Brodeur et al., 2020 ; Hamermesh, 2020 ). As the adverse impact on psychological well-being caused by the pandemic goes well beyond an organization’s control, the ability of an organization to prepare for, respond, and adapt to disruptive events can help establish ways to foster employees’ psychological resilience. In this regard, this research contributes to the theoretical development of affective inputs in response to event uncertainty in relation to employees’ sense of job insecurity.

Third, we demonstrated that an individual’s perceived control over disruptive events matters when modeling organizational adaptive responses to external threats. People who consider a disruptive event to be external and controllable tend to have an active mindset in searching for event-relevant information (Huang & Yang, 2020 ). Hence, they are likely to be more approachable to organizational support in challenging or threatening times. Relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent research suggests that individuals respond to the same disruptive event to varying degrees with respect to event novelty, disruption, and criticality, resulting in different interpretations of the event, as well as subsequent levels of perceived job insecurity (Lin et al., 2021 ). In brief, accounting for event characteristics in the form of perceived control represents an important integration of previous literature on POS effects and research on emotions under external uncertainty.

Practical implications

Navigating external disruptions, organizations that have embraced digital technologies for virtual collaboration and business practices as the new normal are more likely to be well positioned to sustain the challenges of the future workplace (Papadopoulos et al., 2020 ; Shah et al., 2020 ). The ability to adopt a ‘new’ normal requires organizations to build a stronger and more resilient response mechanism that can help employees adjust to ever-changing and disruptive circumstances while simultaneously caring for their physical and mental well-being (Caligiuri et al., 2020 ; Hu et al., 2020 ). In this context, an important resource at organizations’ disposal is organizational support, with an important communicative function role that extends into building an organizational platform that strengthens physical and mental health among its employees (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020 ). More specifically, the pandemic has offered a great opportunity for organizations to display their human side by offering tools and solutions that help foster emotional well-being and organizational identification. For instance, building a digital workplace signifies organizational support in the shape of the commitment of organizations to connect with their employees and illustrates their concern and care for their employees’ well-being and resilience in disruptive times (Gigauri, 2020 ).

In view of our findings, POS can foster not only social identity with the organization, but also regulate emotional well-being (or lockdown loneliness under the pandemic context) and, as such, offers an important resource for employees to withstand unexpected stressful changes in the external environment. When employees are faced with increasing emotional instability due to unexpected events, it is essential that organizations promote well-being through measures of precaution and provide leadership that encourages aspirations of thriving through adversity (Brown & Roloff, 2015 ; Feeney & Collins, 2015 ). This means that POS should go beyond the traditional approaches of care and social exchange functions. In doing so, the focus should be on cultivating self-regulatory resources and social identity cues. Furthermore, our findings also demonstrate the contingent conditions of perceived control for a better understanding of the effectiveness of organizational support, especially in times of uncertainty. Hence, individuals’ interpretations and reactions to disruptive situations should not be underestimated, especially when external threats are perceived as novel, disruptive, and critical (Lin et al., 2021 ; Morgeson et al., 2015 ).

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an abrupt shift from the traditional ‘office workplace’ to working from home during the pandemic, turning remote work into a permanent feature of the new occupational landscape (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020 ; Donthu & Gustafsson, 2020 ; Kaushik & Guleria, 2020 ). Adapting to this new reality, and given our observations, when redesigning or crafting jobs, it is desirable to integrate aspects, such as emotional management and psychological well-being, into the narrative (Kniffin et al., 2021 ). For instance, a transition to telework or other alternative work arrangements will require thoughtful leadership to adapt to the new normal by focusing on the communicative function of POS for building organizational resilience (Brown & Roloff, 2015 ).

Limitations and future research

There are several limitations associated with this study. The first-wave data were collected a few months after the nationwide lockdown in China. Hence, the retrospective nature of the data might suffer from retrieval bias in respondents (Huber & Power, 1985 ). To address this retrospective aspect of the survey, participants were asked to “think aloud” about what they experienced (Kuusela & Paul, 2000 ). In a follow-up robustness test of the model, we collected “experienced” data during the second wave of lockdown. In the follow-up study, the moderating role of perceived control was no longer significant—somehow different from the observations made in the first wave. It appears that risk perceptions changed and collectively evolved as the coronavirus pandemic progressed over time. Taken together, our results suggest that event characteristics and individuals’ interpretations are relevant to theory development for organizational adaptive practices to external threats (Lin et al., 2021 ).

Another concern entails common method variance (CMV), which cannot be completely ruled out due to the nature of the data. However, it should be noted that attempts were undertaken to limit its effects at the research design stage. Additionally, statistical tests were conducted to alleviate the concern of CMV. Despite the limited potential for CMV, future research should attempt to corroborate the causal relationships in our research model by engaging in creative research designs (e.g., lab experiments) to validate the underlying theoretical processes.

Similar to the observation above, another potential drawback is the cross-sectional design of this study, which may have failed to map the effects of within-subject variation in experienced perceived control, lockdown loneliness, and job insecurity. Longitudinal designs could test for such variability and offer more insights into the causality of the relationships between the core variables. Finally, further investigation concerning the generalizability of the findings to other country contexts or unexpected life events should occur. Unlike many other countries, China implemented some of the most stringent and prolonged national COVID-19 lockdowns that shaped the perception and experience of lockdown loneliness. Notwithstanding potential cross-country differences, lockdown loneliness has been widely considered a global phenomenon; therefore, the study’s findings offer an important platform for future research that helps to advance our knowledge about ways to cope with the negative impacts of adverse events on psychological well-being.

The overall goodness-of-fit of our hypothesized model was further tested with other alternative model specifications. Model 1 included direct effects only pertaining POS and perceived control, respectively, to lockdown loneliness and job insecurity. Model 2 included both the direct effects of POS on lockdown loneliness and job insecurity, and the interaction effects of POS × perceived control onto lockdown loneliness and job insecurity. According to Williams and Holahan ( 1994 ), among the parsimony-based fit indices for multiple-indicator models, the AIC value performed the best—the lower AIC indicates a better balance of model fit with parsimony. We found that the overall goodness-of-fit of these alternative models (AIC = 58,202.865 for Model 1; AIC = 58,189.597 for Model 2) were all inferior to that of our hypothesized model (AIC = 58,041.627).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief and the reviewers for their insights and guidance in helping us improve the quality of the paper. The assistance provided by Lin Huang and Wenting Xiao of WJX and Hui Liao, Wei Wei, and Jiehao Wu of GrowthEase was greatly appreciated. We are also grateful to the assistance in data analysis provided by Professor Mengcheng Wang of Guangzhou University.

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Zhou, L., Li, S., Zhou, L. et al. The effects of perceived organizational support on employees’ sense of job insecurity in times of external threats: an empirical investigation under lockdown conditions in China. Asian Bus Manage 22 , 1567–1591 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-023-00219-4

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Perceived organizational support and job satisfaction: a moderated mediation model of proactive personality and psychological empowerment

• Annum Tariq Maan 1 ,
• Ghulam Abid 1 ,
• Tahira Hassan Butt 1 ,
• Fouzia Ashfaq 2 &
• Saira Ahmed 3  

Future Business Journal volume  6 , Article number:  21 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Drawing on social exchange theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of psychological empowerment and moderating role of proactive personality in the relationship between POS and job satisfaction. The data were collected from 936 employees working in various manufacturing and service sectors by using self-report survey questionnaires by employing time-lagged cross-sectional study design. The study findings demonstrate that POS positively influenced psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. Moreover, it is also revealed that the relationship between POS and job satisfaction is weaker when employees’ proactive personality is higher rather than lower. The findings of the current study pose a framework for organizational representatives of both service and manufacturing industries to strengthen individual psychological empowerment and job satisfaction by offering organizational support to those individuals who are less proactive.

Introduction

A long-lasting employment bond comprises positive social exchange approaches in employee–employer relationship whereupon the needs of both parties are addressed [ 40 ]. In the exchange relationship, the employer is worried about the employees’ devotion, engagement and trustworthiness toward them, while employees are conscious about whether their employer is keeping their promises by caring their well-being [ 48 , 61 ]. The theory of organizational support and construct of perceived organizational support (POS) was developed by Eisenberger and his research fellows in [ 26 , 27 ] using social exchange theory [ 15 , 37 , 40 ]. POS is defined as the perception of employees about the degree to which their contributions at organizations are valued, which implies that their associated well-being is given full consideration [ 5 , 26 , 61 ]. The organizational support theory states that individuals form POS, a universal faith that their employer has an advantageous or a disadvantageous inclination toward them [ 40 , 61 ]. Literature also confirms that individuals’ POS helps boost their obligations toward organization in order to reciprocate favorably. Furthermore, they also want to satisfy their socioemotional needs and incorporate organizational affiliation into their social identity [ 21 , 29 ]. In addition, extant literature has shown that individuals’ POS enhances both in-role performance such as goal attainment and extra-role performance such as helping and supportive behavior toward coworkers [ 29 ].

By utilizing social exchange theory as its grounding, researchers have begun to study POS in interpersonal connections with organizations and recognized it as a vital ingredient in subordinate–manager relations [ 65 ]. Meta-analysis conducted by Rhoades and Eisenberger [ 61 ] revealed the favorable treatments such as rewards from the organization, beneficial working conditions and fairness received by employees are directly linked to POS. Moreover, POS promotes auspicious outcomes such as high job satisfaction, lower turnover, enhanced dedication, positive emotions and better performance [ 77 ]. Multi-foci methods to social exchange have highlighted the significance of many sources of support, according to which individuals develop distinct give-and-take relationships with different organizational objectives [ 51 ]. The positive association of POS with job satisfaction, performance, organizational commitment and turnover intention has gained attention in number of employee–organization-related studies [ 30 , 74 ]. Similarly, the outcomes that are relevant to organizational support are job satisfaction, innovative work behavior, learning goal orientation, core self-evaluations and organizational commitment [ 1 , 59 , 71 , 74 , 78 ]. Furthermore, the literature reveals that organizations achieve favorable outcomes if workers feel superior treatment within the organization [ 74 ].

Based upon the theoretical perspective of social exchange theory, the current study proposes that psychological empowerment influences the behavior of employees by facilitating them in preserving high-quality relationships. We suggest that psychological empowerment works as the intervening variable that links the POS with the job satisfaction. Psychological empowerment is defined as the perception of employees regarding the degree of their competence, influence and autonomy toward work environment and meaningfulness of their job [ 62 ]. It is the procedure by which employees achieve mastery and control in their lives, and develop a sense of critical understanding toward dealing their situation [ 12 , 55 ]. Researchers Chang and Liu [ 17 ], Savery and Luks [ 63 ], Laschinger and Finegan [ 50 ] contended that empowered employees at the workplace have increased personal, political and interpersonal powers that enhance their physical and mental health. Thus, another purpose of the current study is to investigate the linkage between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction via the mediating role of employees’ psychological empowerment. However, the understanding of the work context that enables empowerment has significant practical and theoretical implications [ 16 ], but we do not know how and why this is the case. This research also examined whether and how proactive individuals might be a boundary condition for the impact of POS on psychological empowerment. In addition, it explored how the overall mediation process differs under various proactive personality levels.

Proactive personality refers to the tendency of individuals to take initiatives for establishing a positive environment [ 10 , 22 , 70 ]. Usually, people with a proactive personality are able to create positive change in the workplace environment irrespective of the hurdles and constraints faced by them [ 62 ]. Proactive personality research shows that proactive behavior influences meaningful changes in the workplace setting [ 10 , 44 ]. Researchers contend that proactive individuals are most probably ready for employment-related changes, given their predisposition to identify and respond to the job opportunities and make such changes that match with their interests at job [ 44 , 68 ]. In support of this reason, experiments have shown that proactive individuals can effect vocational adaptability through situations and samples [ 38 , 44 , 53 , 68 , 69 ]. However, there is vague understanding of the underlying mechanisms concerning how these effects arise. Examining these mechanisms probably offers counselors and psychologists with substitutes for intervention in the future [ 44 ]. For example, from these types of mechanisms, these experts probably gain comparatively advanced understandings concerning whether and how proactive employees feel psychologically empowered.

Psychological empowerment represents an employee’s active and lively orientation to their respective role assigned at workplace, whereby empowered employees see their work environment as somewhat which can be shaped by their actions [ 66 ], which arouses their creative behavior [ 41 , 79 ], whereby it serves as a mediator that transmits the impact of proactive individuals to job satisfaction. Thus, this study aims at exploring how contextual characteristics such as POS can be associated with job satisfaction in general. Secondly, psychological empowerment is considered as an important mediating mechanism between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction. Furthermore, proactive personality moderates the relationship between perceived organizational support and psychological empowerment.

Research in organizational behavior draws our attention on a narrow range of job-related attitudes, and POS is one of them. In establishing the proposed associations in the model, the current research represented an attempt to contribute toward literature in number of different manners. The theoretical underpinning of POS is organizational support theory [ 29 , 48 ], which is also based upon social exchange relationship and attribution methods [ 15 , 73 ]. Organizational support scholars argued that employees tend to monitor their situations and make attributions for generous behaviors of organizations [ 26 ]. It is given that individuals tend to personify their respective organizations and consider positive and negative treatments which they receive from organizational heads as their perception of being favored or disfavored by organizations as well [ 65 ]. Research in the field organizations contended that there is a reciprocal relationship between individuals and organizations. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the organizational support given to the individuals besides focusing on just employee side of this relationship [ 20 ].

The tenets, attitudes and aspirations of each employee vary; therefore, motivational elements may be different too. POS can improve individuals’ trust and beliefs that the organization identifies their performance and reward them accordingly [ 61 , 72 ]. As a consequence, individuals will reciprocate [ 9 ] the organizational support received by them in several ways and possibly will experience more satisfaction with their job. Therefore, the underlying purpose of the current study is to study the influence of perceived organizational support on job satisfaction.

Secondly, it examines whether psychological empowerment is well incorporated in POS and job satisfaction linkage. Psychological empowerment enables employees to participate in decision making and help in sorting out organizational problems by providing them independence and control [ 34 ]. For many years, scholars have examined behavioral consequences of psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment fosters high-quality relationship by motivating an individual’s behavior.

Thirdly, this study corroborates the impact of proactive personality and proposes that it weakens the relationship between POS and psychological empowerment. Proactive personality demonstrates the willingness and the tendency of an employee to go above and beyond their job requirements to exhibit extra-role performance [ 75 ]. Henceforth, this research is important to explore and gain insights on the relationship between POS and job satisfaction via the mediating role of psychological empowerment in Asian context. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, the influence of proactive personality as a moderator has not been examined on the relationship between POS and psychological empowerment (Fig.  1 ).

Theoretical model

Literature review

Perceived organizational support and job satisfaction.

Armstrong-Stassen [ 7 ] explained that individuals’ behavior is influenced by their opinion about fundamental processes that constitute their organization and POS is among them. Few scholars have revealed a strong linkage between POS and job satisfaction [ 23 , 30 , 33 ]. In a longitudinal study conducted by Armstrong-Stassen [ 7 ], it was observed that managers who enjoy high levels of POS reported elevated levels of job satisfaction as compared to managers who supposed to enjoy lower organizational support. The potential description of this outcome is that POS can enrich individuals’ trust and beliefs that their employer identifies and recompense their struggles to accomplish superior performance [ 61 ]. Research suggests that POS starts a social exchange process where individuals feel liable to support the organization in accomplishing its goals which leads to greater rewards. When an employee associates positively with their job and organization, this strengthens the association between them and within the realms of social exchange theory [ 14 ]. As a result, individuals reciprocate organizational support through numerous ways and are more satisfied with their jobs. It is given that employees with POS sense an intrinsic compulsion to be socioemotionally devoted to the work and the organization as well. Thus, they are highly loyal and satisfied with their job and organization [ 36 ]. On the basis of the above discussion, it is proposed that:

Hypothesis 1

POS is positively related to job satisfaction.

Mediating role of psychological empowerment

Those individuals who perceive organizational support toward a working situation are likely to experience psychological empowerment [ 32 ]. Psychological empowerment is a bundle of circumstances that allows individuals or groups to think that they have a grip over their work [ 39 ]. An empirical support has been found about the direct association between POS and job satisfaction [ 76 ]. It has been discussed that when individuals experience empowerment, they recognize that their job is important and they can make decisions by their own. They see that their work effects the organizational effectiveness, which in turn advances job performance [ 18 ] and satisfaction. It is suggested that prudent organizations give power to its workforce by making them involve in decision making, which makes them believe that their work is meaningful [ 49 ]. A recent study has shown that employees’ psychological empowerment is a source of competitive edge for organizations [ 56 ].

It is demonstrated that the employees who receive organizational support show more satisfaction toward their job and have lower turnover rate [ 49 ]. A recent study demonstrated that psychological empowerment works as an essential force that intervenes in the association between POS and job satisfaction [ 8 ]. Many researches on social exchange [ 2 ] and the norms of reciprocity [ 37 ] emphasize that employees feel obligated and are ready to assist their coworkers as well as their employers. Similarly, empowered individuals consider themselves as a significant part of the organization, are competent in accomplishing their goals, experience a sense of hold on their job and are involved in activities that affect the organization in a positive way [ 6 ]. In the same vein, previous research suggests that when individuals perceive high levels of psychological empowerment, it is highly probable that they feel motivated and dedicated toward their job responsibilities [ 56 ].

Furthermore, psychological empowerment works as the key motivator of the individuals’ job satisfaction and previous findings have exhibited the positive association between job satisfaction and psychological empowerment [ 46 ]. In sum, it is believed that the individuals, who perceive that their organizations recognize their contributions, will feel a greater sense of psychological empowerment, which in return is linked to high job satisfaction [ 32 , 49 ]. Thus, it is hypothesized as:

Hypothesis 2

Psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between POS and job satisfaction.

Moderating role of proactive personality

Specifically, the organizational support theory posits that individuals define their work contributions found on the degree to which they think that their organization is conscious about their welfare. When individuals observe that they are appreciated and employer backed them up, in return they tend to involve in desired actions such as they actively learn, exhibit supportive behavior, show commitment toward their organization and providing beneficial solutions. Individual characteristics such as personalities have an important role in affecting how individuals POS as well as how they act. The proactive, imaginative and tough character of adjustable individuals permits them to obtain these capabilities on their own and take organizational support [ 25 ].

By encouraging organizations to be more socially concerned about positive job–family links, workplace circumstances play a proactive role in outlining the vital job and societal consequences [ 47 ]. Psychologically empowered workers proactively carry out their work responsibilities [ 66 ]. A research revealed that highly proactive individuals are engage more in constructive behaviors such as learning, fabricating a promising work situation, recognizing avenues to grow [ 70 ].

In particular, proactive individuals are skillful at developing and maintaining positive give-and-take dealings in the working environment [ 52 ]. Therefore, it has been anticipated that proactive individuals with a powerful fundamental force may react to organizational support more favorably than inactive individuals [ 75 ]. Psychological empowerment enhances an individual’s self-efficacy and the capability to influence one’s job environment, promotes proactive behaviors and creative behavior and lets one to perform freely [ 19 ].

Organizational support theory advocates that employees’ work effort is based upon how much their employing organization is conscious about them and their comfort [ 61 ]. The employees consider that they are valued and favored at work and then most probably involved in organization’s desired behaviors, including helping others, learning keenly, stay with the organization for longer tenure and offering useful suggestions [ 61 ]. Previous research shows that individual differences like proactivity can play as a major force behind affecting how individuals perceive organizational support and behave [ 4 , 75 ].

Help and opinion from interaction with colleagues can deliver precious support to individuals when learning organizational prospects, team rules, grasping work information and adapting social norms of the organization [ 13 ]. It is given that highly proactive individuals are unrestricted by situational hindrances and are competent enough to bring changes to enhance their position in organizations [ 11 ].

Employees with proactive, resourceful and strong nature acquire and use support from their organization [ 25 ]. By modifying office environment to be more socially supported by having strong ties, employment perceptions play a proactive role that determines social outcomes [ 47 ].

Moreover, proactive employees also get involved in extra-role organizational behaviors such as designing a constructive working environment and recognizing new avenues [ 52 ]. It further helps management in developing such work circumstances where employees consider themselves empowered enough to proactively involve in sustainability behaviors [ 49 ]. By integrating the above arguments, it is argued that proactive individuals do not need organization support as they can choose, build and manipulate work conditions in their favor rather than taking organization help. Consequently, proactive personality fades the association between POS and psychological empowerment, as the less organizational support, the more proactive employees will be and the more they will be psychologically empowered. Subsequently, it is proposed that

Hypothesis 3

Proactive personality moderates the relationship between POS and psychological empowerment, such that this relationship is stronger when proactive personality is low rather than high.

Research methods

Sample and procedure.

Data were collected from practitioners belonging to various job functions (e.g., administration, corporate services, engineering, construction works, information and communication technology, education, public relation and media) from both services and manufacturing organizations located in the Punjab province of Pakistan. For sample selection, purposive sampling was utilized in order to get responses from the information-rich cases by proper utilization of available means [ 31 ]. Moreover, in order to minimize the effect of common method bias, data were collected from participants in two waves (one-month gap between both the time waves) [ 58 ] through self-administered questionnaires prepared in English language as English is considered as the medium of communication across these organizations. The participants were asked to fill out the questionnaire for perceived organizational support and proactive personality at Time 1 (T1). One month later, data were collected at Time 2 (T2), where participants were asked to fill up the questionnaire for psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. The data were collected from the target respondents in a natural setting without any interference from the researcher.

By keeping in mind the possibilities of missing data and nonrespondents, our team approached 1200 full-time employees from manufacturing and services organizations. In response, we received back 1186 questionnaires, from which 936 were completed and valid; besides that, those with incomplete and missing data were removed from the analysis.

In the sample of 936 respondents, the majority were from services industries (821, 87.7%) and the remaining respondents belong to manufacturing industries (103, 11.0%); 651 participants were male, while 285 were females (30.4%). The average age of the respondents was 29.68 years (SD = 7.24) with average education level of 15.67 years (SD = 1.51). The average length of time spent with current organization was 5.06 years. In addition, the majority of the respondents were singles (501, 53.5%).

For measuring the study variables, well recognized and most extensively used scales were adopted from the previous studies.

Perceived organizational support Perceived organizational support was measured using eight-item scale developed by Eisenberger et al. [ 28 ]. Employees were requested to assess the degree of their perceived organizational support by using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. One of sample items is “My organization strongly considers my goals and values,” and its internal consistency was 0.88.

Job satisfaction We measured overall job satisfaction by a single-item scale developed by Scarpello and Campbell [ 64 ] that assessed participant’s satisfaction with their current job on seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = not at all to 7 = very much. The item for overall satisfaction is “Do you mostly enjoy your work in this organization.”

Psychological empowerment To measure psychological empowerment of employees, 12-item scale was used by Spreitzer [ 66 ]. The sample item is “The work I do is very important to me,” and it is measured on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The internal consistency for this scale was 0.85.

Proactive personality Proactive personality was measured using 5-item scale developed by Janssen et al. [ 43 ]. Employees were asked for their proactive personality using a six-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = very strongly disagree to 5 = very strongly agree. The sample item is “wherever I have been, I have been a powerful force for constructive change,” and its internal consistency was 0.76.

Control variables We controlled for several potentially relevant variables including thriving at work (joint connection of learning and vitality), age (1 = less than 20 till 6 = 60 and above), gender (1 = male, 2 = female), marital status (1 = single, 2 = married, 3 = widow, 4 = divorced), education level (1 = graduate, 2 = postgraduate, 3 = doctorate) and tenure (1 = 0–5 till 5 = 21 and above). Previous research indicated that particularly age, marital status and years of experience significantly correlate with job satisfaction [ 45 , 54 ]. It is purported that gender differences should be given due consideration in the attitude–performance equation in the domain of organizational studies, as Crossman and Abou-Zaki [ 24 ] also suggested that job satisfaction level among males is generally more than females. The educational level is also critical as the employees with different educational levels exhibit diverse attitudes and satisfaction level at work [ 3 ]. Employee tenure is controlled due its impact on job satisfaction and POS. Owens et al. [ 57 ] noted that works at their beginning of job or career with particular organization are more excited and energetic about their work.

Data analysis

Frequency analysis was used to determine the demographic characteristics of the sample, descriptive statistics were used for control and study variables, reliabilities of scales were computed and correlation matrix was computed as well. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the construct validity of the measurement model, while regression analysis was used to test the moderated mediation hypotheses and validity of the model.

Table  1 presents the mean, SDs, correlation values and Cronbach’s alphas. Correlation coefficients are in the anticipated directions and provide preliminary support for our study hypotheses. For the control variables, it is examined that the relationship between gender and marital status is negatively significant ( r  = − 0.16, p  < 0.01); age and gender ( r  = − 0.21, p  < 0.01); and tenure and gender ( r  = 0.15, p  < 0.01), and the relationship between tenure and marital status is positively significant ( r  = 0.43, p  < 0.01); that between age and marital status ( r  = 0.59, p  < 0.01) is positively correlated.

POS has a positive and significant relationship with psychological empowerment ( r  = 0.46, p  < 0.01); proactive personality is negatively significant with gender ( r  = − 0.07, p  < 0.05); proactive personality is positively significant with POS ( r  = 0.23, p  < 0.01); proactive personality and psychological empowerment ( r  = 0.26, p  < 0.01). Furthermore, job satisfaction is positively significant with other study variables, job satisfaction with POS ( r  = 0.34, p  < 0.01); job satisfaction with psychological empowerment ( r  = 0.38, p  < 0.01); and job satisfaction with proactive personality ( r  = 0.20, p  < 0.01).

Confirmatory factor analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted in order to determine instrument validity by using Fornell and Larcker [ 35 ] validity assessment criterion. At first, we examined full three-factor measurement model in which the items were permitted to associate substantially with their respective factors. Then, following up by other combination of our items related to our three study variables in AMOS 24 was examined. Results of our hypothesized full measurement model (perceived organizational support, proactive personality and psychological empowerment) represented a reasonably good fit, which can be seen in Table  2 , as Chi-square = 1798.21, TLI = 0.98, IFI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.05. All of these indices fall into the acceptable limits.

The full measurement model was also compared with other different factor models in order to find out the best fit model for our data. Further, results showed that the full measurement model is the best fit model for our dataset and that other models did not provide an acceptable model fit at p  <  0.05. The findings suggest that perceived organizational support, proactive personality and psychological empowerment are distinctive constructs.

Construct reliability and validity

The composite reliabilities (CR) of all of our study constructs lie within the range of 0.77 to 0.89, and AVE values are greater than 0.53; hence, the convergent validity is found to be satisfied. Besides, the criteria of discriminant validity set out by Fornell and Larcker [ 35 ] are also fulfilled, as AVE values of every construct of the study are found to be greater than their corresponding squared correlation.

Test for moderated mediation

In order to compute moderated mediation tests, hypothesized theoretical model was evaluated, in which the influence of POS on job satisfaction was seen via psychological empowerment that was conditional on proactive personality. Here, moderated mediation technique was used and was run in one step by using SPSS Process Macro Model 7 [ 60 ] with 95% confidence interval based on 5000 bootstrap samples. Further, the coefficients of the model were estimated, whereby proactive personality interacts with perceived organizational support to influence psychological empowerment of employees, which in return impacts job satisfaction. It is given that results of moderated mediation analysis are presented in Table  3 .

Firstly, the results support our assumptions for the hypothesized moderated mediation model. Secondly, when psychological empowerment is taken as outcome variable, Table  3 depicts the R 2 value which tells us that psychological empowerment explains 25% of the variance in proactive personality in individuals and moderation is shown up by a significant interaction effect (β =  −  0.10) that explains the relationship is negative and significant and also that as psychological empowerment increases, proactive personality decreases in the individuals. Given that p value p  < 0.01, i.e., p = 0.00, shows that psychological empowerment is a highly significant predictor of proactive personality, then the boundaries of the zone of significance are between −  0.16 and −  0.04, which defines that psychological empowerment is significant to proactive personality.

The model further illustrates the positive direct effect of job satisfaction on POS as β = 0.41, SE = 0.06, p  < 0.01. The conditional indirect effect of job satisfaction on POS through psychological empowerment was probed at three different values of proactive personality: one SD below the mean (i.e., 3.80), on the average (4.40) and one SD above the mean (5.00). The indirect effect was significantly different from zero among low (β = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.15 to 0.41); average (β = 0.23, 95% CI = 0.14 to 0.33); and high (β = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.13 to 0.27) for proactive personality individuals. In addition, the index of moderated mediation reveals that the conditional indirect effect of psychological empowerment in the analysis of job satisfaction regressed on POS × PP is significant as indirect effect was − 0.07 and 95% bootstrapping CI of this relationship did not include zero (LLCI = − 0.16 to ULCI = − 0.04). Moreover, results demonstrated that the positive impact of POS on job satisfaction through psychological empowerment increases as proactive personality decreases in the employees. These findings are in the anticipated direction (Fig.  2 ).

Moderated mediation model

Conditional indirect effect of X on Y can be estimated through the following regression equation:

where X is the perceived organizational support (POS), Y is the job satisfaction, W is the proactive personality and M is the psychological empowerment.

This moderated mediation graph shows the indirect effects of POS on job satisfaction through psychological empowerment at higher (1 SD higher) and lower (1 SD lower) levels of proactive personality. These findings provided support for our Hypothesis 3 (Fig.  3 ).

Conditional indirect effects of perceived organizational support on job satisfaction via psychological empowerment at high and low levels of proactive personality

The main focus of the study was to examine the influence of POS on job satisfaction and to provide an insight into the complex mechanism of moderated mediation. Psychological empowerment functions as a mediator between POS and job satisfaction, and proactive personality showed an indirect effect on the association between POS and psychological empowerment. The current study findings provide support for the hypothesized model, which are as follows:

Being consistent with Hypothesis 1, the results demonstrated the positive association between POS and job satisfaction. Our results supported the findings of Alcover et al. [ 5 ]. The results show that the positive role of POS on job satisfaction is persistent in case, when individuals perceive that their organization assesses their participation to the organizational goals favorably and are conscious about their welfare. Resultantly, they experience job satisfaction.

Favoring Hypothesis 3, the present study findings provide support for moderated linkage, corroborating the extent of the negative impact of proactive individuals whereby it weakens the relationship between POS and psychological empowerment. Proactive individuals help managers to progress in such environmental situations where individuals feel empowered to proactively involve in sustainable behaviors. Subsequently, the organizational support is not required by the employees as they create and impact job situations in their favor by themselves, rather taking organization’s help. Thus, proactive personality has moderated the connection between POS and PE in a manner that the said association is robust when PP is less rather than high.

Theoretical contributions

This research offers imperative contribution in the literature by associating and encompassing the previous outcomes in multiple manners. Organizational behavior centers attention on a very few work-related attitudes, and POS and job satisfaction are two of them. The individuals and organizations are involved in a give-and-take relationship when research on the organization is considered. In establishing the proposed associations in the moderated mediation model, the current research will make several contributions.

First, we contributed to the research on POS by suggesting and confirming the positive association between POS (i.e., a characteristic where working behavior of individuals and attitudes are influenced by an individual’s perception of main phenomenon that describes their organization) and job satisfaction (among thorough researched constructs in management research/organizational behavior). Using social exchange theory, we contend that psychological empowerment can exert mediating effects linking POS and job satisfaction.

Psychological empowerment support employees in their decision making and problems solving thus providing independence and control. These results are of great significance as they give understanding into how employees or individuals may affect other individuals’ psychological insights, learning and vitality at work, which in turn influence their behavior. Although past researches had not provided ample evidences for the linkage between psychological empowerment and proactive personality, we advanced the literature of proactive personality as a moderator.

Practical implications

Our findings contribute to overcoming the problems of employees in manufacturing and service sectors as the findings also provide practical implication for managers and practitioners. This research was able to manage a strong understanding of POS, job satisfaction, psychological empowerment and proactive personality.

Manufacturing and services managers should focus on creating and enhancing employee belongings stimulus to avoid the employee turnover. Organizations can strive to provide advocates that are customized to address individual employee’s necessities. The individuals remain in the firm if he/she realizes a high support level (in terms of social and emotional support) [ 42 ]. If an employee receives the support, he/she will perceive it as favorable characteristic of a firm. For estimating the employee’s performance in comparison with their jobs, job satisfaction is a vital feature that benefits the organization [ 42 ]. Managers must understand that every employee has different necessities and expectations which need to be fulfilled. Thus, they should provide support to their employees, including motivated working conditions, flexible working hours and fairly paid salary which resultantly can enhance job satisfaction.

The management should uphold and strengthen the prevailing levels of psychological empowerment and should make strategies to improve it as it can move toward work efficiency and satisfaction without financial expense. Management should empower employees through involvement, support system, information sharing, rewards, tasks handling and by providing chances to take decisions.

Proactive individuals are uneffected by situational factors and probably generate variations to mend their position in the organizational hierarchy [ 11 ]. The proactive and adaptable employees acquire and use support from their organization to make situation in their favour [ 25 ]. Organizations change their policies to be more socially supported by providing positive work–family association. Lastly, this study will offer assistance to managers who are interested in inspiring individual’s satisfaction with his job by enhancing psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and POS within their organizations.

Limitations and future directions

Firstly, by investigating the variable associations, the research revealed an important relationship between PE and POS but still said the association needs more comprehensive explanation. A supposition regarding their association stated at the time when employees are empowered by the organization the organizational support is realized. Forthcoming studies should further explore the association between these variables.

The second potential limitation is that this research studied different manufacturing and services industries of Lahore, Pakistan; however, individuals from other cultures and identities may reveal diverse psychosomatic insights. Accordingly, comparisons can be observed by taking into account cultural differences.

The third limitation is that causality between the study variables cannot be drawn because of cross-sectional research design. So, it is suggested that future studies should conduct experimental/longitudinal strategies to discover the possible reciprocal relationships.

Our unit of analysis was individual based. Comparison was performed between the variables like individual’s perceived organizational support effect on individual’s job satisfaction, etc. So it is recommended that future research must include unit of analysis in the form of groups or departmental levels [ 67 ] as well as teams.

This research work observed the direct association between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. In the future, it should be seen that psychological empowerment could have an indirect relationship with job satisfaction.

We controlled employee age, gender, marital status, educational level, job type and work experience in order to avoid confounding effects on examined relationships. As in future studies, these could be added as study variables with different demographic characteristics possessing different constituents or consequences of POS, job satisfaction, psychological empowerment and proactive personality.

Lastly, in the future, it is suggested that proactive personality could also function as a moderator of the other associations of the current study model, i.e., between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. It is given that having the critical role of proactive behavior in organizations, effective measures should be taken to inspire employee proactivity. Examining these mechanisms would probably offer counselors, scholars and psychologists the substitutes for interventions in the future.

This research work makes vital additions in the fields of organizational behavior and applied psychology. The integrated study model revealed the relationship between POS and job satisfaction through the mediating role of psychological empowerment and the moderating impact of proactive personality. The practical findings provide support for organizational support theory and social exchange theory, which entails the groundings for the linkage between these associations. The study examines the intervening effect of psychological empowerment on the relationship between POS and job satisfaction. In addition, the study provides a contribution to the proactive personality by drawing attention to its indirect effect mechanisms that influence the relationship between POS and psychological empowerment. This research highlighted the importance of the fact that the organizations are not compelled to just focus on the empowerment of the employees but should also care for their well-being. The more they channelize the energies of their employees, the more they are satisfied with their job.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Maan, A.T., Abid, G., Butt, T.H. et al. Perceived organizational support and job satisfaction: a moderated mediation model of proactive personality and psychological empowerment. Futur Bus J 6 , 21 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00027-8

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• Published: 26 October 2023

The impact of perceived organizational support on employees’ knowledge transfer and innovative behavior: comparisons between Taiwan and mainland China

• Michael Yao-Ping Peng 1 ,
• Cheng Xu 2 , 3 ,
• Rong Zheng 4 &
• Yuan He 5  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  741 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Business and management

This study investigates the correlations among perceived organizational support (POS), self-efficacy, knowledge transfer, and innovative behaviors of employees in the information service companies of Taiwan and mainland China using goal-oriented behavior and social identity theory. A structural model was built, and data were collected through a survey conducted in two rounds, two months apart, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that POS significantly affects innovation behavior and self-efficacy in both regions, and self-efficacy plays a key mediating role in the research model. However, the relationship between POS and knowledge transfer was non-significant for mainland China. The study also reveals that the culture of knowledge sharing in the organization can promote employees’ innovation, knowledge sharing behavior, communication, and knowledge transfer. The findings imply that managers should provide organizational support to improve employees’ innovative minds and self-belief, particularly during the pandemic. This research fills a theoretical gap by applying Western theories in an Eastern context and broadening the generalization of the theory. It provides practical implications for improving the quality of human resources by suggesting that managers should provide organizational support to improve employees’ innovative minds and self-belief, particularly during a pandemic. Additionally, it contributes to the literature by examining how cross-cultural differences affect the relationships among POS, self-efficacy, knowledge transfer, and innovative behavior. This study also enriches the literature about employees in particular regions and their service innovation behaviors.

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Introduction

In the field of organizational behavior and management, it has always been a significant issue that organizational support and psychological cognition of employees have a certain effect on knowledge sharing and innovative behavior (Akgunduz et al. 2018 ; Brown et al. 2011 ; Chang and Edwards 2015 ; Islam et al. 2015 ; Kurtessis et al. 2017 ). Many studies have consistently found a strong correlation between organizational support and employees’ work attitudes and their ability to acquire necessary resources for problem-solving (Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ; Ahmed et al. 2015 ; Islam and Ahmed, 2019 ; Lamm et al. 2015 ; Lent et al. 2011 ; Liguori et al. 2019 ). Higher levels of organizational support not only improve employees’ attitudes towards their work but also empower them to acquire the resources they need to solve problems effectively. Nevertheless, in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, interpersonal communication and interaction have been suspended, greatly reducing the degree of knowledge sharing and distribution and thus reducing enterprises’ overall capacity for innovation. In uncertain surroundings, employees feel anxious and stressed (Basyouni & El Keshky 2021 ; Eguchi et al. 2021 ), which may have an indirect impact on innovative behavior (Islam et al. 2022b ). Especially in the service industries, there are various hostile behaviors. Employees tend to feel high levels of stress and anxiety in an uncertain work environment. In this situation, the lack of innovative behaviors among employees is not only detrimental to the organization’s growth and development but also directly correlates with high turnover intentions, as evidenced by multiple studies (Ali et al. 2022 ; Ali et al. 2022 ; Anser et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2022 ). These studies collectively indicate that when employees do not engage in innovative behaviors, it often leads to a desire to leave the organization, resulting in high turnover intentions. There may be a gap to be filled if previous research findings on organizational support and innovative behavior are applicable to the current research situation. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of organizational support on employee innovative behavior in the service industries in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Factors influencing the innovative behavior of employees have been widely discussed in the literature on organizational behavior (Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ; Chang and Edwards 2015 ; Lent et al. 2011 ; Liguori et al. 2019 ). On the basis of social cognitive theory and organizational learning perspectives (Islam et al. 2015 ), perceptions of organizational support by employees will develop internal factors such as self-cognition, attitude, and intention, which will be reflected in later behavior (Brown et al. 2011 ; Islam and Ahmed, 2019 ; Lee et al. 2021 ; Lent et al. 2011 ; Liguori et al. 2019 ). Some works have explored the shape of employee self-efficacy from the perspective of organizational psychology (Chang and Edwards, 2015 ; Duffy et al. 2014 ; Kurtessis et al. 2017 ; Lent et al. 2011 ; Thompson et al. 2017 ) and knowledge transfer intention from the perspective of knowledge management (Chaudhary et al. 2021 ; Kurz et al. 2018 ; Lin et al. 2015 ; Wang et al. 2019 ) when it comes to variables of intrinsic cognition and intention. Many scholars advocate for emphasizing employee self-efficacy and state that high self-efficacy contributes to improving daily work performance and innovation mindset for employees (Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ). Scholars emphasize the importance of self-efficacy as a mediating factor in many different models (Islam et al. 2022b ; Shao et al. 2015 ). For the reasons stated above, this study aims to better understand and investigate the impact of self-efficacy on innovative behavior of employees within the psychological enhancement process in service sector firms.

According to Islam et al. ( 2022a ), a social exchange perspective could well explain knowledge sharing and innovative behaviors between employees. In Bearman ( 1997 ) view of social exchange, employees will increase knowledge transfer due to the codes and relations that have been developed, and the party who receives knowledge transferred by others will have emotional interactions with the sharer based on the principle of reciprocity, thus forming a positive cycle of interaction. Islam et al. ( 2021 ) also indicate that knowledge transfer is a social exchange of knowledge sharing and creation between individuals based on the principle of reciprocity. Knowledge transfer intention, other than self-efficacy, will improve employees’ active storage and access to knowledge bases across the boundaries of individuals and organizations (Foss et al. 2010 ; Islam et al. 2022b ; Islam and Asad 2021 ; Wehn and Montalvo, 2018 ; Wu et al. 2015 ), resulting in superior innovation rules and practices (Abbas and Sağsan 2019 ; Hassan et al. 2016 ). Knowledge transfer is also viewed as an indicator of the effectiveness of knowledge management practices (Bock et al. 2005 ; Fischer et al. 2021 ; Wehn and Montalvo 2018 ). Nevertheless, the exception appears to be extensive knowledge transfer within enterprises instead of an inevitable phenomenon (Wu 2013 ). According to goal-oriented behavior (MGB) (Perugini and Bagozzi 2001 ; Bagozzi 2006 ) and social exchange theory, the study has proposed an explanatory model of innovative behavior. Especially in an environment with high uncertainty (Lamm et al. 2015 ), employees may reduce knowledge transfer behavior or intention in avoidance of pandemic spread, thus inhibiting innovative behavior from employees (Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ; De Vos et al. 2011 ; Islam et al. 2022a , 2022b ). As a result, this study seeks to investigate the role of knowledge transfer among perceived organizational support, self-efficacy, and innovative behavior in service sector firms.

Besides being maintained by the differences generated by the pandemic, individual feelings and independence are upheld by a cross-cultural perspective as a key moderator (Lee et al. 2021 ; Rehg et al. 2012 ; Meyers et al. 2019 ; Zhao et al. 2021 ). Knowledge transfer proposed to guide such inventive behavior from employees is becoming more generally applicable when there are fewer obvious boundaries and distinctions between cultures in a global context. This study takes Taiwan and mainland China as the research samples for cross-cultural comparison (Hansen et al. 2012 ; Meyers et al. 2019 ; Rehg et al. 2012 ) to explore regions’ differences in working activities caused by cross-cultural and health crises (Schultz et al. 2015 ). Employees in Taiwan and mainland China, while sharing a common Confucian heritage, exhibit distinct workplace behaviors due to their unique historical, political, and economic contexts. Chao and Yen ( 2018 ) emphasize the heterogeneity in microcultures between the two, despite a shared macroculture. Chung and Smith ( 2016 ) further highlight that these differences, rooted in varied historical experiences and political systems, can influence management practices and organizational behaviors, making it vital for organizations to recognize and adapt to these nuances. Therefore, this study aims to explore how cross-cultural differences determine employees’ perceptions of perceived organizational support, self-efficacy, knowledge transfer, and innovative behavior (Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ; Akgunduz et al. 2018 ). This study follows the following structure: The literature review and hypothesis development are presented in the section 'Literature review and hypotheses development'; the methodology is introduced in the section 'Methodology'; 'Results' explains the results of statistical analysis; furthermore, we have a comprehensive discussion and make a concluding remark in the section 'Discussions and conclusions'. The final part of this study presents the research limitations and future research directions.

Building upon existing literature, this study makes three pivotal contributions. Firstly, by conducting a nuanced cross-cultural examination between Taiwan and mainland China, this study elucidates the intricate interplay of cultural nuances on knowledge transfer and innovation, thereby filling a critical gap in the current understanding of organizational dynamics across different cultural contexts. Secondly, the study innovatively integrates social identity theory with the perspective of goal-oriented behavior, offering a robust and comprehensive theoretical framework that sheds light on the underlying motivations propelling employees’ innovative behaviors. Lastly, the study underscores the centrality of self-efficacy in the knowledge transfer process, positing it as a crucial mediating factor between perceived organizational support (POS) and knowledge transfer. This emphasizes the imperative for organizations to cultivate an environment that bolsters employees’ confidence, thereby fostering enhanced knowledge sharing and innovation.

Literature review and hypotheses development

Innovative behavior.

Based on social identity theory and the goal-oriented behavior model (Perugini and Bagozzi 2001 ), we create an explanatory model for service innovation performance. Several behavioral theories, including the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen 1991 ), posit that innovation attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control are the primary antecedents influencing individual decisions. However, while TPB provides a foundational understanding of behavioral intentions, it sometimes falls short of capturing the full spectrum of individual decision-making, especially when emotions and other intricate psychological factors come into play. Recognizing these limitations, Perugini and Bagozzi ( 2001 ) introduced the goal-oriented behavior model, which incorporates anticipated emotions as influential determinants, thereby offering a more comprehensive perspective on individual behaviors beyond the initial variables proposed by TPB. Furthermore, Islam et al. ( 2022a ) suggest that the scope of antecedents driving innovation behaviors can be broadened even further when viewed through the lens of the social exchange perspective. Based on the principle of reciprocity, employees improve their innovation and innovative ability through knowledge transfer and sharing (Islam and Asad 2021 ). Scholars recommend discussing this factor when examining the decision-making processes of individual behaviors (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006 ). This study attempts to further advance prior studies of innovation behaviors by introducing a variety of antecedents.

As asserted by Amabile and Pillemer ( 2012 ), previous studies of organizational creativity focused on discussing the personal characteristics of people with creativity or their ability to resolve issues using creativity from a trait or cognitive perspective (Islam and Asad 2021 ; Islam et al. 2022a ). Afterwards, it was found from autobiographies and letters that creative people are more likely to develop new and valuable ideas in certain social contexts. From then on, scholars began to shift their focus on individual creativity from individual cognitive competence to the effect of social situational factors on innovative behaviors or individual creativity performance (Chen and Zhou 2017 ; Kurz et al. 2018 ; Orfila-Sintes and Mattsson, 2009 ). Creativity is a term used to explain behaviors, and it refers to the fact that employees bring forward new or valuable ideas, but innovative behaviors are the process by which employees present or introduce new ideas at work and implement them in diversified ways to achieve further objectives (Chen and Zhou 2017 ; Reade and Lee 2016 ). Creativity is about an individual’s actions in presenting new or valuable ideas, approaches to problems, or procedures (Amabile 2011 ; Islam and Asad 2021 ). It can be seen from the above that creativity can be considered a core element of innovation behaviors, facilitating the transformation from diversified creative thinking to practical behaviors.

Innovative behavior, in the context of this study, refers to the proactive actions taken by employees to introduce and apply new ideas, solutions, processes, or procedures to their job roles, teams, or the organization as a whole (Islam et al. 2022a , 2022b ; Le and Lei 2019 ; Reade and Lee 2016 ). It encompasses a range of activities, from idea generation, problem-solving, and creative thinking to the actual implementation of these new ideas. This behavior is not just limited to introducing novel ideas but also involves the adaptation and modification of existing practices to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and overall organizational performance. Unlike creativity, innovative behaviors highlight both the introduction and execution of new ideas. To put it differently, innovative behaviors include both creative thinking and its practice, so creativity can also be considered an integral part of innovative behaviors (Islam et al. 2022b ; Kao et al. 2015 ; Newman et al. 2018 ). In terms of depth, creativity can be divided into significant creativity, minor creativity, and daily creativity. The former may change human life and civilization, and the latter is able to resolve daily issues and improve the quality of individual work or life (Conner and Silvia 2015 ). Although professionals in different fields behave differently in problem finding and solving due to diversified working conditions (Goncher et al. 2017 ), common ground can still be found. For example, employees think outside the box, reorganize existing ideas, execute new technologies, processes, and approaches at work, work out novel ideas, sell new ideas to others, and strive to obtain the required resources to implement new ideas and set up an agenda to accomplish them.

Knowledge transfer

Knowledge contains explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge (Shao et al. 2015 ), which can be mutually transformed. Explicit knowledge can usually be expressed via forms of words, computer programming and other symbols, which can be decoded, understood and experienced by people through formal and systematic communication ways and eventually internalized into tacit knowledge (Kim and Lee 2013 ). Tacit knowledge is usually acquired from people’s experience, which is difficult to be explained by characters and other symbols. However, it can be transformed into explicit knowledge through encoding, explaining and accounting for individuation, which is an important element for enterprises in business operation and development (Abbas and Sağsan 2019 ). Thus, knowledge transfer is the reciprocal transformation of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge (Birkinshaw et al. 2000 ; Johnson and Johnston 2004 ), which is a process of forming a knowledge spiral (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1998 ), namely, combination (explicit knowledge → explicit knowledge), internalization (explicit knowledge → tacit knowledge), socialization (tacit knowledge → tacit knowledge) and externalization (tacit knowledge → explicit knowledge) (Johnson and Johnston 2004 ). The process is also the essence of knowledge creation (Fischer et al. 2021 ; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1998 ; Wehn and Montalvo 2018 ), which contributes to establishing capacity (Hatcheu 2017 ) and enhancing the effectiveness of knowledge transfer (Waris 2015 ), and its medium is associated with “human”. Therefore, knowledge transfer can be taken as a process to obtain knowledge, which indicates that knowledge transfer focuses on the knowledge flow between behavioral agents via organizational learning (Chaudhary et al. 2021 ; Fischer et al. 2021 ), such as forms of individual, group and organization (Sue 2005 ; Shao et al. 2015 ). It contains knowledge transmission, absorption and utilization, meaning a process in which knowledge receivers digest, understand, integrate and utilize (Kang and Kim 2013 ).

Relationship between Knowledge transfer and innovative behavior

The goal-oriented behavior model makes the proposition that “intention” is a key antecedent factor for predicting “individual behavior” (Ajzen and Fishbein 1975 ; Bagozzi 2006 ). Many scholars in the field of behavioristics also agree with this view, and it has been found in many empirical studies that the relationship between the two constructs is quite stable (Kim and Lee 2013 ). The focus of knowledge transfer attitude lies in how much knowledge attributes conducive to innovation individuals expect to acquire in the process of knowledge transfer (Abbas and Sağsan 2019 ; Bysted 2013 ); thus, it can strengthen individual innovative behavior (Wehn and Montalvo, 2018 ). Scholars have argued that if individuals can expect whether behavioral goals are achieved or not (Bagozzi 2006 ; Chin and Rasdi 2014 ), their intention of knowledge transfer can be enhanced (Kurz et al. 2018 ). Furthermore, knowledge transfer can also be regarded as a process of learning, in which employees can learn ways to strengthen knowledge acquisition and knowledge integration during knowledge transfer (Kim and Lee 2013 ; Nguyen et al. 2020 ), and then the tendency toward innovative behavior takes shape (Abbas and Sağsan 2019 ; Islam et al. 2022a , 2022b ).

Although previous studies verify that a higher intention of knowledge transfer in organizations contributes to the increase of innovation behaviors (Chaudhary et al. 2021 ; Lai et al. 2016 ), employees may face huge uncertainties in job safety (Montani and Stagliano 2022 ) and become “free-riders” in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, restricting the attitude of knowledge transfer. In this process, the innovation behaviors of employees may also be reduced due to a lack of sufficient knowledge bases or sources (Bysted 2013 ; Kim and Lee 2013 ). This makes it extremely important to verify the relationship between knowledge transfer and innovation behaviors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the result indicated that knowledge transfer is positively and significantly associated with innovative behaviors for employees. This association is consistent with the findings of other studies. For instance, Putri and Etikariena ( 2022 ) emphasized the role of knowledge sharing behavior in influencing innovative work behavior, with innovation self-efficacy acting as a mediator. Similarly, Yuan and Ma ( 2022 ) found that interpersonal trust, which is closely related to knowledge transfer, has significant impacts on knowledge-sharing and innovation behavior. Their study also highlighted gender differences in these relationships, suggesting that interpersonal trust is more crucial for female knowledge-sharing and innovative behavior. Based on the above, the study considers that the higher knowledge transfer of employees means a higher likelihood of innovation performance occurring in the future (Bysted 2013 ; Nguyen et al. 2020 ). This paper proposes the following research hypothesis:

H1: knowledge transfer plays a positive and significant effect on employees’ innovative behavior .

Self-efficacy

Social career cognitive theory (SCCT) researchers have researched that, in a certain context, individuals’ behavioral outcomes are affected by both environmental and cognitive factors, particularly those beliefs contributing to success and behavior (Chang and Edwards 2015 ; Liguori et al. 2019 ; Chin and Rasdi 2014 ; Brown et al. 2011 ; Zhao et al. 2021 ). While taking into account interactions with the surroundings (Chang and Edwards 2015 ; Duffy et al. 2014 ; Jemini-Gashi et al. 2019 ; Lent et al. 2011 ) and individual behaviors (Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ), these beliefs are named “self-efficacy,” which becomes an essential cognitive variable in individual factors (Islam et al. 2022b ). The motivation of human behaviors (Cordova et al. 2014 ), individual accomplishment, and mental health (Lent et al. 2011 ; Liguori et al. 2019 ) are regarded as being based on self-efficacy (Islam and Asad 2021 ). As well as the impact on occupational development of employees and task completion, in dynamic circumstances, psychological factors of employees are also investigated in the field of human resources through extensive application of self-efficacy (Brown et al. 2011 ; Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ; Duffy et al. 2014 ; Jemini-Gashi et al. 2019 ; Lee et al. 2021 ).

Relationship between self-efficacy and innovative behavior

Psychological health, POS (Chin and Rasdi 2014 ), and lifestyles for employees are important concerns discussed in some studies (Lent et al. 2011 ). However, few studies, up to now, have examined general self-efficacy and innovative behavior in this group. As argued by Jemini-Gashi et al. ( 2019 ), individuals show a lower support level, have limited sources of support, and seldom perceive support from others (Brown et al. 2011 ; Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ). In other words, employees showing higher self-efficacy tend to obtain a variety of benefits at work, which is conducive to raising job satisfaction (Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ; Islam and Ahmed 2019 ). Research by Pan et al. ( 2021 ) found that self-efficacy played a chain-mediated role in the relationship between proactive personality and innovative behavior among preschool teachers. These findings underscore the intricate relationship between self-efficacy and innovative behavior. If employees facing job stress fail to receive timely and necessary psychological support, their general self-efficacy and innovative behaviors will be shattered (Hu and Zhao 2016 ; Islam and Asad 2021 ; Islam et al. 2022b ; Newman et al. 2018 ; Thompson et al. 2017 ) and may tend to cause unique stressors. By contrast, employees with higher self-efficacy are more inclined to have innovative behaviors. Briefly, H4 is deduced as follows:

H2: Self-efficacy plays a positive and significant effect on employees’ innovative behavior .

Relationship between self-efficacy and knowledge transfer

According to organizational behavior literature, when perceiving that other members in the group regard a specific task (e.g., innovation) as a vital objective, individuals are prone to follow the group members and urge themselves to complete the goal (Brown et al. 2011 ; Lamm et al. 2015 ; Kim and Lee 2013 ). During socialization, inner self-motivation, reference objects for learning, and proficiency in work can reduce uncertainties arising from new contexts and stimulate self-efficacy (Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ; Chin and Rasdi 2014 ; Islam and Asad 2021 ). According to academics, employees who are confident in their capability to finish specific tasks have a higher possibility of sharing their useful knowledge (Shao et al. 2015 ) because they believe that their knowledge will contribute to solving problems and improving work efficiency (Bysted 2013 ). This aligns with findings from a study by Mubarak et al. ( 2021 ), which revealed that passive leadership greatly influences knowledge hiding practices among individuals, but the presence of creative self-efficacy can reduce such practices. In the context of innovation, knowledge transfer is required to obtain the relating knowledge attributes throughout innovation at whatever level, regardless of the fact that service staff can choose what level of innovation to conduct based on personal considerations (Bysted 2013 ). When perceiving the innovative goal deviating from the innovation goal of the goal (Brown et al. 2011 ), the service staff with high self-efficacy will take an immediate action to synchronize the innovation goal with the knowledge from knowledge transfer (Islam and Asad 2021 ; Kim and Lee 2013 ). What’s more, service staffs will transform knowledge transfer into a habit of adjusting innovative behaviors, as time passes and task experience accumulates. As a result, a service staff, whose self-efficacy in delivering services is higher, will consider knowledge transfer as a critical task while providing services (Brown et al. 2011 ; Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ; Islam and Asad 2021 ). In summary, a hypothesis is developed as following:

H3: Self-efficacy has a positive and significant impact on employees’ knowledge transfer .

Perceived organizational support

The concept of perceived organizational support (POS) was first defined by Eisenberger et al. ( 1986 ) from the perspective of perception, which especially refers to organizational support. It is the extent to which employees perceive that the organization attaches importance to their value and contribution and cares about their benefits. Employees’ perception of organizational support is the premise for employees to enhance organizational commitment and show and support organizational goal behavior (Akgunduz et al. 2018 ; Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ; Ahmed et al. 2015 ; De Vos et al. 2011 ; Islam et al. 2017 ). Thus, most scholars discuss organizational support from the perspective of perception (Islam and Ahmed 2019 ; Maisel and Gable 2009 ). A supportive organizational atmosphere can create an organizational environment that relieves employees’ mental stress (Asad and Khan, 2003 ; Islam and Ahmed 2019 ). If organizations provide more organizational support to employees, such as more innovative resources, means, and conditions (Akgunduz et al. 2018 ; Amabile et al. 2004 ; De Vos et al. 2011 ; Islam et al. 2015 ), employees also perform more commitment and exchange behavior (Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ; Wang et al. 2014 ), which is conducive to facilitating enterprise innovation (Maisel and Gable, 2009 ; Ahmed et al. 2015 ; Islam et al. 2015 ; Wang et al. 2021 ). Even if he or she fails to feel organizational support, he or she will judge his or her support and relationship in the organization by the change in others’ attitudes (Islam et al. 2017 ; Kurtessis et al. 2017 ) and know whether his or her status in the organization has improved (Islam et al. 2015 ; Lamm et al. 2015 ; Vardaman et al. 2016 ), thus stimulating employees’ work enthusiasm in an indirect way (Amabile et al. 2004 ). Studies have proven that employees’ perceived organizational support can affect their selection of emotional work strategies (Chang et al. 2012 ; Kumar Mishra 2014 ; Hur et al. 2013 ), which has a negative effect on their emotional exhaustion.

Relationship between perceived organizational support and innovative behavior

Employees’ innovative behavior is an indispensable performance indicator for the survival and competitiveness of an organization. At present, in the rapidly changing environment, the need for organizational innovation capability is further enhanced (Bysted 2013 ; Kurz et al. 2018 ). Bledow et al. ( 2019 ) argued that innovation is not an unrestrained and vigorous speculation but requires a divergent mind and the ability to restrain and adopt new methods, as well as constantly proposing critical ideas in the two stages. Within the organization, employees’ innovative behavior must require them to consider outside the existing framework (Bysted 2013 ; Chin and Rasdi 2014 ; De Vos et al. 2011 ), but it also implies that employees must have the courage to identify defects and problems and be willing to provide suggestions (Akgunduz et al. 2018 ; Kurz et al. 2018 ) in order to promote and improve employees’ innovative behavior (George and Zhou 2007 ). Caniels et al. ( 2014 ) believed that in the initial stage of innovation, communication with others is necessary to stimulate thinking, while in the stage of conducting innovation, in addition to constant communication and excluding difficulties, support from a supervisor is also needed (Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ; De Vos et al. 2011 ). Furthermore, research has shown that perceived organizational support plays a pivotal role in fostering innovative work behavior, with psychological empowerment acting as a mediating factor, and the presence of organizational procedural justice further enhancing this relationship (Park and Kim 2022 ). Perry-Smith and Mannucci ( 2017 ) believed that the organizational innovation process requires different stages and different resource support to be effective, including: in the stage of generating innovative ideas, employees’ cognitive flexibility is needed; in the stage of improving innovative ideas, constructive ideas and suggestions are needed; and in the stage of proposing innovative ideas, support of power and influence from supervisors is needed (De Vos et al. 2011 ). Finally, in the stage of innovation achievement, organizations should understand and accept different opinions and work methods to succeed (Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ). Based on the above arguments, researchers propose H4:

H4: POS has a positive and significant impact on employees’ innovative behavior .

Relationship between perceived organizational support and self-efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief and cognition about himself or herself and also means the degree of confidence and determination that he or she can accomplish the work (Brown et al. 2011 ; Caesens and Stinglhamber, 2014 ). An important association between POS and self-efficacy has been shown in previous studies (Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ; Kose 2016 ). When employees perceive that the organization seems to care about their welfare, they also make contributions in exchange (Islam and Ahmed 2019 ). The sense of belonging owned by employees is also stimulated by POS (Akgunduz et al. 2018 ; Demir 2015 ; Lamm et al. 2015 ). According to Kose ( 2016 ), when it comes to the relationship between POS and self-efficacy, employees feeling organizational support usually consider their positions secure, and they can perceive that the organization shows concern about their occupational development (Kurtessis et al. 2017 ; Lent et al. 2011 ; Schultz et al. 2015 ). It makes sense that employees who deem the organization concerned about their individual and occupational lives would intend to search for more resources to accomplish tasks or to get more responsibilities (Akgunduz et al. 2018 ; Lamm et al. 2015 ), which are dimensions of self-efficacy (Caesens and Stinglhamber 2014 ; Islam and Ahmed 2019 ; Lent et al. 2011 ). There is a positive correlation between POS and organizational citizenship behavior (Demir 2015 ; Meyers et al. 2019 ), predicting more behaviors that are beneficial in an organization. Thus, this study develops H5:

H5: POS has a positive and significant impact on employees’ self-efficacy .

Relationship between perceived organizational support and knowledge transfer

The most direct and effective source of support for employees is POS (Akgunduz et al. 2018 ; Ahmed and Nawaz 2015 ). Organizations would provide employees with assistance in meeting work demands and dispel doubts and anxiety while utilizing technological tools at work (Lamm et al. 2015 ; Lent et al. 2011 ). Moreover, organizational support for effective work will improve employee engagement in work and lead employees to successful task accomplishment (Jemini-Gashi et al. 2019 ; Kurtessis et al. 2017 ; Liguori et al. 2019 ). Moreover, the POS, with its relationship with knowledge transfer and sharing, is helpful in improving employees’ innovative capability (Hammami et al. 2013 ; Lent et al. 2011 ; Liguori et al. 2019 ). When facing practical problems, the POS is available to offer employees resources that are needed for learning and absorbing the knowledge to deal with work problems (Abbas and Sağsan 2019 ; De Vos et al. 2011 ; Kurz et al. 2018 ; Lamm et al. 2015 ). Different knowledge attributes are required at each processing stage, and knowledge acquisition based on the view of social exchange (Chin and Rasdi 2014 ) will provide employees with more willingness to transfer and share knowledge, thus promoting organizational innovation (Kurz et al. 2018 ). Therefore, researchers postulate the following hypothesis:

H6: POS has a positive and significant impact on employees’ knowledge transfer .

Based on the above hypotheses, this study proposes the following research framework Fig. 1 :

This diagram represents the interrelationships between four key constructs: POS (Perceived Organizational Support), Self-efficacy, Knowledge Transfer, and Innovation Behaviour. Arrows indicate the direction and flow of influence between these constructs.

Methodology

Sample and procedure.

This study aims to investigate the employee innovative behavior, and analyze the effect of internal and external factors caused by the organizational and individual knowledge base. Front-line employees from the service industry are considered as the research object of this study. Due to the large population, a non-probability purposive sampling was adopted as there were certain restrictions on random sampling. A structural model was built in this study in order to examine the relations among self-efficacy, POS, innovative behavior, and knowledge transfer. Samples were collected from companies in Taiwan and mainland China. In face of COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan and mainland China adopted different isolation policies. In Taiwan, employees can continue to work and provide services in the original workplaces, while in mainland China, some employees have to work at home or online. The discrepancy in policies may change job attitude and perceived support of employees. Thus, this study conducts a survey to collect research data from Taiwan and mainland China.

This study distributed copies of the questionnaire to front-line service personnel in the service industry in order to assure the sample representativeness and reduce the impact of bias arising from types of industry and job features on the research findings. The questionnaires were distributed both online, using secure survey platforms, and on-site for those who preferred a physical copy. The purposive sampling method was chosen based on specific criteria, ensuring that participants had firsthand experience in the service industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information service companies were selected due to their direct interaction with customers, making them more susceptible to the changes brought about by the pandemic. Furthermore, these companies were chosen based on their prominence in the industry and their diverse employee base, offering a comprehensive insight into the research topic. Besides, as for the scale of enterprises, medium - and large-scale information service companies are the ones we distribute questionnaire to. To make our samples representative, we surveyed the companies which provide face-to-face services to customers, and chose the information service companies located in eastern Mainland China and western Taiwan. Thirdly, questionnaire filling will be restricted to employees who have experience for at least one year of service since most variables in this study are individual self-reports from the sample that have been perceived. Before distributing the questionnaires, participants were informed about the purpose of the study, ensuring their understanding and voluntary participation. They were also assured of the confidentiality of their responses and were provided with an informed consent form to sign. Questionnaires were filled out anonymously by participants, and we also clearly specified the research purpose, research ethics, and low risks in the questionnaires.

In this study, more than 20 information service companies were selected from Taiwan and mainland China. We collected data from existing front-line service employees in two rounds (two months apart). We sent out 1000 copies of the questionnaire in total to each of them between May 2020 and July 2020, and in June 2020, the manager was reminded to send back the questionnaire again. Finally, a total of 636 questionnaires from Taiwan and 558 questionnaires from mainland China were collected, for an effective response rate of 63.6% and 55.8%, respectively. The majority of the respondents from Taiwan are male (62.0%). The details of their demographic information are as follows: 78.3% of them have a bachelor’s degree or higher, 78.5% are between the ages of 30 and 40, and their average working years are 3.8 years. The breakdown of the mainland Chinese respondents is as follows: 62.3% of them are male, 66.7% of them have a bachelor’s degree or above, 54.6% of them are between the ages of 30 and 35, and their average working years are 4.3 years.

To prevent common method variance (CMV), our study conducted a Harman one-factor analysis. The explained variance in one factor was 32.74%, which is smaller than the recommended threshold of 50%. Therefore, CMV was not problematic in this study (Ali et al. 2022 ).

The questionnaires use scales that have been modified from previous studies to adapt to this study. To divide perceived organizational support into supervisor and colleague support (4 items) and organizational support (8 items), we adopted the scale proposed by De Vos et al. ( 2011 ). This scale was chosen due to its comprehensive coverage of both supervisor and organizational support dimensions. In the original study, the scale demonstrated a high reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.82 and has been widely used in studies focusing on organizational behavior.

For self-efficacy, the scale is revised and combined with six items established by Rigotti et al. ( 2008 ). The rationale behind selecting this scale is its specific focus on workplace self-efficacy, which captures nuances relevant to our study. The original scale exhibited a reliability coefficient of 0.85 and has been cited in various organizational studies examining the role of self-efficacy in job performance.

Measurement items of knowledge transfer were adopted from Zhou et al. ( 2010 ). Thus, it included tacit knowledge (4 items) and explicit knowledge (5 items). This scale was selected due to its clear distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge. In Zhou et al.‘s study, the tacit knowledge scale demonstrated a reliability of 0.92, while the explicit knowledge scale had a reliability of 0.93. The scale has been referenced in research exploring knowledge management practices in organizations.

Innovative behavior was measured using Kao et al. ( 2015 ) instrument, which comprehensively assesses innovative behavior in 3 items. The study opted for this instrument because of its concise yet effective measurement of innovative behaviors in the workplace. The instrument had a composite reliability score of 0.84 in the original study and has been employed in research contexts investigating innovation behavior. A five-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree; 5 = totally agree) was used to measure all items.

Evaluation of the measurement model

In conducting measurement model analysis, construct validity is generally judged by Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In the CFA analysis, Hair et al. ( 2010 ) pointed out that factor loadings greater than 0.50 and Cronbach’s Alpha greater than 0.70 indicate that the variables have high reliability and validity, and CR greater than 0.70 and AVE greater than 0.50 further indicate that the measurement model has better internal consistency. In this study, factor loadings greater than 0.5, Cronbach’s alpha greater than 0.723, CR greater than 0.769, and AVE greater than 0.501 (as shown in Table 1 ). It is clear that the results of the CFA analysis confirm the high reliability of the measurement scales used and the high convergent validity of the measurement model in this research. In the study, the correlation coefficient of each dimension was less than the square root of the Average Variance Extracted, and all cross-loadings were all less than the factor loadings of the dimension as suggest by Hair et al. ( 2010 ), demonstrating a good discriminate validity.

Inner model analysis

Partial Least Squares-SEM was adopted as the main method for data analysis in this study, and Bootstrap was used to estimate the T-value of the path coefficient so as to estimate the results of the hypothesis test proposed in this study. Stone-Geisser-Criterion (Q 2 ), coefficient of determination (R 2 ), and standardized root mean square residuals (SRMR) are used to assess the overall model fit. R 2 values were more significant than 0.30, Q 2 values were above 0, and SRMR was less than 0.05.

Figures 2 & 3 and Table 2 show the results of the hypothesized relationships and standardized coefficients in the two groups in Taiwan and mainland China. The results showed that knowledge transfer was positively and significantly related to innovative behavior (β Taiwan  = 0.196, f 2  = 0.141, p  < 0.001; β China  = 0.412, f 2  = 0.228, p  < 0.001), supporting H1. Research results showed that self-efficacy was positively and significantly related to innovative behavior in Taiwan rather in mainland China (β Taiwan  = 0.382, f 2  = 0.141, p  < 0.001; β China  = 0.018, f 2  = 1.185, p  < 0.001), partially supporting H2. Moreover, Self-efficacy (β Taiwan  = 0.368, f 2  = 0.132, p  < 0.001; β China  = 0.141, f 2  = 0.011, p  < 0.05) was also positively and significantly related to knowledge transfer, supporting H3.

This model showcases the interrelationships between POS (Perceived Organizational Support), Self-efficacy, Knowledge Transfer, and Innovation Behaviour. Control variables such as age, gender, and education (Educa) are also represented. Coefficients beside the arrows indicate the strength and significance of relationships.

The model delineates the relationships between POS (Perceived Organizational Support), Self-efficacy, Knowledge Transfer, and Innovation Behaviour with control variables such as age, gender, and education (Educa). The dotted line indicates paths that are statistically non-significant. The values beside the arrows represent the strength and significance of these relationships.

In addition, POS (β Taiwan  = 0.204, f 2  = 0.041, p  < 0.001; β China  = 0.292, f 2  = 0.089, p  < 0.1) was positively and significantly related to innovative behavior, supporting H4. Similarly, the paths of POS → self-efficacy (β Taiwan  = 0.636, f 2  = 0.678, p  < 0.001; β China  = 0.470, f 2  = 0.283, p  < 0.001, showed that the relations were positive and significant in Taiwanese and mainland China sample, therefore supporting H5. Finally, POS (β Taiwan  = 0.319, f 2  = 0.099, p  < 0.001; β China  = 0.031, f 2  = 0.003, p  > 0.1) was positively and significantly related to knowledge transfer in Taiwan rather in mainland China, partially supporting H6.

Multiple group analysis (MGA): Taiwan and mainland China

The measurement pattern proved to be stable. Whereas, with the suggestion of Hair et al. ( 2010 ), the sample data was divided into two groups by regions (636 employees from Taiwan and 558 employees from mainland China, respectively) to avoid reaching too generalized data-driven theories and patterns. Recommended by Henseler et al. ( 2009 ), this study conducted nonparametric methods, including Henseler’s MGA, showing the results of the structural models’ results and MGA in Table 3 . This study also indicates that there are five obvious differences between the two groups on all paths, regardless of the fact that several differences can be found in significant path estimates between the groups. The results signify that the relationship among POS, self-efficacy, knowledge transfer, and innovative behavior is moderated by region (Hair et al. 2017). The differences reveal that five paths were proven to be significant sequentially through the differences in path comparisons between Taiwan and mainland China. These results imply that the research framework did differ between the two regions.

Examination of mediating effects

Self-efficacy and knowledge transfer to establish the structural model can be regarded as mediating variables. A bootstrapping procedure is further performed on the structural model for each region in order to determine whether the two have mediating effects. Results displayed in Table 4 indicated that indirect effects of self-efficacy and knowledge transfer were supported in the sample of Taiwan. It shows that the setting of important mediating variables plays important roles in conceptual model.

Discussions and conclusions

Conclusions.

With employees in Taiwan and mainland China in information service companies as research samples, this study aims to test the correlations among POS, self-efficacy, knowledge transfer, and innovative behaviors using goal-oriented behavior and social identity theory. This research will fill the theoretical gap in the application of Western theories in the Eastern context (Brown et al. 2011 ; Chang and Edwards 2015 ; Lee et al. 2021 ; Zhao et al. 2021 ) and broaden the generalization of the theory. Moreover, this study aims to provide the following contributions, according to our research findings: First, there are few studies to verify employees’ innovative behavior at great environmental risk (Thompson et al. 2016 ). This study discusses employees’ perceptions of the degree of organizational support among those who are from the information service industry in the global pandemic of COVID-19 and figures out its impact on employees in terms of knowledge transfer and innovation. Second, the process of socialization conducted by employees within the organization has been widely explored in previous studies on social identity theory, but employees’ innovative behavior with global environmental factors has received a mere improvement in a few studies. This study seeks to bridge the theoretical gap and enrich the theoretical basis of social identity theory. Third, as well as verifying the research framework in an Asian context, a cross-cultural perspective to compare differences between Taiwan and mainland China is also included in this study.

The research also contributed to theory by examining how cross-cultural differences affect the relationships among POS, self-efficacy, knowledge transfer, and innovative behavior. Through the PLS_SEM multi-group used in this study, it can be seen that employees in Taiwan and mainland China show considerably different relationship paths between variables. The path of knowledge transfer and innovative behavior among employees on mainland China is significantly larger than that of employees in Taiwan. In addition to this, employees in Taiwan have a strong positive impact on the remaining paths. The study holds the same view as claims from Zhao et al. ( 2021 ) and Lee et al. ( 2021 ) that, due to cultural factors, there are significant disparities in research findings even within the same geographical location, especially in the testing of mediating effects. Verification of indirect effects shows that self-efficacy and knowledge transfer play a vital mediating role in the model of employees in Taiwan but fail to have a mediating role in the model of mainland China. According to a second verification, the geographic distribution of social identity research demonstrates that more empirical evidence is still needed in European and Asian countries.

Theoretical implications

The results show that employees’ self-efficacy is positively related to their POS in Taiwan and mainland China. These results are consistent with those of Kurtessis et al. ( 2017 ), Demir ( 2015 ), and Meyers et al. ( 2019 ), who believe that organizational support factors for employees play an important role in motivating employees to spend more time in their work and improve their ability to achieve goals based on social cognitive theory. Like Islam and Ahmed ( 2019 ) indicated, employees should have a reciprocal effect on POS and improve their self-efficacy through a supportive work environment (Ahmed et al. 2015 ; Islam et al. 2015 , 2017 ). Our findings are largely consistent with previous studies, indicating that self-efficacy is available in a variety of settings (Hansen et al. 2012 ; Lee et al. 2021 ; Rehg et al. 2012 ). Also, in both regions, research shows that POS has a significant and positive effect on innovative behavior. According to the findings of Le and Lei ( 2019 ), employees’ sense of emotional and cognitive commitment would help reduce absenteeism and increase innovative behavior in social exchange theory. Even in diverse regions, organizations or leaders were also able to allow employees to perceive the availability and stability of resources in risky situations, so that employees could feel more reciprocal and engage in innovative activity.

Furthermore, the findings reveal that POS has a positive and significant impact on knowledge transfer for employees in Taiwan rather than those in mainland China. It is also important to note that employees with POS from the organization or supervisors are actively participating in team tasks and problem solving. The results are similar to those of Islam et al. ( 2022a ) and Islam and Asad ( 2021 ). Based on social exchange theory, when employees obtain trust and support in the organization, they are more likely to learn, communicate, and transfer valuable knowledge and information. During the process of teamwork, employees gain resources from organizational support to solve problems, which contributes to knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer. As the research results from Pereira and Mohiya ( 2021 ) show, employees are more willing to share knowledge rather than hide it under the influence of different types of organizational support activities, which promotes the knowledge flow between knowledge sharers and recipients. This is in accordance with the findings of a number of previous studies (Hammami et al. 2013 ; Kurz et al. 2018 ; Lamm et al. 2015 ; Pereira and Mohiya 2021 ) supporting the relationship between POS and knowledge transfer. To the best of our knowledge, limited previous research has looked into the impact of organizational factors on knowledge transfer willingness. However, the relationship between POS and knowledge transfer was non-significant for mainland China, and the possible reason lies in the fact that in mainland China, employees’ need for POS not only requires short-term support; Pereira and Mohiya ( 2021 ) mentioned the work environment full of negative emotions and competition and the lack of organizational support perceived by employees, including the lack of incentives or rewards, the lack of involvement and recognition, the lack of adequate training, the lack of succession planning, the lack of planning and strategy, etc., which may cause employees to hide knowledge and then reduce willingness and behavior of knowledge transfer.

Additionally, the findings reveal that self-efficacy plays a significant role in knowledge transfer for employees in Taiwan and mainland China. Furthermore, self-efficacy plays a key mediating role in the research model. These findings are quite consistent with those of Brown et al. ( 2011 ), Caesens and Stinglhamber ( 2014 ), Lee et al. ( 2021 ), and Islam et al. ( 2022b ), who verified self-efficacy as something important that bridges the relationship between different variables in different contexts. In addition, unlike the findings of Meyers et al. ( 2019 ), both regions are compared in the same model in this study, finding that self-efficacy generated in the social identity model has a direct effect on knowledge transfer. Islam et al. ( 2022a ) also find that self-efficacy is not only a vital mediator but could also inspire employees to invest efforts to increase their innovative behavior. However, research results show that self-efficacy has a positive and significant effect on innovation behavior for employees in Taiwan rather than for mainland Chinese employees. This is consistent with recent work by Hu and Zhao ( 2016 ) and Slatten ( 2014 ) showing that employees high in self-efficacy are likely to choose to engage in innovative behavior, as they will feel confident in their knowledge and skills to generate new ideas and implement those ideas at work.

Moreover, the result indicated that knowledge transfer is positively and significantly associated with innovative behaviors for employees in Taiwan and mainland China and implies that employees in the organization conduct effective implicit and explicit knowledge exchange or sharing. Similarly, Islam et al. ( 2022a , 2022b ) and Islam and Asad ( 2021 ) point out that the culture of knowledge sharing in the organization can promote employees’ innovation, knowledge sharing behavior, communication, and knowledge transfer, and reduce knowledge hiding behavior. This can promote the dissemination of innovation information, ideas, opinions, and solutions. More innovative knowledge can be gained by employees, who can also improve innovative behavior in various working situations via knowledge diffusion and spread (Hu and Zhao 2016 ), specifically in tough situations. Knowledge transfer has a positive impact on innovative behavior, which agrees with the results of prior studies and may enhance the explanatory ability of social identity theory and the cultural relevance of employees with different cultural backgrounds (Abbas and Sağsan 2019 ; Kim and Lee 2013 ; Kurz et al. 2018 ).

Practical implications

To sum up, our findings imply that this study is of great practical significance for improving the quality of human resources. Firstly, in this study, it is found that POS significantly affects innovation behavior and self-efficacy in both regions. It indicates that the support and interaction from superiors, peers, and within the organization can facilitate employees’ having more autonomy and confidence to complete tasks through the collaboration of psychological and tangible resources when performing tasks and objectives and provide stronger innovative behavior. In this regard, this study suggests that managers should provide organizational support that is available to improve employees’ innovative minds and self-belief, particularly during the pandemic, when employees may experience anxiety and stress beyond work. Thus, more empowerment and autonomy should be endowed in terms of work arrangements. In addition to providing more relevant training in customer service and interaction, rewards for service innovation and quality improvement should also be enhanced to stimulate employees’ innovative motivation.

Besides, the study found that employees’ self-efficacy has a positive effect on knowledge transfer. As discussed in previous studies, employees with high self-efficacy can discern the tacit and explicit knowledge needed to achieve tasks in the work environment. To acquire such knowledge, these employees will carry out a series of learning processes through knowledge transfer and share their own knowledge within the organization. Thereby, it is suggested in this study that managers should first improve the learning mechanisms and atmosphere within the organization, create a harmonious and value-creating work environment, and reduce the atmosphere of competition and negative emotions. Employees can perceive their own competence and knowledge value so as to improve their willingness to share and transfer knowledge, such as through the establishment of a network service team and mentoring system, as well as the emphasis on team reciprocal performance.

Finally, the research findings indicate that knowledge transfer has a significant effect on the innovative behavior of employees. Intentions and behaviors of knowledge transfer and sharing will be affected by knowledge readiness. If there is a lack of a sufficient knowledge base, it will be difficult to improve innovative behavior even if knowledge transfer is conducted. To make employees smoothly conduct knowledge transfer, the study suggests that managers should have a detailed classification and description of knowledge and know-how within the organization, which can promote knowledge integration, produce new ideas, and improve employees’ performance in innovative behavior.

Research limitations and suggestions for future researchers

Based on views of goal-oriented behavior and social identity, this study aims to verify whether there are differences between employees in different cultures in terms of trust and cognition generated from the attitude toward organizational support and how these differences are reflected on subsequent innovation behaviors. The PLS-SEM is used in this study to make multi-group analyses and compare path coefficients of models of employees in Taiwan and mainland China. Results show that samples from Taiwan demonstrate a more significant path and a more intensified relationship among variables compared to samples from mainland China. However, it is important to note that POS plays a vital role in preventing and controlling COVID-19, which brings a greater sense of safety for employees and drives them to devote more time to innovation behaviors.

The findings of this study will enrich the literature about employees in particular regions and the service innovation behaviors of employees. However, this study still has certain limitations that need to be addressed in subsequent research. First of all, as purposive sampling was adopted in this study and there were restrictions on time and cost, a more representative sampling method could not be adopted. Despite the fact that sampling conditions were established during the process of sampling, they might still affect the generalization of the results. Therefore, future researchers are suggested to utilize a more detailed sampling process to obtain more representative samples so as to improve the generalization degree of the model and theory. What’s more, although social identity theory plays a critical role in the field of psychology, very few studies have examined the relationship between the building of mechanisms and employees’ service innovation behaviors. Despite the fact that this study refers to the social identity theory and establishes the building mechanism, and the fact that significant organizational theories are available to be drawn from the findings, other motivation theories of hierarchy needs, self-efficacy, organizational learning, etc. can also be used to explain how to motivate employees in a specific region to perform innovative behaviors. Therefore, future research is suggested to identify associated psychological dimensions that influence the innovative service behaviors of employees using diversified theoretical models.

One of the primary limitations of our study is the inability to comprehensively explore all mediation effects due to space constraints. While our primary focus was on cross-cultural differences in innovative behavior, the potential mediating roles of various factors remain an area that warrants further exploration. Future research could delve deeper into these mediation effects, providing a more nuanced understanding of the intricate relationships between the variables in our model.

Third, employees need to report details about mental building mechanisms by themselves as the indicator in the study due to the confidentiality and inaccessibility of the actual data. However, errors may occur when employees state their own mental conditions. Considering research ethics, the connection between building mechanisms and inventive behavior can be better understood if the actual psychological states of employees are assessed. Additionally, researchers are recommended to incorporate the interview contents and employees’ observations of work state into their research in order to provide a basis for the research findings and draw a comprehensive conclusion.

Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due to the privacy protection of respondents but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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MY-PP, CX, RZ, and YH composed the conception and design and drafted the article. CX, RZ, and YH interpreted data and revised it critically for important intellectual content. RZ and YH collaborated with the writing of the study. MY-PP provided data methodology and analysis help. MY-PP, CX, RZ, and YH made critical comments and amendments. Correspondence to YH.

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Peng, M.YP., Xu, C., Zheng, R. et al. The impact of perceived organizational support on employees’ knowledge transfer and innovative behavior: comparisons between Taiwan and mainland China. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 741 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02242-4

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ISSN : 1366-5626

Article publication date: 4 March 2022

Issue publication date: 31 May 2022

This study aims to test the role that organizational sociopsychological variables may play in influencing job stress and work engagement in an organizational identity change scenario.

Design/methodology/approach

On a sample of 118 employees of an Italian company in the personnel training services sector, multivariate statistical analysis tests a pattern where organizational variables such as work support (by supervisors and coworkers, independent variables) – moderated by corporate identification (moderating variable) – and mediated by organizational trust (mediating variable) – boosts employee work engagement and lowers psychosocial risks (dependent variables).

The mediating effect of “organizational trust” is significant in the relationships of “supervisor social support” and “coworker social support” with the “absence of psychosocial risks.” Moreover, an increase in supervisor social support can lead to a statistically significant increase in work engagement. This occurs only for employees with low or medium identification and not in highly identified individuals.

Originality/value

The findings from the analysis on moderation are of primary importance because they show us a new perspective that can play the role of a guiding and practical principle on how to act on an organization’s human resources, specifically targeting those with lower or medium corporate identification.

• Social support
• Perceived organizational support
• Organizational identification
• Work engagement
• Psychosocial risks

Bonaiuto, F. , Fantinelli, S. , Milani, A. , Cortini, M. , Vitiello, M.C. and Bonaiuto, M. (2022), "Perceived organizational support and work engagement: the role of psychosocial variables", Journal of Workplace Learning , Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 418-436. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-11-2021-0140

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Flavia Bonaiuto, Stefania Fantinelli, Alessandro Milani, Michela Cortini, Marco Cristian Vitiello and Marino Bonaiuto.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

In the organizational context, there are multiple dimensions that can be articulated in concrete and tangible or intangible dimensions. It is already well known that nurturing intangible dimensions, such as human capital and social capital, will have a positive impact on very concrete outcomes, such as performance and financial capital ( Luthans et al. , 2004 ). A more in-depth analysis of intangible aspects can include a slightly different interpretation of those assets: for example, social capital is referred to the network of contacts and relationships, but it can also involve “processes of empathy, trust, commitment, satisfaction and happiness that articulates negative and positive emotions towards supervisors, colleagues or organizational processes” ( Lirios et al. , 2018 ) (p. 11). The dimension of psychological capital, which includes four positive psychological states (confidence, hope, optimism and resilience), can be a core element of work engagement ( Stajkovic, 2003 ; Benevene et al. , 2018 ). As some authors have noted ( Luthans et al. , 2004 ), a higher level of the four components of psychological capital can provide employees with more job satisfaction and performance.

Psychological capital is framed in the theoretical context of positive psychology, and indeed, there are evidences of its positive impact on job attitudes and behaviors ( Avey et al. , 2011 ): we will frame both individual and collective positive dimensions of work in the context of psychological capital. The intangible dimensions that will be taken into account are explained in the following paragraphs.

Specifically, this research contributes to the existent literature by highlighting the central role of perceived organizational support in the improvements of work engagement and job-related stress coping; in terms of more practical implications, it will be discussed how this kind of research contribution could be the basis to develop possible training interventions oriented to work engagement raising.

Therefore, the objective of this study is to fill a gap in the literature consisting in the lack of a model relating the abovementioned variables. Basically, this research fills the gap regarding how these intangible assets can influence the performance and health of a company’s employees and how particularly social relationships and the working and organizational climate are relevant aspects for promoting a healthy and productive work environment.

In addition to advancing the literature on the subject and proposing a comprehensive model to assess the social-psychological variables examined in this study (organizational trust and corporate identification), this contribution also discusses a possible practical implication of the results, in the terms of training which could be developed for organizational personnel such as specifically the managerial roles.

Below the relevant constructs are defined and, on the basis of the existing literature evidences, their relations are summarized to show the need of specifically testing how organizational trust and corporate identification are intangible relevant psychosocial features capable of, respectively, mediating and negatively moderating the effects that workplace social support (both from the manager or supervisor and from colleagues) exerts both by boosting the employees’ work engagement and by buffering their psychosocial risks.

1.1 Perceived organizational support

Social support has a relevant both preventive and protective function that can reduce general stress ( Kenny et al. , 2014 ; Kenny and Hage, 2009 ). Framed in the work context, social support is defined as perceived organizational support, and it is considered as the commitment of the organization toward the employees. It consists of two complementary dimensions: the colleagues’ and the supervisor’s perceived support. The colleagues’ perceived support includes practical support and information related to tasks, other than socio-emotional support and empathy ( Rousseau et al. , 2009 ). The perceived supervisor support has been defined as the employees’ perception of how much their supervisors are supportive and caring about the workers’ well-being ( Eisenberger et al. , 2002 ). Empirical researches demonstrated that support from colleagues is positively related to both job satisfaction and job and personal commitment ( Chiaburu and Harrison, 2008 ; Karatepe et al. , 2010 ; Galanti et al. , 2021 ). Motivation in the workplace can also be positively affected by the colleagues’ support ( Karatepe et al. , 2010 ). With regard to the supervisors’ perceived support, there are some studies conducted by Malik et al. (2015) that found that a good relationship between supervisor and employee can directly and positively affect job satisfaction. It then emerged how a good supervisor–collaborator relationship also affects job satisfaction indirectly, through the mediation of motivation. Situational leadership theory ( Hersey and Blanchard, 1969 ) also supports this line of research. This leadership style, characterized by the figure of the leader as a partner who relates horizontally with individual employees trying to meet their needs, promotes the development of motivation and performance and reduces stress levels in employees.

1.2 Organizational trust

Another relevant theme, which is central in the definition of the organizational climate, is organizational trust, defined as the employees’ trust toward the management with the expectation to receive more positive than detrimental actions ( Şimşek and Taşçı, 2004 ; Erdem and İşbaşı, 2000 ). There are several studies in the literature stating that the perception of organizational support plays an important role in providing organizational trust. Indeed, if employees feel support from their colleagues, their trust toward the organization may increase ( Canipe, 2006 ; Polat, 2010 ; Narang and Singh, 2012 ; Duffy and Lilly, 2013 ). The same effect has also been tested with supervisors’ support ( Kara et al. , 2015 ).

1.3 Psychosocial risks in workplace

Numerous studies on social exchange ( Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002 ; Stamper and Johlke, 2003 ; Viswesvaran et al. , 1999 ) have suggested that social support should also help employees to cope with stress. In fact, Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) showed that perceived organizational support has a moderate negative relationship with job strain. Thus, it can be inferred that high perceived organizational support indicates to workers that emotional support and help are available from the organization when they would face high job demands, reducing their psychological stress. Moreover, there are several studies that corroborate the positive relation between perceived organizational support and the reduction of job-related stress ( Jung and Yoon, 2013 ; Loi et al. , 2014 ; D'Alterio et al. , 2019 ), especially when workers find themselves in social minority situations or when they encounter tasks that are extremely complicated. Another indirect relation is mediated by personal job motivation in decreasing the risk of job-related stress. Past studies have already analyzed the relation between organizational support, organizational trust and stress, and it has been tested a moderator effect of trust and support in the relation between perceived organizational politics and job-related stress ( Vigoda-Gadot and Talmud, 2010 ). However, their moderation effects are not equally addressed.

1.4 Organizational identification

According to social identity theory (SIT), people tend to classify themselves and others according to various social categories such as organizational affiliation, religious affiliation, gender and age ( Tajfel and Turner, 1985 ). SIT also argues that individuals identify themselves with social categories to enhance their self-esteem ( Hogg and Turner, 1985 ; Tajfel, 1978 ).

The organization represents an essential reference point for the individual to answer the fundamental question “who am I?,” to shape and support the process of social and personal identity construction ( Ashforth and Mael, 1989 ).

Ellemers has taken up and applied the assumptions of SIT to the study of organizational identification with particular attention to group dynamics ( Ellemers, 1993 ; Ellemers et al. , 1999 ). Unlike Ashforth and Mael (1989) , Ellemers et al. (1999) did not make a distinction between identification and commitment: in essence, according to the authors, identification, involvement and commitment to one’s own work are closely related and mutually reinforcing.

Referring to the literature, among organizational identification’s antecedents, we can find perceived organizational prestige ( March and Simon, 1958 ; Mael, 1988 ), sense of shared destiny with the organization ( Dutton et al. , 1994 ), opportunity for career advancement and achievement ( Brown, 1969 ), access to organizational hierarchy ( Brown, 1969 ; Lawler, 1992 ) and support and appreciation from supervisors ( Lee, 1971 ; Benkhoff, 1997 ).

Several studies highlighted the positive impact of organizational identity on job motivation ( van Knippenberg, 2000 ; van Knippenberg and van Schie, 2000 ); other past researches found that a good relation between supervisor and employee can positively affect organizational identity ( Katrinli et al. , 2008 ).

There have been some studies investigating the link of organizational identification with the other considered constructs: for example, Dai and Qin (2016) empirically tested that perceived organizational support can play a role in employee engagement through organizational identification. In their study ( Dai and Qin, 2016 ) they found that organizational identification has a positive mediating effect between perceived organizational support and work engagement. Since a moderating effect of organizational identification on the other two variables has never been tested, it can be hypothesized that less identified individuals need more support from their supervisors so that there is an increase in identification, which in turn can lead to a subsequent increase in work engagement, and that therefore this moderating relationship may be negative.

In support of this hypothesis, there are some previous studies, which have analyzed the nonlinearity of organizational identification in correlating with other psychosocial variables such as transformational leadership and employee adaptability ( Wang et al. , 2017 ) but also with variables such as supervisor support and commitment to change ( Zappalà et al. , 2019 ).

Indeed, in Zappalà et al. ’s (2019) study, results showed that supervisors can indirectly decrease employees’ perceptions of cost, risk or pressure to adhere to change by increasing their sense of identification with the organization.

Finally, Wang et al. (2017) showed a negative interaction between the dependent variable (transformational leadership) and the moderating variable (organizational identification) of their model in predicting employee adaptability and indirectly job crafting. Thus, transformational leadership appears to be more effective in indirectly promoting job crafting through increasing employee adaptability, especially when employees are less identified with the organization.

According to our literature review, the negative moderation effect of the organizational identity between perceived support and work engagement has never been tested before.

1.5 Work engagement

Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) described work engagement as an active, positive, work-related state that includes three dimensions: vigor, dedication and absorption. Past studies have confirmed the relevance of work engagement also with regard to organizational citizenship behaviors: for example, it was found that lower levels of work engagement are associated with higher levels of turnover intentions and deviance, especially when employees do not perceive organizational support ( Shantz et al. , 2016 ). At the same time, work engagement is affected by several organizational dimensions, such as culture, communication, leadership and corporate reputation ( Köse, 2016 ).

Regarding the link among work engagement and the other considered constructs, we can cite some previously reviewed studies ( van Knippenberg, 2000 ; van Knippenberg and van Schie, 2000 ) in which the positive relationship between organizational identification and work engagement is emphasized. The study by Dai and Qin (2016) cited above also relates our same variables, demonstrating how greater perceived organizational support can predict an increase in organizational identification and, in turn, work engagement.

There are also other studies that relate these variables in a different way from the one cited above and from how we hypothesized. For example, the study by Köse (2016) showed that greater work engagement can lead to a greater perception of support from one’s colleagues and superiors. Karanika-Murray et al. ’s (2015) study, on the other hand, highlights how an increase in organizational identification can translate into an increase in performance and how this relationship is positively mediated by work engagement. Finally, Najeemdeen et al. ’s (2018) study shows that perceived organizational support has a significant positive influence on employee engagement.

1.6 Social support, organizational trust and work-related stress

Various studies, such as Vigoda-Gadot and Talmud’s (2010) one, highlight through a correlation analysis how variables like social support in the organizational environment, organizational trust and work-related stress are significantly related to each other. In fact, this study specifically shows a significant positive relationship between social support and organizational trust, while it shows a significant negative correlation between work-related stress and both social support and organizational trust. These correlations led us to develop hypotheses H1a and H1b , expressed below.

1.7 Social support from supervisor, organizational identification and work engagement

There are various researches that have related these variables to each other. Leadership style has been associated several times with motivation, such as by House (1971), who, theorizing his path–goal theory, states that the leader’s behavior is contingent on some psychosocial variables such as job satisfaction or motivation. In particular, he emphasizes that leaders who are “supportive” and therefore able to assist their subordinates are those who are most successful in raising the levels of engagement in their employees.

It is also known as found in Ötken and Erben’s (2010) study that organizational identification correlates positively with work engagement and that supervisor support can moderate this relationship. This shows us, although the constructs are examined differently than in our study, the close relationship between organizational identification and supervisor support in predicting work engagement. International literature underlines the key role played by organizational support, especially during organizational socialization, on employees’ engagement (see, for example, Saks, 2006 ). For what concerns, stricto sensu, the supposed moderation played by organizational identity, this took origin from a niche literature that stresses the nonlinearity relationships between organizational support and several individual positive outcomes (see, for example, Rosen et al. , 2017 ; Harris and Kacmar, 2018 ).

In light of the past literature and in line with the theoretical framework of psychological capital, the logical-theoretical reasoning that led us to formulate the following hypotheses derives from the results of previous studies on the subject. In fact, with regard to hypotheses H1a and H1b , referring mainly to the study of Vigoda-Gadot and Talmud (2010) , we started from the correlations examined in that study to hypothesize a mediation model in which organizational trust (intrinsic variable in the individual worker) can mediate an external variable to the worker (perceived organizational social support) with the aim of predicting lower psychosocial risks. This is very important to understand how the health of individual workers is strongly influenced by the work environment and by the relationships they establish with their colleagues and supervisors or managers. However, it is important not to underestimate the personal sphere composed of emotions, feelings and evaluations that very often can influence the effects that work environment and colleagues have on the individual.

As for hypothesis H2 , we have placed organizational identification as a moderator because the impact that the supervisor behavior has on his/her coworkers also depend on the level of maturity, identification and experience of the latter. Indeed, there are several studies that suggested various moderators or mediators in the relations between the leadership style and followers’ behavior. The follower maturity is strictly related to the individual attitude to take responsibilities, to the commitment to organization and to the level of professional development ( Harber and McMaster, 2018 ). There are three levels of maturity based on different amounts of competence and commitment; according to Harber and McMaster (2018) , followers at a lower level of maturity are better supported by a transactional servant leadership approach, which can improve followers’ development and autonomy. Moreover, the study by Zhu et al. (2009) tested a positive relation between transformational leadership and followers’ work engagement; they also assessed that this relation is moderated by some followers’ individual characteristics, such as creativity, innovation, proactivity and learning orientation ( Zhu et al. , 2009 ).

Therefore, we hypothesized that support from supervisor could increase the employee’s engagement to work, but that this increase was significant only in employees who were poorly identified with the organization.

We do hypothesize a direct link between the perceived colleagues’ support and the organizational trust, which in turn could reduce the risk of job-related stress (trust mediation effect of the colleagues’ support on stress).

We do hypothesize a direct link between perceived supervisors’ support and organizational trust, which in turn could reduce the risk of job-related stress (trust mediation effect of the supervisor’s support on stress).

We do hypothesize that organizational identity has a moderator role in the relation between perceived supervisor’s support and work engagement. In other words, we suppose that the support from the supervisor succeeds to increase the work engagement of the workers who are less identified with the organization rather than those who are more identified with it, as the first ones would need it more than the second ones (as they are already work engaged on the basis of their higher organizational identification).

2. Materials and methods

This research has taken place during the year 2018, on the basis of the request made by an organization providing employment services: their expressed need was to identify aspects that could increase the social identity at both the teamwork level and the overall organizational group, due to the change that the company was experiencing (i.e. a brand change and market positioning). Such a turmoil was a challenge especially in terms of identity, since the company group was going to acquire a new corporate image, which was also going to be externally reflected (on customers).

An online questionnaire had been administered through the Qualtrics platform: all employees were invited to anonymously participate with an official launch e-mail to orient employees on the survey in progress and to keep a high employee engagement.

The sample consisted of 118 participants, 64.4% women ( n = 76), 29.7% men ( n = 35), while 5.9% of the subjects did not define their gender ( n = 7).

Tables 1 and 2 describe the sociodemographic characteristics of the sample.

The survey was named “When the company changes name,” and it was developed to analyze the impacts of organizational change on the psychosocial sphere of work relations, on organizational well-being and on social identity. This questionnaire consists of six evaluation scales, for a total of 64 response items.

Organizational identification, taken from the scale six items measure of organizational identification of Mael and Ashforth (1992) , where an example item is “When someone criticizes the company I work for, I perceive it as a personal insult”.

Work engagement was measured through the nine-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale by Schaufeli and Bakker (2003) , with items like “When I work I feel full of energy”.

Organizational trust was divided into eight dimensions: goals, valuing, listening, information, relationships, operations, health and safety and social utility, and all dimensions refer to the organizational health questionnaire by Avallone and Paplomatas (2002) , formed by items such as “The organization finds appropriate solutions to the problems it faces”.

Perceived supervisor social support, using a scale from Caplan’s (1975) Job Stress Questionnaire (JSQ) called social support from supervisor , features items such as “In this time of change, how much help do they offer when faced with a serious work problem?”.

Perceived colleagues social support was measured through a scale of the JSQ of Caplan (1975) called social support from others at work , with item like “At this stage of change, how willing are they to listen to your professional concerns?”.

Absence of psychosocial risks (stress) is a multidimensional scale, and it includes negative indicators, indicators of psychophysical discomfort, absenteeism; the scale is taken from various scales of the organizational health questionnaire by Avallone and Paplomatas (2002) , and an example item is “Impatience in going to work: existence of a daily difficulty in going to work.”

In Table 3 , the descriptive characteristics of the scales are reported.

2.1 Analyses

Preliminary analyses were oriented to explore the sample and the measurement scales; these were carried out with the software IBM statistical packaging for social science (SPSS) Statistics 25.

H1a and H1b are aimed at investigating the effects of the different mediation models, and they were analyzed one at a time by taking either “Social support of supervisor” or “Social support of co-workers” as independent variables, with “Organizational trust” as the mediator variable and “Absence of psychosocial risks (stress)” as the dependent variable.

To carry out these analyses the macro “PROCESS v3.5 by Andrew F. Hayes” of the software was used; more precisely, the two mediations were carried out using the “model number 4” of the macro.

With regard to the moderation hypothesis ( H2 ), the aim is to investigate the moderating effect of the variable “organizational identification” (moderating variable) on the relationship between “supervisor’s social support” (independent variable) and “work engagement” (dependent variable). In this case, the “model number 1” of the macro by Hayes was applied.

To test the theoretical models, first, the normal distribution and reliability of all the investigated constructs was verified through the calculation of Cronbach’s α (see Table 3 ).

With regard to the factors “Health and Safety Protection” and “Social Utility,” it was not possible to calculate the reliability through Cronbach’s α , as they are composed of only one item.

For the multifactorial variable “absence of psychosocial risks,” consisting of 15 items, the reliability of the factors “indicators of psychophysical discomfort” and “absenteeism” could not be calculated, since both consisted of only one item.

3.1 Mediating effect of “organizational trust” between “social support from colleagues” and “absence of psychosocial risks (stress)”

In this hypothesis, which analyzes the mediating effect carried out by “organizational trust” between “social support from colleagues” and “absence of psychosocial risks (stress),” the results showed a total mediating effect. In fact, while “social support from colleagues” does not directly predict the “absence of psychosocial risks” ( coeff = 0.0583; p = 0.3803), the latter is predicted by “organizational trust” ( coeff = 0.7164; p = 0.0000). As shown in Table 4 and Figure 1 , for the entire regression model, the total effect is positive and significant ( effect = 0.2914; p = 0.0000). Considering that an increase in “social support of colleagues” predicts an increase in “organizational trust” ( coeff = 0.3255; p = 0.0000), this will also lead to a lower chance of developing psychosocial risks (stress). The fundamental role played by the mediator variable organizational trust is thus confirmed with respect to the relation among colleagues’ support and absence of psychosocial risks.

3.2 Mediating effect of “organizational trust” between “social support from supervisor” and “absence of psychosocial risks (stress)”

From the analysis, it emerged ( Table 5 and Figure 2 ) that with regard to this hypothesis the regression model presents a “total” mediation. In fact, the independent variable directly predicts only the mediator variable ( coeff = 0.2858; p = 0.0000) and not the dependent variable ( coeff = 0.0849; p = 0.1004). The inclusion of the mediator variable, which significantly predicts the dependent variable ( coeff = 0.6233; p = 0.0000) makes the entire model significant ( effect = 0.2631; p = 0.0000). This means that the “social support from supervisor” does not directly predict the “absence of psychosocial risks”; however, with the inclusion of “organizational trust” in the model, it manages to indirectly predict the absence of stress.

3.3 “Organizational identification” moderation effects on relationship between “social support from supervisor” and “work engagement”

This hypothesis considers the moderation of “organizational identification” in the relationship between “social support from supervisor” and the employees’ “work engagement.” Results ( Table 6 and Figure 3 ) showed that the moderating effect of “organizational identification” is significant and negative ( coeff = −0.2033; p = 0.0027). Considering that the relationship between “social support of the supervisor” and “work engagement” as well as the relationship between “organizational identification” and “work engagement” were both significant (respectively, coeff = 1.0496, p = 0.0003; and coeff = 1.2562, p = 0.0000), we can draw important conclusions. In fact, these results show us that in the subjects with a lower degree of organizational identification, an increase in social support from the supervisor can lead to a statistically significant increase in work engagement. Therefore, as depicted in Figure 4 , the positive effects of the supervisor social support upon the employees work engagement happens only for employees who are poorly or averagely identified, while on the other hand, in the highly identified subjects, the increase in work engagement due to the supervisor’s support is nonsignificant ( coeff = 0.29, p = 0.00 with low identification; coeff = 0.19, p = 0.00 with medium identification; coeff = 0.09, p = 0.16 with high identification).

4. Discussion

The results of the study confirmed all our hypotheses.

Starting from the H1a hypothesis, as verified by numerous studies ( Canipe, 2006 ; Polat, 2010 ; Narang and Singh, 2012 ; Duffy and Lilly, 2013 ), it was found that support from colleagues in the workplace can predict an increase in organizational trust in employees. Similarly, a direct relationship between organizational trust and lower psychosocial risks has been verified as previously found in the study by Lambert et al. (2021) , showing that certain types of organizational trust, such as trust in supervisors or in colleagues, have positive effects on employee stress. Finally, the analyses revealed that the mediating effect by organizational trust is “total.” In fact, while the direct relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable is nonsignificant, the model gains significance with the inclusion of the mediating variable (organizational trust). We can therefore highlight the importance of organizational trust in the relationship between the other constructs as highlighted previously, albeit with a different regression model from ours, by the study of Vigoda-Gadot and Talmud (2010) . Unlike the existent literature, this study emphasizes how the interaction between support from colleagues and organizational trust is essential to try to reduce stress in the workplace. In fact, peer support alone does not appear to have a significant effect on employee stress if employees do not have feelings of trust in their organization and management.

With regard to the results that emerged from the analyses on the H1b hypothesis, as already exposed by Kara et al. (2015) , support from supervisors turns out to be a direct predictor of organizational trust. The latter then, as also tested in hypothesis H1a and in the study by Lambert et al. (2021) , was found to have a positive and significant correlation with the absence of psychosocial risks. Finally, as with hypothesis H1a , the direct relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable was not found to be significant. However, with the inclusion of the mediating variable (organizational trust), the entire model turns out to be significantly predictive of the absence of psychosocial risks. This is consistent, as with the H1a hypothesis, with the study by Vigoda-Gadot and Talmud (2010) . Again, as found in the analyses of the previous hypothesis, the central role of organizational trust is highlighted. As with the H1a hypothesis, these results are innovative and significant as such a model has never been tested in the literature. The latter suggests the importance of developing a feeling of organizational trust in employees in such a way to make them more receptive to the positive stimuli and support they might receive from their organization, with the final outcome being positive repercussions both for individual employees and for the organization itself.

Finally, the analyses performed to test hypothesis H2 revealed the most interesting and innovative results of our study. In fact, both supervisors support and organizational identification were found to be positively correlated with an increase in work engagement. This is in line with the literature on the topic, as Malik et al. (2015) had already emphasized a direct relationship between supervisors support and work engagement. Also regarding the relationship between organizational identification and work engagement, this was previously tested by van Knippenberg (2000) and van Knippenberg and van Schie (2000) with similar results. However, the most innovative result emerges from the analysis of the interaction between the independent variable (supervisor support) and the moderating variable (organizational identification) in predicting the dependent variable (work engagement). In fact, unlike some previous studies ( Ötken and Erben’s, 2010 ), the results showed a negative interaction between supervisors support and organizational identification. This means that less identified employees benefit more from supervisors support. This is plausible and in line with some leadership theories such as situational leadership ( Hersey and Blanchard, 1969 ) or the concept of servant leadership ( Stone et al. , 2004 ), which emphasizes that supervisors must establish different relationships based on the employees with whom they relate. These results are innovative from a scientific-academic point of view, since they present a previously untested model and propose a negative interaction between supervisors support and organizational identification not hypothesized and adequately tested by the existing literature. They are also innovative from a practical application point of view. Indeed, the results that emerged from the analysis regarding the moderation of “organizational identification” in the relationship between “social support from supervisor” and “work engagement” are of primary importance because they show us a novel perspective that has not been previously tested in the literature. This leads to several conclusions and implications, which could help to interpret various organizational phenomena and properly manage human resources, over and above the general indication to nurture psychological capital and the organizational intangible assets.

The results show that an increase in social support can create an optimal climate in an organization by promoting health, work engagement, trust in the organization and, above all, the organizational identification of employees.

The study has some limits: first of all it is cross-sectional, and data cannot be generalized, also because the sample is from a very specific business sector (employment services). Another limitation presented by this research is the small sample size, which did not allow for different analyses than those carried out using the SPSS macro “PROCESS v3.5 by Andrew F. Hayes.”

As far as future prospects are concerned, we could try to make the data more generalizable by expanding the number of subjects in the study and investigating companies in wider sectors of activity. Expanding the sample would also allow for different types of more accurate analysis, such as structural equation modeling.

Among the results obtained, the most interesting and innovative is the one that emerged from the analysis of the moderation because it is the one that can play the role of a driving and practical principle on how to act.

There are some practical implications derived by our results, first of all, it could be hypothesized a future intervention inspired by the theory of situational leadership. Referring to the theory of situational leadership (Hersey and Blanchard, 1969), we could propose to the supervisors of the company a training intervention to adapt their leadership style in relation to the employees with whom they are in contact. In fact, in situational leadership theory, the leader loses the connotation of a boss and becomes a partner. In this way, it is the leader who, together with the subordinate, understands the leadership style (or partnership) that is most suitable for that specific employee at that specific time or for that specific task. In particular, it will be important to understand the level of identification of the employees, since the supervisors of this firm will have to use a supportive style necessarily when dealing with individuals or groups of employees with little or no identification. It can be hypothesized that more identified employees may prefer a directive or delegating leadership style; however, they seem to be less dependent from the supervisor’s support to keep a proper work engagement (which is probably already adequately fueled by their own higher degree of organizational identification).

The analysis of results suggested a possible future perspective related to a training intervention aimed at “transforming” the supervisors of the company into coaches. It could be interesting to investigate the presence of coaches in the organization and implement a training path for supervisors; becoming a coach means evaluating his or her own ability to listen to and to understand the point of view of others, with the intention of putting himself or herself at the service of the team, trying to grasp what he or she can do for the group of subordinates rather than the other way around; see the servant leadership concept too ( Stone et al. , 2004 ).

The coaching-oriented supervisor aims to transmit to the subordinates the values of trust, autonomy and self-determination, not through imposition (top-down) but through shared discussion.

For the organization, transforming its supervisors into coaches can have numerous advantages such as an improvement in the organizational climate and well-being and make the information flows more fluid.

The coaching process is fundamental in enhancing managerial skills to manage change. Moreover, a transaction of supervisors in coaches is consistent with the results of the analysis of both mediations and moderation, which provide us with a fairly clear overview of how a supportive leadership style can improve organizational performance and well-being.

Mediation model for “colleagues’ support”

Mediation model for “supervisors’ support”

Moderation model for interaction between supervisors support and organizational identification

Moderating effect of “organizational identification” in the relationship between “support from supervisor” and “work engagement

Years of work in the company

Descriptive characteristics of the scales

Mediating effect by “organizational trust” between “social support from colleagues” and “absence of psychosocial risks (stress)”

Mediating effect by “organizational trust” between “social support from supervisor” and “absence of psychosocial risks (stress)”

Moderating effect of “organizational identification” in the relationship between “support from supervisor” and “work engagement”

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Acknowledgements

Funding : This research received no external funding, and it acknowledges support from Universitas Mercatorum to the author Flavia Bonaiuto.

Data availability statement : Data are available on request.

Conflicts of interest : The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Corresponding author

About the authors.

Flavia Bonaiuto, Psychology PhD, is an Extraordinary Professor in Psychological Testing, Communication and Marketing Psychology, Psychological Dynamics of Creative Organizations at Universitas Mercatorum, Rome. She has a research fellowship at Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza Università di Roma. Her research interests apply to environmental psychology, organizational psychology, body image and body self-perception. She cooperated in academic and military fields as Author and Coauthor of guidance/admission tests and personality questionnaires for a long time, and she has worked as Occupational Psychologist (assessment, human resources management) for over 20 years. She also exercises as eating behavior and disorders Psychotherapist and as Psycho-Educator promoting psychophysical well-being.

Stefania Fantinelli is a Work and Organizational Psychologist, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Business Psychology Lab, University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara. Her main research interests are impacts of social media and new technologies on individual and organizational life. She teaches Economic and Consumer Psychology at LUMSA University, Rome; she is also a Work and Organizational Consultant.

Alessandro Milani is a PhD Student in Social Psychology at “Saapienza” – University of Rome. He graduated in “psychology of social processes” and in “psychology of communication and marketing.”

Prof PhD Michela Cortini is a Full Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Chieti – Pescara, where she is the Coordinator of the bachelor’s degree in Psychological Sciences. She is the Head of the Business Psychology Lab, and she leads the vocational guidance services for Psychology students. She teaches Work and Organizational Psychology and human resources (HR) Management. She is an Executive Committee Member of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology since May 2019. Her main research interest concerns research methodology (in particular the triangulation of methods), HR management and organizational communication.

Marco Cristian Vitiello is a Work and Organizations Psychologist and Psychotherapist. He is the Founder of Studio Saperessere. He is a Member of the board of directors at SIPLO (Italian Society of Work and Organizational Psychology). He is the WG Coordinator of Work Psychology for the Psychologists institutional association of Lazio. He is an Adjunct Professor at “Sapienza” – University of Rome, in “Business Organization”. He is an Extraordinary Professor at “Universitas Mercatorum”, in “Work and Organizations Psychology”. He is a Consultant in staff organization and training, HR management and work well-being. He has a private consultancy in workplace health and well-being and professional reskilling. He is the Author with Key Editore (stress, well-being, mobbing, violence and harassment in the workplace) and Springer Healthcare Education (stress for health-care professionals).

Marino Bonaiuto is Full Professor of Social Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome; PhD Board Member at Department of Psychology of Socialization and Development Processes; former Interuniversity Centre for Research in Environmental Psychology Director and former President of the master course in Psychology of communication and marketing. He is an awarded Research Fellow International Association of Applied Psychology. He has expertise in residential environments, health-care environments, green and natural areas, working environments, both verbal and bodily and organizational communication.

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Perceived Organizational Support: A Literature Review

Perceived organizational support (POS), which reflects the organization’s value on employees’ contributions and concern for employee benefits, is an important tool to help organizations establish favourable relationship with employees and motivate employees work hard. This paper aims to make a review of POS concept and the variables related to POS. Research results showed that perceived organizational support emphasizes organizational commitment to employees and is a unilateral relationship. Perceived organizational support is related to employees’ reduced absenteeism, increased job satisfaction, happiness, organizational citizenship behaviour and organizational performance, and also influenced by organizational fairness, working conditions, HR practices, employee characteristics, leadership, management communication. Besides, this paper summarized the measures to improve perceived organizational support, such as supportive or high commitment HR practices, fairness, superior and co-worker supports, employee empowerment. This study helps researchers understand the latest research progress in perceived organizational support.

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Perceived organizational support as social validation: Concept clarity and content validation

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Authentic leadership, perceived organizational support, and psychological capital: Implications for job performance in the education sector

Uzma sarwar.

1 School of Education, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang, China

Muhammad Aamir

2 School of Computer Science, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang, China

Zhongwen Chen

Associated data.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The present study sifts the indirect role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in linking authentic leadership (AL) and job performance (JP). Furthermore, this study investigates the interplay of AL and perceived organizational support (POS) in PsyCap. We tested these assumptions through PROCESS macro with two sources of data collected from 350 employees and their respective colleagues working in education sector organizations in China. The study findings established that AL positively influences employee performance directly and indirectly through PsyCap. POS moderates the effects of AL on PsyCap such that this relationship gets more pronounced in individuals with high levels of POS. All organizations in the education sector can benefit from the current study’s practical application. We recommend that firms create and implement these training programs to improve JP since AL is favorably correlated with JP. The organization should pick executives with a vision to encourage e-JP. To promote this behavior, firms can also hold management training seminars, conferences, and programs. Making performance a clear necessity within job criteria will encourage it among personnel. To achieve great results, top management and leadership must inform the workforce about the importance of authentic behavior in the workplace.

1. Introduction

Quality leadership is desperately needed in the education industry, which functions in a complicated environment marked by technological and economic developments ( Akhtar et al., 2021 ; Syed et al., 2021 ). As increasing cases of corporate fraud and scams are revealed throughout the world, the need for more positive, authentic, and value-based leadership has become more apparent ( Akhtar et al., 2022 ). Stakeholders want their leaders to operate with a high level of honesty ( Akhtar et al., 2020a ). In this environment, genuine leadership has gotten a lot of press in the business world, prompting a spike in organizational behavior (OB) study ( Akhtar et al., 2022 ). Authentic leadership (AL) is frequently regarded as a prerequisite for all other types of constructive leadership ( Avolio and Gardner, 2005 ). AL has enhanced self-awareness via an ethical climate and transparent relationship with followers ( Walumbwa et al., 2008 ). Self-awareness relates to one’s perception of oneself, the degree to which one is aware of one’s strengths and faults, and one’s effect on others. An internalized moral perspective, in which one’s actions and behavior are regulated by personal values and moral principles, is a metaphor for self-regulation. The level of openness and honesty with which one shares information and expresses one’s actual emotions is referred to as relational transparency. The degree to which a leader weighs all relevant information before making a choice is referred to as balanced processing. The possibility of regaining stakeholder confidence, trust, hope, resilience, and optimism is highlighted by supporters of AL ( Avolio et al., 2004 ).

The research on AL is still in its early stages, which is surprising given the novelty of the idea. Despite the conceptualization shared by academics and practitioners that AL fosters encouraging employee behavior at work, there is a dearth of actual evidence to support this claim ( Gardner et al., 2021 ). AL, such as moral integrity, care for others, and consistency between actions and moral principles, attempts to create a productive workplace ( Clapp-Smith et al., 2009 ; Hannah et al., 2011 ). Leaders are moral and genuine. Since the concept is new, AL research is still in its very infant stage. Although theorists and practitioners alike contend that genuine leadership fosters positive employee attitudes and behavior in firms, there is a dearth of empirical data to support this claim ( Gardner et al., 2011 ). Despite the benefits of AL on employee behavior, there are currently few empirical studies that support the relationships and mechanisms between AL and followers’ behavior ( Ribeiro et al., 2020 ). Haque et al. (2021) found that the mechanism through which leaders stimulate followers’ behavior has not been well analyzed. Further research is still needed to substantiate these claims, according to Ribeiro et al. (2020) , to confirm the AL-behavior linkage needed to identify the relevant mediating factors. Kim et al. (2022) stated that AL boosts task performance via emotional sharing. Aria et al. (2019) confirmed that AL affect turnover intentions via POS among teachers. Moreover, it is not well understood how genuine leadership affects follower results psychologically from the ground up ( Lei et al., 2021 ; Akhtar et al., 2022 ). Although recent research has identified self-efficacy as a potential mediator ( Lei et al., 2021 ) of the link between AL and employee outcomes, investigating various underlying mechanisms allows for a deeper understanding of the nature of interactions. This is especially true for a developing concept like AL, which is still in its early phases of growth. AL is considered a part of human resource management (HRM). Recently, studies have focused on the outcomes of HRM, such as job performance (JP) ( Akhtar et al., 2020a ; Yu et al., 2022 ), social capital and performance ( Singh et al., 2021 ), psychological safety ( Moin et al., 2021 ), and presenteeism ( Haque, 2018 ).

Since human energy can be infectious, encounters between staff members and AL might help them recharge ( Wang and Xie, 2020 ). Psychological capital (PsyCap) includes features such as self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience. An AL energizes and motivates his or her subordinates while also bringing rich resources into the organization under the signaling theory. Under authentic leaders, employees’ PsyCap, hope, and positive affectivity grow ( Luthans and Avolio, 2003 ; Rego et al., 2014 ). PsyCap was found to be favorably associated with the majority of employee behavioral outcomes ( Luthans and Youssef-Morgan, 2017 ). The AL style holds that leaders develop their legitimacy via moral underpinnings, respect, and open communication with their followers. Typically, AL encourages openness and facilitates the growth of trust between superiors and followers, both of which are essential for personal success ( Walumbwa et al., 2008 ).

There have been no empirical studies in OB research too far that examine the link between AL and PsyCap and their association with individual performance. Furthermore, limited empirical data indicate how cognitive processes may explain the association between AL and individual performance. The lack of clarity on the nexus between these two critical variables and the methods via which AL relates to individual performance hinders the ability of OB researchers to provide evidence-based recommendations. Given the positive impact of PsyCap witnessed in OB and the role of AL recognized by extant research in positive psychology to achieve personal success ( Luthans et al., 2019 ). The primary aim of this study is to determine whether individual PsyCap mediates the effects of AL on their performance at various levels of perceived organizational support (POS).

The moderating function of POS is also investigated in this study. In addition, POS can forecast employee outcomes when combined with other factors ( Chen and Eyoun, 2021 ; Côté et al., 2021 ). Côté et al. (2021) stated that POS buffered the presenteeism and job satisfaction relationship in the education sector. Employees with higher POS experience decreased turnover intentions ( Huang et al., 2021 ) and job stress ( Xu and Yang, 2021 ). Higher POS workers are more prone to have a sense of entitlement ( Alnaimi and Rjoub, 2021 ). As a result, in the context of education, the current study uses POS as a moderator between AL and PsyCap.

The current study makes a noteworthy contribution to the literature on AL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to look at the connection between AL and worker performance using PsyCap. This study, therefore, contributes to the corpus of research that has already examined the impacts of AL, which in turn contributes to the consequences of AL. Second, we think the relationship between AL and PsyCap is more complicated and susceptible to external organizational influences. Thus, we add to the corpus of current information by proposing POS as a boundary condition on the AL–PsyCap relationship. By reexamining human resource policy, this study offers managers a comprehensive framework for encouraging AL in the workplace.

2. Theory and hypotheses development

The signaling theory explains the information asymmetries between two parties, by which asymmetric information is disturbed by the quality of information about intent ( Stiglitz, 2000 ). When employees receive signals, such as moral integrity, care for others, and consistency between actions and moral principles, they attempt to create a productive workplace from AL, so individuals can feel PsyCap, and they are actively indulged in positive outcomes.

2.1. AL and job performance

Nearly six decades ago, the notion of AL was first discussed in the literature, resulting in a rapidly expanding body of academic and empirical study ( Gardner et al., 2011 ). Since the theory’s birth, AL has been considered one of the most important components affecting followers’ behavior ( Wang and Xie, 2020 ; Gardner et al., 2021 ; Akhtar et al., 2022 ). According to Akhtar et al. (2022) , leaders who lead individuals with authenticity can promote a favorable atmosphere and long-term follower accomplishment. When AL fully acknowledges their talents and weaknesses, communicates their thoughts honestly, maintains an appropriate proportion in their perspective, and exhibits strong moral values in their conduct and interactions, an increase in JP is expected ( Alilyyani et al., 2018 ). AL is viewed as the primary source of good leadership behavior needed to achieve constructive work-related results ( Avolio and Gardner, 2005 ).

Authentic leadership acts according to its ideals and works to establish open and sincere communication with its followers ( Gardner et al., 2005 ). It may set an example for others and practice open communication ( Avolio and Gardner, 2005 ). By setting an example for others, leaders exhibit their dedication to the task at hand and instruct those who follow them on how to be mentally, physically, and emotionally alert while working. According to Walumbwa et al. (2010) , real leaders’ ethical actions are likely to influence their followers because of their allure and authority as role models. Under AL, followers often absorb the beliefs and values of the leaders and act in a way that is congruent with their ideals and ethics. For instance, AL is seen by followers as being governed by high moral standards and characterized by fairness, honesty, and integrity in interacting with followers ( Avolio et al., 2004 ). Because of their openness, optimism, and high ethical standards, these leaders can inspire others to share their ideals. As a result, followers are inspired to engage in constructive action and develop a sense of self-worth and duty to return the favor ( Ilies et al., 2005 ).

Authentic leadership sets a good example in the workplace by demonstrating confidence, hope, and optimism ( Gardner et al., 2005 ). Positive attitudes and emotions may be infectious, leading to a good trickle-down effect within companies to stimulate positive emotional and cognitive growth among their followers, resulting in more JP. AL examine all necessary facts objectively while making a choice; they provide a fair and transparent workplace atmosphere. Employees in such a workplace are more conscious of the value of assisting others and are encouraged to do so ( Walumbwa et al., 2010 ); hence, they participate in high JP. Therefore, we argued that:

H1 : AL is positively related to JP.

2.2. The mediating role of psychological capital

PsyCap (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience) of any individual has a great impact on the JP of that specific individual. On the other hand, AL could also create such a wonderful and achievable environment in which they can perform in a better way because AL develops such a capacity under which they put their optimal efforts that are more beneficial to achieve the desired goals of himself. Therefore, when leaders adopt the AL style, they will prepare authentic followers who will grow with the qualities of AL (transparency, moral/ethics, balanced processing, and self-conscience). It is criticized that the environment in which AL adopts that permit an undefended atmosphere under which access of followers could be enhanced for support, information, and resources ( Walumbwa et al., 2008 ).

AL develops a capacity in the followers under which they can complete their work efficiently and effectively ( Akhtar et al., 2022 ). It enables them to perform efficiently and settle/compromise with the job and be emotionally strong; this way, the AL cultivates positive emotions in the followers ( Bento and Ribeiro, 2013 ). PsyCap also plays a vital role in the behavioral and mental development of a person. Previous research has found that employees’ PsyCap is critical to the effective completion of their jobs ( Luthans and Youssef, 2004 ). Employees with more PsyCap, according to Karatepe and Karadas (2015) , are frequently active and committed, and they like being absorbed in their job ( Peláez Zuberbühler et al., 2021 ).

Psychologically capable individuals have strong self-efficacy and confidence in their abilities; as a result, they can completely participate in their job, which may allow them to satisfy JP beliefs ( Xanthopoulou et al., 2007 ). Furthermore, they are resilient, which means that even if they fail, they can recover and re-engage in their task, allowing them to constantly spend their energy ( Bakker et al., 2011 ). They are also optimistic; as a result, they stay involved and do not stray from their route of completing the task at hand, fully pouring their resources into the work and performing effectively ( Syed et al., 2021 ).

H2 : PsyCap mediates the relationship between AL and JP.

2.3. Moderating role of POS

Previous studies concluded that when employees get developmental training and pay raises, they feel obligated and repay the organization by achieving its objectives ( Eisenberger et al., 2002 ; Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002 ). POS is viewed as a resource in an organization that produces psychological outcomes ( Xu et al., 2022 ). People perceive how they are treated by the organization through their superiors, which results in a perception of the amount of power they believe is being exerted over them ( Aselage and Eisenberger, 2003 ). In the education sector, POS is positively related to pro-unethical work behavior ( Wang X. et al., 2021 ), work engagement ( Karatepe et al., 2022 ), and commitment ( Zagenczyk et al., 2021 ). Regarding the impact of POS on PsyCap, Yang et al. (2020) concluded that organizational support predicts PsyCap. Existing studies stated that POS significantly moderates and mediates organizational relationships ( Naseer and Raja, 2021 ).

In the education sector, individuals need POS to PsyCap to serve their customers. As in the education sector, POS works as a social clue that attenuates the RL–PsyCap relationship. We contend that POS reflects an individual’s belief about his organization ( Eisenberger et al., 1986 ), individuals with a high level of POS will optimize the salience of AL and increases the likelihood that employees experience PsyCap. In the case of high POS, employees perceive that they get an extra reward, praise, and recognition against JP, so they can feel happy ( Eisenberger et al., 2020 ), thus making them more prone to perform their job with vitality. POS facilitates vitality at work as, due to POS, individuals feel obligated and want to repay the organization by exerting high efforts for goal achievement ( Eisenberger et al., 2002 ). POS promotes learning at work since it encourages people to learn new things and develop their abilities to assist the organization in achieving its objectives.

This personification tendency assigns organizations’ human-like individualities ( Eisenberger et al., 1986 ). According to Salancik and Pfeffer (1978) , high trust, integrity, fair distribution of rewards, praise, and recognition work as social clues, and thus, individuals actively engage in PsyCap. AL provides these particular resources for PsyCap. Alternatively, individuals with low POS levels view their organization has little or no commitment toward them. Then individuals with low POS are likely to perform their work with low vitality and learning. Akhtar et al. (2019) study how employees who experience high levels of POS feel obligated to enhance their JP to meet company goals and do it with all of their hearts. Thus, high POS will amplify the AL–PsyCap relationship (see Figure 1 ).

Hypothesized framework.

H3 : POS moderates the AL–PsyCap relationship in that the higher the POS, the stronger the aforementioned relationship.

3. Research method

Cross-sectional data from the education sector organization were used in the current study. Data were collected from January 2022 to February 2022. Individuals are the unit of analysis. We delivered 550 survey forms containing questions about AL, POS, and PsyCap, as well as demographic information, to respondents, and we got 410 usable answers. In addition, we circulated JP’s survey form to the respondents’ peers and got 372 useful responses. We gathered 350 legitimate responses after removing 22 responses that had multiple or inadequate answers (e.g., two replies to a single statement). The following requirements had to be met by employees: they had to be a part of a certain team or department, have a direct leader within that team or department, and operate in an environment where there was unity and constant communication between team members. Participation was optional, anonymous, and based on written informed permission with a flexible withdrawal policy. In addition, the researcher collected the surveys right after they were completed. We started by outlining the goal of the investigation. The study team emailed the management of each firm in advance of the survey’s administration to describe in detail the study’s goals (i.e., AL and its effects) and its methodology. Following the official’s clearance, the same study polled each supervisor (by email), working with the heads of their respective departments, to describe the nature and objectives of the current study and inquire about their openness to having their followers.

To reduce frequent method biases, the current study implemented procedural remedies and recommendations made by Podsakoff et al. (2007) . We started by outlining the goal of the investigation. The study team emailed the management of each firm in advance of the surveys administration to describe in detail the study’s goals (i.e., AL and its effects) and its methodology. Following the official clearance, the same study polled each supervisor (by email), working with the heads of their respective departments, to describe the nature and objectives of the current study and inquire about their openness to having their students participate. In addition, the poll asked supervisors to inform their staff of the study’s objectives and methods and seek their participation.

Based on prior research, which indicates that having support first from the top improves the responsiveness of the prospective respondents, we chose this strategy ( Dillman, 2000 ). Second, data were collected through a multi-source design. By which the surveys of AL, POS, and PsyCap were tapped among respondents along with their demographic details. Furthermore, the survey of JP was tabbed among the peers of the aforementioned respondents. Third, in the present study, we also used a moderator to minimize the CMB ( Simons and Peterson, 2000 ). Previous studies reported that the chances of CMB were minimized in the presence of a moderator ( Javed et al., 2020 , 2021 ; Syed et al., 2020 , 2021 ; Aslam et al., 2021 ; Li et al., 2022 ).

3.1. Measures

All the variables were measured by previously validated scales. All the items will be measured by the use of a five-point Likert scale.

A total of 16 items AL questionnaire (ALQ) used to measure AL Avolio (2007) α is 0.97. The item is My supervisor admits if his/her decision was wrong/mistaken . We measured POS with the help of the eight-items scale developed by Eisenberger et al. (1986) . A sample question was, “My organization considers my goals and values.” The α is 0.91. The 12 items of PsyCap were adapted from Luthans et al. (2007) . An example scale is “I am confident that I could deal efficiently with unexpected events.” The α was 0.92. We utilized a peer-reported seven-item scale created by Williams and Anderson (1991) with a reliability score of 0.92 to measure JP. The example items include “ he or she adequately completes assigned duties .” Recently studies used the peers rating scale to measure JP by which peers rated their colleague’s performance ( Akhtar et al., 2021 ; Syed et al., 2021 ).

From a total of 350 responses, 234 were men (with 66.9%) and 116 were women (with 33.1%). Likewise, 35.7% are less than 29 years old, which shows that most of our respondents are young. In total of 27% respondents are 39 years old, 22% respondents are 49 years old and 15% respondents are 50 and above years old; 18% of respondents are at the graduate level, 70.9% of respondents have master’s degrees, and 11.1% of respondents are MS degree holders. Notably, 43.4% of respondents have less than 5 years of experience, 25.7% of respondents have up to 10 years of experience, and 30% of respondents have more than 10 years of experience.

As some potential variables may influence thriving at work and megaphoning behavior, therefore, gender, age, education, department, and experience were treated as control variables because previous studies also controlled them for PsyCap and JP.

4.1. Measurement model

All the study variables’ reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were calculated in the current study. The findings stated that estimated loadings of all items of each underlying construct are statistically significant and greater than the 0.4 threshold (see Table 1 ; Hair et al., 2010 ). The measures are reliable as the value of Cronbach’s alpha is greater than the cutoff level of 0.7 ( Nunnally and Bernstein, 1978 ; Nunnally, 1994 ). We employed average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) to measure internal validity ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ). All variables have CRs larger than 0.7 ( Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994 ), and the AVE of each construct is greater than the cutoff level of 0.5 advocated by Fornell and Larcker (1981) . Furthermore, we utilized the Fornell and Larcker (1981) approach to verify discriminant validity since the correlation between the two associated variables was >for each √ of AVE (see Table 2 ).

Confirmatory factor analysis: validity and reliability.

All loadings are significant at the 0.01 level. AVE, average variance extracted; CR, composite reliability.

Discriminant validity test results.

The √ of the average variance extracted was shown on the diagonal.

4.2. Correlation

According to Table 3 , AL has a positive and significant correlation to POS ( r = 0.53, p < 0.01), PsyCap ( r = 0.65, p < 0.01), and employee JP ( r = 0.63, p < 0.01). POS shows the positive and significant correlation to PsyCap ( r = 0.47, p < 0.01) and employee JP ( r = 0.52, p < 0.01). PsyCap shows the positive and significant correlation to the employee JP ( r = 0.64, p < 0.01).

Correlations mean and standard deviation of study variables.

N = 350. ** p < 0.01. # Means number. Bold values means are significant.

4.3. Hypotheses testing

Table 4 displays the findings for our H1, H2, and H3 as direct and indirect hypotheses. We employed PROCESS macro (model 4) to examine this indirect effect and PROCESS macro model 1 to assess the moderating effect ( Hayes, 2017 ) PROCESS macro (model 4), and to test the moderating effect, we used the model 1 of PROCESS macro. With the help of PROCESS macro, we also calculated the bias-corrected confidence interval by using the bootstrap technique. The current study also employs control variables, that is, age, education, and experience, but control variables did not significantly alter the main findings of the study. Thus, for clarity and parsimony, we excluded them from tables ( Carlson and Wu, 2012 ); however, results with controls are available from the authors.

Mediating role of PsyCap.

N = 350. Control variables: marital status, department, and grade. The boot (LLCI and ULCI) from bias-corrected bootstrapping test. ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

SE, standard error.

For H1, we anticipated that AL is positively related to JP. Results are shown in Table 4 and support our H1, as AL had a positive and significant association with positive JP (β = 0.77, p < 0.001). Furthermore, H2 states that AL is positively related to JP via PsyCap. In Table 2 , we also present the indirect effect estimate (from 10,000 bootstrap samples) of AL on JP via PsyCap with 95% confidence intervals. Our results reveal that the indirect effects of AL on JP via PsyCap were significant (β = 0.31, boot 95% CI [0.10, 0.37], did not include zero). Providing support to our H2.

H3 observed the moderating role of POS on the association between AL and PsyCap. Table 5 demonstrates that AL and POS have positive and significant interactive effects on the PsyCap (β = 0.05, SE = 0.02, p < 0.05). The interactive effect pattern provides support to our H3. By following the suggestion of Aiken et al. (1991) , we also demonstrated the characteristics of the interaction term. Figure 2 demonstrates that slop analysis provides support to our H3, by indicating that the interactive effect was stronger at a high level of POS (β = 0.45, boot 95% CI [0.22, 0.69], did not include zero) and weaker at a low level of POS (β = 0.20, boot 95% CI [0.03, 0.37], did not include zero). Providing support to our H3.

Moderating role of POS.

N = 350. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.

Interaction plot.

5. Discussion

In this study, we created and evaluated a conceptual model that describes how AL affects employee JP. Two ideas were conceptualized for the investigation. The original model proposed PsyCap as a mediator of the AL–JP link. POS was proposed in the second model to moderate the aforementioned link. Both ideas were supported by the findings. AL was discovered to affect JP both directly and indirectly through PsyCap. High AL employees felt their work had a purpose and had greater JP than lower AL employees. It was discovered that the PsyCap fostered by sincere leaders helped people think and perform successfully. The psychological condition of having meaningful experiences increased intrinsic motivation and caused workers to give everything they had ( May et al., 2004 ). The active employees felt the need to articulate themselves in ways to enhance their JP. They were passionate and prepared to go above and beyond in their job to improve their JP.

Employees with high PsyCap have the strength and energy essential to perform well ( Choi et al., 2020 ), and their more frequent experience of good affect ( Fredrickson, 2001 ) compelled them to seek unusual paths and perform better ( Choi et al., 2020 ). This supports our claim that AL improves perceptions of PsyCap by requiring workers to engage in decision-making and sustaining a trusting relationship through relational transparency. A person’s confidence in his capacity to generate creative ideas and partake in creative activities is increased by this sense of worth and value. In addition, feeling acknowledged increases one’s psychological readiness to do vocational duties ( Kahn, 1990 ). The findings add and extend the findings of previous studies on AL, demonstrating its link to PsyCap ( McDowell et al., 2018 ; Ramalu and Janadari, 2020 ; Wang D. et al., 2021 ) and JP ( Duarte et al., 2021 ). The findings highlight the importance of AL in education sector firms in cultivating good employee behavior. These findings from education sector firms are especially significant since AL is an emerging construct, and proof of its good consequences from many cultures is required on the path toward robust theory development. This study, therefore, contributes to the body of knowledge and aids in the advancement of AL by offering crucial empirical data on its effects in a distinctive cultural context.

The findings indicate that POS modifies the relationship between AL and PsyCap. People are more likely to gain greater PsyCap from AL when they perceive that their organizations are supporting them. Previous scholars have also investigated the moderating impact of POS ( Côté et al., 2021 ). Côté et al. (2021) concluded that POS buffered presenteeism and job satisfaction relationship. Kumar et al. (2022) confirmed that POS moderates the employee capital and taking charge behavior. As a result, the findings of their study agree with those of the current study. POS thereby modifies the association between AL and PsyCap, which is direct.

5.1. Theoretical implications

First, this study expanded the body of study on the impact of AL with findings ( Gardner et al., 2021 ). Even though enough studies show the favorable effects of AL on employee results, there are not many studies that show how AL affects long-term, fruitful relations with employees ( Gardner et al., 2011 ). The study’s results also suggested that a brief bond, such as PsyCap, may act as a mediator between AL and JP.

The moderation research model is the second contribution of this study. The present study found that the relationship between AL and PsyCap was moderated by POS. By using POS as a moderator, the majority of earlier studies analyzed and examined the likelihood that AL and POS will interact either synergistically or substitutively. However, our study aims to address Iqbal et al. (2018) ’s need for researchers to look at how AL employs behavioral outcomes. According to our research, AL actively encourages JP among its personnel. In particular, their interplay prompts us to reconsider the notion that researchers should pay attention to both the AL and organizational variables that are closer to the AL, such as POS, in addition to just the AL itself.

5.2. Practical implications

The finding has important ramifications for organizational managers as well. The managers must be authentic. According to the findings of this study, AL affects the PsyCap of subordinates. Managers generally push their frontline staff to offer exceptional education by either empowering or supporting them ( Johanson and Woods, 2008 ) or raising their incentives, rewards, or acknowledgment. Managers may enhance their employees’ emotional control by being more real when engaging with education staff since authenticity reduces work strain and encourages work resources ( Walumbwa et al., 2008 ). Therefore, leaders in the education sector would work to become more authentic in their relationships with others by asking for input, stating what they mean, owning up to their mistakes when they are incorrect, and basing choices on their core values ( Gardner et al., 2005 ).

The findings offer valuable insights to top management in terms of improving JP. The findings show that AL improves JP by increasing PsyCap. AL will assist organizations in developing an active staff, committed, and engaged in their work, in addition to assisting them in establishing such a workforce. Keeping employees motivated has evolved as the most challenging HR issue facing firms due to the expansion of multinationals in the education sector that are all vying for the same talent. Our study advances knowledge on the factors influencing PsyCap. The study gives an essential tool to organizational managers for fostering a JP-oriented workforce by establishing AL as a forecaster of PsyCap and JP.

5.3. Limitations and future directions

The limitations and future directions of this study are listed below. The orientations of the links between the variables in this study may shift, decrease, or even be strengthened by some of the factors as a result of AL’s influence on JP via PsyCap. Other potential processes explaining the benefits of AL on JP deserve additional study and exploration. In the education sector, for example, job autonomy and feedback may be linked to AL and JP. Second, the relationships between AL and subordinate JP should be investigated in diverse education situations. Employees may develop or adopt various tactics for dealing with demands in various circumstances ( Seymour, 2000 ). Third, additional studies on leaders’ motivating functions in the education sector should be done. The energy of followers may be affected differently by different leadership philosophies, either increasing or decreasing it. This has been determined to be essential to each person’s JP ( Baum and Youngblood, 1975 ). Positive leaders, like spiritual and caring ones, give their followers energy, while negative ones, like oppressive and destructive ones, drain it from their followers. In light of this, the results of other styles of leadership, especially dark leadership such as despotic leadership ( Syed et al., 2020 ), leaders’ knowledge hiding ( Akhtar et al., 2021 ), exploitative leadership ( Syed et al., 2021 ), and super ostracism ( Akhtar et al., 2020b ), on the JP of education employees should be investigated from the viewpoint of human power.

6. Conclusion

The subject of how AL affects public sector employees’ JP in the unique setting of China was expanded upon in this study. The results of the investigation support the viability of the proposed concept, which explains how AL raises JP among employees. In addition, PsyCap plays a crucial role as a mediator and advances the friendship between AL and JP. The results of this study also suggested that POS mediated the association between AL and PsyCap. Therefore, this research will enable them to understand the importance of AL, and its application across all industries will become essential for the JP of employees.

Data availability statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Huanggang Normal University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

US works on initial model, theory, literature review, and Research method. MA works on Introduction, literature review, and Research method. YB works on data analysis. ZC works on discussion and proof reading. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Home > Graduate Research > Master's Theses > 4678

Master's Theses

Perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support as antecedents of work engagement.

Kelista Lea Burns , San Jose State University Follow

Publication Date

Spring 2016

Degree Type

Degree name.

Master of Science (MS)

Howard Tokunaga

organizational support, supervisor support

Subject Areas

Psychology; Behavioral psychology

Research has examined how providing employees with support through the organization and its supervisors is related to beneficial workplace outcomes. However, the use of nearly identical scales in measuring perceived organizational support (POS) and perceived supervisor support (PSS) might have led to consistent correlations and redundancies between the two constructs. To explore whether these scales are problematic in measuring POS and PSS, the purpose of this study was to develop and test new measures of POS and PSS designed to capture the unique characteristics of each construct. Additionally, organizations have become particularly interested in the benefits of work engagement; more specifically, POS and PSS have been found to be predictive of work engagement. Thus, the purpose of this study was also to use the proposed scales to measure POS and PSS as antecedents of work engagement. Participants in this study included 382 employees in a Southern California healthcare company. The findings of this study suggest that the proposed measures were able to successfully capture the unique qualities of POS and PSS. Furthermore, POS and PSS were found to be predictive of work engagement, with POS being the stronger predictor. These findings also suggest that while providing employees with supervisor support increases engagement, organizational support is likely to make a larger impact. However, perceptions of organizational support are likely to include how employees perceive support from their supervisors.

Recommended Citation

Burns, Kelista Lea, "Perceived Organizational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support as Antecedents of Work Engagement" (2016). Master's Theses . 4678. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.8hf7-dh9p https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/4678

Since June 24, 2016

https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.8hf7-dh9p

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