Perceived Organizational Support and Organization Performance: HR, CEO, and Industry Influences

Abstract

Despite the many studies that have established a positive relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and employee performance, research is lacking concerning the relationship of POS and organizational performance together with possible organization-wide and industry-level moderating influences. With a sample of 109 small-to-medium sized South Korean firms, we found that when high performance work systems (HPWS) were strongly in place or when resource abundance in a given industry was limited (low munificence), POS was strongly related to subsequent organizational financial performance, controlling for initial organizational financial performance. In contrast, we found no relationship between POS and organizational performance when HPWS was low or industry munificence was high. Further, employees' POS mediated the relationship between the CEO's relational leadership and organizational performance, as moderated by HPWS and industry munificence. These findings support the view that aggregate POS of employees across the organization contributes to organizational performance; however, understanding this relationship requires a careful consideration of the strong influence of organization-wide and industry-related contextual factors.