Investigating the implications of changes in supervisor and organizational support.

Abstract

Workers tend to experience many benefits when they work for supportive supervisors and organizations. But what happens when workers experience changes in perceived support, more or less support than they typically experience? We studied family-supportive supervision (FSS) and perceived organizational support (POS) to test how changes in the perception of support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic may influence workers. Three waves of survey data from 368 workers in the United States and Canada were collected as the human and economic toll of COVID-19 manifested. Random-intercepts cross-lagged panel analyses were used to differentiate between stable associations and the within-person changes of interest. Stable associations among variables were consistent with prior research, but cross-lagged effects painted a complex picture that offered reasons for hope and concern. As hypothesized, we observed evidence for gain cycles such that there were reciprocal positive associations between FSS and POS, and higher-than-normal POS was associated with greater job satisfaction. However, remaining hypotheses were not supported, as changes in FSS and POS were not significantly associated with job insecurity, and heightened FSS was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Our study reinforces prior findings by showing that employees generally benefit when working for supportive supervisors and organizations, while also suggesting that episodic changes in FSS and POS may have limited impacts on workers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).