How Do Employees’ and Organization’s Anticipated Changes in Each Other Influence Their Exchange Relationship? The Organizational Support Theory Perspective

Description

Affective organizational commitment is a fundamental aspect of the relationship between employees and their work organization, with important outcomes for their dedication and loyalty (Meyer & Maltin, 2010; Riketta, 2002). Meta-analyses report that work experiences are the main drivers of affective commitment and that perceived organizational support (POS), employees’ perception that the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986; Kurtessis,Eisenbergeret al., 2017; Rhoades &Eisenberger, 2002), is the work experience most strongly related to affective commitment (Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002). However, the business environment has evolved such that long-term employment is becoming less assured and careers are more likely to involve new skills and responsibilities (Keys & Danziger, 2005). This change in the traditional employee-organization relationship provides only equivocal assurance of future support, threatening the maintenance of affective commitment. Thus, employees may assess not only their receipt of current support, but also likely future support, when reciprocating with affective organizational commitment.  Similarly, social exchange theory views future outlook, as well as current and past treatment, as important to the establishment of strong social relationships. As Blau (1964, p. 98) noted, “the establishment of exchange relations involves making investments that constitute commitments to the other party.” Partners in social exchange relationships invest in one another over and beyond what they have received in the past, trusting that their efforts will be repaid (Shore, Tetrick, Lynch, & Barksdale, 2006). Although reciprocity is most commonly conceptualized as a response to treatment already given, Gouldner (1960) also explained that this norm of reciprocity can serve as a “starting mechanism” to initiate and promote the strengthening of future relationships. Thus, both parties in an exchange relationship may be attentive to future opportunities for more beneficial relationships with each other. Specifically, in the employee-employer relation,employeesmay consider anticipated changes in theirorganizational support(i.e., ACOS) when developing affective commitment, whereas theorganizationmay consider anticipated changes inemployees’ contributions(i.e., ACEC) when providing support to them. Despite this theoretical plausibility, organizational support theory – one of the most influential theories concerning the employee-employer relationship – has not yet taken into account the two parties’ anticipations in this relationship.  Theprimary objectiveof the present research is, therefore, to examine how the employees’ and the organization’s anticipated changes in each other (i.e., organizational support and employees’ contribution) influence their exchange relationship. To the extent that both ACOS and ACEC impact the employment relationship, it is important to understand their respective antecedents. Thus, thesecondary objectiveis to investigate what leads to ACOS and ACEC. In this research, we propose that (a) employees anticipate changes in future organizational support (i.e., ACOS) because of alterations in high performance work practices (HPWP) in the organization, and that (b) the organization anticipates changes in employees’ future contributions (i.e., ACEC) because of alterations in employees’ competence. While we examine how ACOS and ACEC influence the employment relationship, as well as identify their antecedents, ultimately, the question becomeswhy does this matter to an organization?Therefore, thetertiary objectiveis to look into the impact of ACOS and ACEC on employees’ in-role and extra-role performance. Figure 1 represents our overall proposed model.