Chapter 11: Providing Support to Employees in a Strategically Relevant Manner: Can Leader-Follower Relationships Compensate for Low Organizational Support?

This study aims to assess the strategic effectiveness of employee support provided by either organizational resources or supervisor-subordinate relationships at enhancing employee attitudes. Based on social exchange theory, a compensatory model of the relationship between perceived organizational support, leader-member exchange, and job satisfaction is explored. Little is currently understood about how employees assess resources received from the organization compared to resources from one’s immediate supervisor in the formation of job attitudes. Data was collected from employees of three independent healthcare organizations (n = 187) to test the research propositions. Hierarchical regression was used to assess the interactive effect of leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support on job satisfaction. Study results suggest that perceived organizational support can serve to mitigate the negative attitudinal consequences of low-quality leader-member exchange relationships. Specifically, perceived organizational support moderates the leader-member exchange-job satisfaction relationship such that the relationship is stronger when perceived organizational support is low. The findings of this research suggest that developing leadership skills among supervisors in an organization is likely to enhance job satisfaction among employees, especially when organizational support is limited. Understanding these interactive effects allow managers to opt for the more strategically optimal mechanism for enhancing employee attitudes.