Improving Employees' Goal Commitment: The Contribution of Perceived Organizational Support

I carried out a study with 355 employees of a social welfare agency to investigate the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS), involving employees’ perceptions of positive valuation by the organization and goal commitment. I found that POS was positively related to employees’ commitment to assigned work goals which, in turn, was associated with increased in-role and extra-role performance. The relationship between POS and goal commitment was mediated by organizational identification and self-efficacy. Moreover, the relationships between POS and both organizational identification and self-efficacy were enhanced when employees perceived that their organization was highly competent in fulfilling its objectives. Thus, POS may serve as an important contextual factor contributing to employees’ commitment to a variety of work goals.