Organizational Support and Statistical Analysis - Research Paper Example

? Research on Organizational Support and Statistical Analysis The organizational support theory (OST:Eisenberger, Huntignton, Hutchinson, & Sowa, 1986; Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002; Shore & Shore, 1995) states that in order to meet several socioemotional needs and to assess the benefits of increase work effort, employees usually form a general perception concerning the extent to which the organization to which they belong values their contributions and cares for their well-being. It thus expected that with increased support for the organization, the employees will feel a greater obligation to help the organization achieve its goals; and their efforts recognized and realized by the organization at hand (Aube, Rousseau, & Morin, 2007). The type of behavior most likely resulting from organizational support would include increases in both in-role and extra-role performance and the reduction in stress, absenteeism and other negative withdrawal behaviors like turnover and boredom. A second factor affecting the productivity of employees to a given organization is job satisfaction. Job satisfaction can be defined as the amount of comfort and satiety one derives from playing a certain role in a given organization. It is one of the most important determinants of the productivity of employees in terms of the quality of work they deliver, the time they take completing given tasks besides their willingness to work overtime (Chen, Aryee, & Lee, 2005). Besides organizational support and job satisfaction, role overload is the third factor with a big influence on the productivity of the employees to a given company. Role overload is the lack of balance or reasonableness in the number or extent of expectations from a job or position holder. It is a result of too many roles at one time for a given individual or roles that are changing and there is the development of too many roles at once for the given individual (Gallardo, Canizares, Guzman, & Jesus, 2010). Employees experiencing role overload have been seen to exhibit stress and other negative aspects at their places of work due o the same. In a survey carried out to determine the extent to which the factors stated above influence the productivity of employees, 479 individuals were approached whereupon 377 of them agreed to participate in the survey. The results obtained pointed to an existing relationship between the productivity of employees on the one hand and the perceived organizational support, job satisfaction and role overload on the other hand (Allen, Armstrong, Reid, & Riemenschneider, 2008). Essay Organizational support has always been one of the most important pillars at the workplace since it has been proven to influence the results of one’s work to a great extent. It stems from the human nature of being appreciated and recognized for one’s efforts towards the realization of a given goal. Organizations, although meant to generate profits for the several parties with vested interest, are made up of human beings who, as research has shown, get motivated by several other factors besides the usual pay they take to their homes weekly, fortnightly, monthly or as decided upon with their employers. There has been a tremendous increase in the concerns expressed towards the relationship between employees and their organizations (Aselage & Eisenberger, 2003). With this increased concern, several measures have been put in place to improve the working conditions of employees to better their relationship to the companies they work for. It has been found out that employees who are treated well exhibit a higher degree of commitment to the companies they work for compared to those who are poorly treated (Rhoades, Eisenberger, & Armeli, 2001) and show little preference for withdrawing or leaving their organizations (Allen, Shore, & Griffeth, 2003). Since human behavior plays such a big role in the overall work experience, organizations are making efforts to ensure their workforce is more of a family than a robotic environment where profits are churned out with little regard to social welfare. As it is often said; man is a social animal. Research has also shown that being regarded highly by a given organization sees to the meeting of an employee’s esteem, approval and affiliation needs. Those who are evaluated positively by their organizations are made aware of the fact that a repetition of such an act is almost certainly to be noted and rewarded by those in charge (Allen, Armstrong, Reid, & Riemenschneider, 2008). The efforts made by employees who have a good perception of the organizational support they so much depend upon are usually higher compared to organizations that do not recognize such feats of higher performance. On the other hand, job satisfaction is more of a result of the perceived organizational support than a precedent of the same. Satiety at the work place has determined the level of productivity to a large extent due to the comfort with which employees view their workplaces. Role overload affects the effectiveness of the work done since it determines the level of clarity with which a given employee views the work assigned to them. The two take minor roles to the productivity of an employee when compared to the effect of the same by the perceived organizational support (Aube, Rousseau, & Morin, 2007). Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses Several studies have been done on the subject of organizational support and its influence on the productivity of a given individual or employee as such. The current study focuses on the importance of the level of perceived organizational support in relation to the productivity of employees as determined by the findings of the same study. Hypothesis 1: There is a relationship between the number of hours worked and the level of perceived organizational support. Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between the level of perceived organizational support and the level of job satisfaction exhibited by the employees. Method Participants The data for this paper and study was collected from co-workers and employees from several firms in the locality. The type of sampling chosen was convenient sampling where 479 individuals were approached but only 377 agreed to take part in the survey. He response rate was thus 78.7 percent. The average age of the respondents is 33 years and the sample consists of 51 percent women. Measures The demographic characteristics in question were five indicators namely gender, age, employment status, the number of hours worked per week and the job tenure. On a scale of 1 to 100 (1-100), the level of organizational support as perceived by each employee was rated to determine its impact on their productivity (Allen, Armstrong, Reid, & Riemenschneider, 2008). Those who scored 100 strongly and without doubt believed the organization they worked for had their interests at heart. A score around 50 showed a moderate level of organizational support with most of those who scored points around this reason being mostly indifferent as to the interests of the organizations they worked for. For those who scored significantly below the 50 mark, it was shown that they had little organizational support with traits associated with them including turnover, absenteeism and low motivational levels. The quality of work they produced was also of low quality in comparison with that produced by the others. Results According to the results recorded from the test analysis, the results for the mean scores and standard deviations for job satisfaction are recorded in Table 1. The highest mean results for the data analysis were highest for 3.79 and lowest 3.50 were related to intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction respectively. This implies that employees derive higher levels of satisfaction intrinsically compared to extrinsic satisfaction. A t-test was carried out to determine the relationship between the number of hours worked and the perceived organizational support they received. It was found out from this test that a higher number of hours worked on a consistent basis were directly proportional to the level of individual commitment to the achievement of organizational goals. This may be responsible for the results recorded under management recognition (beta = 0.053, p-value = .364). This has the implication that when management support plays an insignificant role, then there is a very high likelihood that employees end up with low levels of job satisfaction. Therefore, management has a critical role of ensuring that employees get the best out of their working hours by ensuring that employees get a conducive working environment. Another test carried out to determine the level of job satisfaction in relation to the perceived organizational support was carried by use of a one-way ANOVA. The results showed that there was a strong relationship between the levels of job satisfaction to the levels of the perceived organizational support. Those who believed the organization they worked for fully supported their livelihoods were found to have been more satisfied with their jobs. This is evidenced by the 6.643 mean square values that implies that individual employees have very high levels of satisfaction on a personal level compared to comparative analysis. Satisfaction was determined by the number of in-role and extra-role tasks the employees under study undertook with or without being told to do them by someone higher in rank in the company (Aube, Rousseau, & Morin, 2007). Discussion The results of the first hypothesis proved that there exists a strong relationship between the number of hours worked and the levels of perceived support from one’s organization. This information can be very useful to firms that are keen on the effectiveness of the human resource activities that are aimed to connect the culture of the firm to the workers and make them not just mere employees who work for their pay but who have the interests of the firm at heart (Chen, Aryee, & Lee, 2005). This is intended to increase the productivity if the workers without increasing the costs of operation. From the second hypothesis, it can safely yet effectively deduced that the levels of job satisfaction among employees to a given company related strongly to the employees’ perception as to the levels of support they received from their organizations. This information is useful to organizations that are intent on promoting the current crop of workers to higher roles since only those who are satisfied with their jobs will most likely see to the realization of the company’s goals (Aube, Rousseau, & Morin, 2007). The shortcomings to this study are first of all the fact that measuring a factor like job satisfaction can be difficult since it is not numerical in nature. The second hurdle faced is the fact that sampling has several errors that affected the results of the study majorly an uneven distribution of the individuals chosen for the survey. Most of the subjects could came from widely different industries where interests could differ as to the type of work and the levels of personal motivation for the work at hand. Personal temperament, which is also diverse in nature, has been found to determine the levels of job satisfaction and could tweak the results considerably (Aselage & Eisenberger, 2003). References Allen, M. W., Armstrong, D. J., Reid, M. F. & Riemenschneider, C. K. (2008). Factors impacting the perceived organizational support of IT employees. Information & Management, Vol. 45, pp. 556-563. Aselage, J. & Eisenberger, R. (2003). Perceived organizational support and psychological contracts: A theoretical integration. Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 491-509. Aube, C., Rousseau, V. & Morin, M. E. (2007). Perceived organizational support and organizational commitment: The moderating effect of locus of control and work autonomy. Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 479-495. Chen, Z. X., Aryee, S. & Lee, C. (2005). Test of a mediation model of perceived organizational support. Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 66 No. 3, pp. 457-470. Gallardo, E., Canizares, S. M. S, Guzman, T. L. & Jesus, M. M. N. (2010). Employee satisfaction in the Iberian hotel industry: The case of Andalusia (Spain) and the Algarve (Portugal). International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 321-334. Appendix Table 1. Job Satisfaction Mean Scores and Standard Deviations. Variables N M SD Intrinsic satisfaction 377 3.79 0.66 Extrinsic satisfaction 377 3.50 0.74 Overall job satisfaction 377 3.69 0.65 Table 2. Regression results for the number of hours worked and perceived organizational support work Variables Beta t-value p-value Constant 1.781 .076 Recognition by management .053 .909 .364 Work interrelationship -.062 -1.032 .303 Pressure from workload .283 4.013 .000 Role Ambiguity .180 2.674 0.008 Performance pressure .209 3.429 0.001 Table 3. ANOVA Variables Sources of variance Sum of squares Df Mean square F Sig. Job satisfaction Between Groups 26.573 4 6.643 Within Groups 562.417 407 1.382 4.808 0.001 Total 588.990 411 Role Overload Between Groups 44.921 4 11.230 Within Groups 648.603 407 1.594 7.047 0.000 Total 693.524 411 Read More