The Influence of Social Support on the Reaction of an Employee

This study was conducted in the headquarters of major local government organisation in Western Australia. The emphasis of the study was to measure the influence of six sources of social support on the job satisfaction and occupational stress of an individual. The research was conductedas work‐related rather than a more general support rasearch. Therefore, six types of support were offered and six sources were measured on these types. Conclusion was that the immediate manager and the peers of the individual had the greatest positive influence on the two outputs measured. Thus, it appears that the senior management of an enterprise should consider setting up work‐teams within the enterprise consisting of the manager and immediate subordinates. This concept is in fact Likert's linking‐pin concept and this present study suggests that such a process will not increase job satisfaction, it will also help to reduce occupational stress with the consequential reduction in organisational and personal problems.