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Organizational Support in the Workplace: The Case of Korean Hospital Employees

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Human Relations

Abstract

This paper tests three hypotheses on who getsmore support from his or her work organization: (1) Thevalidation hypothesis predicts that employees withgreater social support from their co-workers and supervisors receive more organizationalsupport, because their support validates or legitimizesorganizational support; (2) the positive affectivityhypothesis predicts that employees high on positiveaffect receive more organizational support, becausethey are more likable; and (3) the moderation hypothesispredicts that positive affect and social support do notgenerate organizational support independently, but each acts on the other to affectorganizational support. An assessment of the hypothesesover a sample of 1882 hospital employees in Koreaprovided strong support for the validation hypothesisand partial support for the moderation hypothesis. Contraryto the positive affectivity hypothesis, employees' gooddisposition in itself works against the bringing forthof relevant organizational support, net of support from their supervisors and co-workers.Additional findings related to the unique features ofthe current hospital employees in Korea are alsoreported. Finally, we discuss cross-cultural research implications of the study in moredetail.

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Authors
  1. Jeongkoo Yoon
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  2. Jun-Cheol Lim
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Yoon, J., Lim, JC. Organizational Support in the Workplace: The Case of Korean Hospital Employees. Human Relations 52, 923–945 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016923306099

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