Toward a Further Understanding of the Relationships Between Perceptions of Support and Work Attitudes: A Meta-Analysis
Abstract
This study (a) compared the effect of perceived supervisor support (PSS) and perceived coworker support (PCS) on work attitudes; (b) examined the moderating role of gender, tenure, and job type in the support—attitude relationship; and (c) tested a theoretical model hypothesizing relationships among PCS, PSS, perceived organizational support, and work attitudes. In a meta-analysis, PSS was found to be more strongly related to job satisfaction (.52 vs. .37), affective commitment (.48 vs. .28), and turnover intention (—.36 vs. —.19) than was PCS. Further, job type (customer-contact vs. non-customer-contact jobs) was found to be a significant moderator. Finally, the proposed model received empirical support. Different forms of support were closely related to work attitudes and to each other. Implications for research on social support are discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The present results are aligned with Ng and Sorensen's (2008) findings that the effects of different sources of social support may sometimes be very dissimilar.
“Taken together, our results are aligned with Ng and Sorensen's (2008) findings, which showed that the effects of different sources of social support may sometimes be very dissimilar.”
From A test of work motivation profile similarity across four distinct samples of employees (2020) · cites this paper as Ng and Sorensen's (2008)
Cites
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999) · Structural Equation Modeling A Multidisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1080/10705519909540118 · Cited by 108,788 · see citing works
Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P. M. (1998) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.3.4.424 · Cited by 12,298 · see citing works
Perceived organizational support.
Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 · Cited by 6,982 · see citing works
Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure
Hochschild, A. R. (1979) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/227049 · Cited by 5,962 · see citing works
PREDICTORS OF OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE CAREER SUCCESS: A META‐ANALYSIS
NG, T. W. H., EBY, L. T., SORENSEN, K. L., & FELDMAN, D. C. (2005) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00515.x · Cited by 2,412 · see citing works
Self-citationResource loss, resource gain, and emotional outcomes among inner city women.
Hobfoll, S. E., Johnson, R. J., Ennis, N., & Jackson, A. P. (2003) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.632 · Cited by 1,381 · see citing works
The role of social support in the process of work stress: a meta-analysis
Viswesvaran, C., Sanchez, J. I., & Fisher, J. (1999) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1006/jvbe.1998.1661 · Cited by 1,331 · see citing works
THEORY TESTING: COMBINING PSYCHOMETRIC META‐ANALYSIS AND STRUCTURAL EQUATIONS MODELING
VISWESVARAN, C., & ONES, D. S. (1995) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01784.x · Cited by 926 · see citing works
Comparing meta-analytic moderator estimation techniques under realistic conditions.
Steel, P. D., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2002) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.87.1.96 · Cited by 309 · cited 1× · see citing works
“This technique of testing for moderators in meta-analyses was found to be the most reliable and robust when compared to other alternative methods (Steel & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2002).”
MethodApples and oranges (and pears, oh my!): the search for moderators in meta-analysis
Cortina, J. M. (2003) · Organizational Research Methods · doi:10.1177/1094428103257358 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Social support at work: an integrative review
Jolly, P. M., Kong, D. T., & Kim, K. Y. (2021) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.2485 · Cited by 513 · see citing works
Is stereotype threat a useful construct for organizational psychology research and practice?
Kalokerinos, E. K., von Hippel, C., & Zacher, H. (2014) · Industrial and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1111/iops.12167 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
von Hippel, C., Sekaquaptewa, D., & McFarlane, M. (2015) · Psychology of Women Quarterly · doi:10.1177/0361684315574501 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Zheng, Y., Zheng, X., Wu, C.-H., Yao, X., & Wang, Y. (2021) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103519 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
A test of work motivation profile similarity across four distinct samples of employees
Gillet, N., Morin, A. J. S., Ndiaye, A., Colombat, P., & Fouquereau, E. (2020) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1111/joop.12322 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Prohibitive Voice as a Moral Act: The Role of Moral Identity, Leaders, and Workgroups
Mesdaghinia, S., Shapiro, D. L., & Eisenberger, R. (2022) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-021-04862-9 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ng, T. W. H., & Sorensen, K. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- University of Georgia (US)
- ORCID
- Ng, Thomas W. H.
- Venue
- Group & Organization Management
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-06
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 243-268
- ISSN
- 1059-6011 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3993
- OpenAlex
- W2101600706
- Cited by
- 676
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 55 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 50 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 43.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Group & Organization Management (publishedVersion)
- The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
- Keywords
- perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, work attitudes, job satisfaction, affective commitment, turnover intention, gender differences, tenure, moderating effect
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
