Perceived organizational support and employee diligence, commitment, and innovation.

Abstract

Two studies report a positive relationship of employees' perception of being valued and cared about by the organization with (a) conscientiousness in carrying out conventional job responsibilities, expressed affective and calculative involvements in the organization, and (e) innovation on behalf of the organization in the absence of anticipated direct reward or personal recognition. In Study 1, involving six occupations, positive relationships of perceived support with job attendance and perforrnance were found. In Study 2, using manufacturing hourly employees and managers, perceived support was positively related to affective attachment, performance outcome expectancies, and the constructiveness of anonymous suggestions for helping the organization. These results favor the extension and integration of emotion-based and caleulative theories of organizational commitment into a social-exchange approach. The concept of organizational commitment has attracted considerable interest as an attempt to understand the intensity and stability of employee dedication to work organizations. Two major views of employee dedication focus on affective attachment and calculative involvement, respectively, which are usually considered to be conceptually and empirically distinct (McGee & Ford, 1987; Meyer, Paunonen, Gellatly, Gotiin, & Jackson, 1989; Morrow, 1983; Penley & Gould, 1988; Reichers,