THE ROLE OF EVENTS AND AFFECT IN PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT: A WITHIN-PERSON APPROACH

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Woznyj, H. (2017). THE ROLE OF EVENTS AND AFFECT IN PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT: A WITHIN-PERSON APPROACH. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Employees develop global perceptions regarding the extent to which their work organization cares about their well-being and values their contributions, which is known as perceived organizational support (POS). While the extant literature on POS is vast, a majority of the research has been cross-sectional in nature, which ignores potentially important within-person variation in the job attitude. In addition, much of the research on POS has not directly investigated the role of affect in relation to POS, despite POS connoting caring by the organization. The current study explores the extent to which POS fluctuates on a short-term basis as a result of emotional reactions to events that employees experience at work. In addition, it integrates Affective Events Theory to understand the role of affective events and their associated transient discrete emotions in explaining why POS may fluctuate, and whether that relationship depends on the strength of individuals’ socioemotional needs. To test my hypotheses, I employed a diary-study method in which 56 working adults responded to three surveys per day for ten days. The results suggest that while POS is relatively stable job attitude, it fluctuates over the course of two weeks. I also found that the events that employees experience at work are significantly related to both happiness/joy and anger (discrete emotions). In turn, both happiness/joy and anger are significantly related to POS These results advance organizational support theory by highlighting the role of affect in relation to POS and illustrating that momentary changes in affect relate to momentary changes in POS. Furthermore, only one socioemotional need moderated the relationship between discrete emotions and POS. Organizations can use the results of the current study as evidence for the importance of providing signals of POS in socialization processes for new employees, as it seems that once POS develops, it is relatively stable.

Details
Author

Woznyj, Haley

Title

THE ROLE OF EVENTS AND AFFECT IN PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT: A WITHIN-PERSON APPROACH

Physical Description

1 online resource (117 pages) : PDF

Date

2017

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Employees develop global perceptions regarding the extent to which their work organization cares about their well-being and values their contributions, which is known as perceived organizational support (POS). While the extant literature on POS is vast, a majority of the research has been cross-sectional in nature, which ignores potentially important within-person variation in the job attitude. In addition, much of the research on POS has not directly investigated the role of affect in relation to POS, despite POS connoting caring by the organization. The current study explores the extent to which POS fluctuates on a short-term basis as a result of emotional reactions to events that employees experience at work. In addition, it integrates Affective Events Theory to understand the role of affective events and their associated transient discrete emotions in explaining why POS may fluctuate, and whether that relationship depends on the strength of individuals’ socioemotional needs. To test my hypotheses, I employed a diary-study method in which 56 working adults responded to three surveys per day for ten days. The results suggest that while POS is relatively stable job attitude, it fluctuates over the course of two weeks. I also found that the events that employees experience at work are significantly related to both happiness/joy and anger (discrete emotions). In turn, both happiness/joy and anger are significantly related to POS These results advance organizational support theory by highlighting the role of affect in relation to POS and illustrating that momentary changes in affect relate to momentary changes in POS. Furthermore, only one socioemotional need moderated the relationship between discrete emotions and POS. Organizations can use the results of the current study as evidence for the importance of providing signals of POS in socialization processes for new employees, as it seems that once POS develops, it is relatively stable.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Management

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

Emotions
Multilevel Modeling
Perceived Organizational Support

Subject Area

Organizational Science

Advisor(s)

Shanock, Linda

Committee Members

Heggestad, Eric
Banks, George
Long, Shawn

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Woznyj_uncc_0694D_11319

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1299