This document outlines a lecture on organizational support. It begins with defining organizational support as employees' beliefs about how much an organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. It then discusses the importance of organizational support for employee engagement and commitment as well as factors that can influence organizational support like workload, resources, and manager support. The document also examines how different forms of support within an organization like from managers, colleagues, policies, and infrastructure can enhance employee engagement. It concludes by discussing the implications of organizational support for the nursing profession and healthcare organizations.

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Organizational support
By / Mahmoud Shaqria
‫شقريه‬ ‫محمد‬ ‫محمود‬
Outlines:
1. Introduction.
2. Definition of OS .
3. Importance of O S.
4. Factors affecting OS .
5. The Forms of Organizational Supportfor Employee Engagement .
6. Optimizing Perceived Organizational Supportto Enhance Employee
Engagement
7. Consequences of Perceived Organizational SupportOrganizational
Commitment
8. Nursing role on O S
9. Role of leadership on OS
10.Implication of OS on nursing and health care organization
:Educational objectives
:the masterstudent will be able tolectureAt the end of this
1. Define O S .
2. Identify Importance of O S .
3. Clarify Factors affecting OS .
4. Explain The Forms of Organizational Supportfor Employee Engagement
5. Explain Optimizing Perceived Organizational Supportto Enhance Employee
Engagement
6. Explain Consequences ofPerceived Organizational SupportOrganizational
Commitment.
7. Identify Nursing role on O S
8. Explain role of leadership on OS.
9. Identify Implication of OS on nursing and health care organization

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Introduction
Today, organizations have realized the importance of human resources as the
most important source of competitive, today's organizations to attract and keep
staff competing over offering amenities and attention to employees (Riggle et
al,2009). Obviously a large part of adult life is spent working; it seems that the
work activity is considered important activity for mental health of a personand
even for many people is life satisfaction's factor. Employees of an organization
often, based on the value that the organization places for them and to promote
their welfare, comfort and security, feel Interest and certain belief to the
organization
Definition:
Organizational supportis defined as ‟ global beliefs with regards to the extent,
to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-
being
This is a key factor in influencing worker commitment to the organization, job
satisfaction, and general quality of work life.
Importance of O S
*the extent employees develop beliefs concerning organization orientation to
employees' welfare suchas the organization valuing employees' contributions
and caring about their well-being On one hand
*Employees develop an organization's identification evaluating the received
treatment in the workplace.
*This perception is important both for organizational success and employee
health On the other hand, social exchange theorists argue that receiving
increased welfare activities from their organizations might contribute more to
success.
*positive organizational supportis related to fair organizational procedures,
supervisor support, and favorable rewards and job conditions, which in turn lead

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to positive outcomes for both the individual and the organization, such as
increased affective commitment to the organization, increased performance, and
reduced withdrawal behaviors.
Indicated that POS had a strong association with job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, and intention to leave; whereas only moderate, positive effect on
employee performance.
—the employee's felt obligation to care about the organization's welfare and to
help the organization reach its mission.
—the development of beliefs that the organization recognizes and rewards
increased performance
Factors affecting OS :
Work load:
means the amount of work assigned to or expected from a nurse in a specified
time period, a common measure of workload is the number of patients that a
nurse oversees, indexed as the ratio of nurse to patients, it results due to the
shortness in the nurse's staff working in the governmental hospitals; it could be
due to absenteeism due to the sick leaves, maternity leaves, annual leaves,
turnover and retirements.
Availability of resources:
in any organization the professional nurses should be in the position to perceive
that the resources at their disposable are adequate to meet their work demand. If
there are not adequate resources the nurse will find it difficult to get their work
done, and will experience dissatisfaction
Managersupport on professional nurses’performance:
management refers to activities suchas planning, organizing, directing, and
controlling with the purposeof accomplishing specific goals and objectives
within an organization Essentially, management involves coordination and
integration of resources to accomplish specific tasks.
Performance:
Means the actual conductof activities to meet responsibilities according to
standards. It is an indication of what is done and how well it is done
According to WHO health report ( 2006), the performance is a combination of
staff being, available, competent, productive and responsive; poorperformance
of service providers leads to inaccessibility of care and in appropriate care,
which thus contribute to reduced health outcomes as people are not using
services or are mistreated due to harmful practice, it results from too few staff

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or from staff not providing care according to standards and not being responsive
to the patients need.
The Forms of Organizational Support for Employee Engagement
ManagerSupport
Learning begins at the top, but most learning takes place in the lower levels
of employees .Maintaining knowledge means evaluating the employees’ tacit
and explicit knowledge as well as fostering and providing this knowledge
within the company with suitable tools state that the supportof top managers
ensures richer resources, better communication between different
departments, and superior decision making. claim that management support
can take a variety of forms, such as encouragement of employees, providing a
wider selection of user-friendly software, and offering various educational
programs.
Colleague Support
An employee does not work or learn in isolation; innovation, such as
involves all employees of the organization. Communication and cooperation
with peers plays an important role in daily assignments. Also, learning in the
organization is often organized for a group of employees (departments, work
groups). discussed the importance of formal and informal peer learning for
technology-enhanced environments.
Institutional Policy Support
Employee engagement is a change that should be managed at all
organizational levels. First, this change should be reflected in the strategic
documents of the organization. Institutional policy refers to the
organization’s commitment, goals, and values and how these can be
transmitted and achieved All employees should know, understand, and
implement the new organizational strategy. state that organizational policy
services supportprovision of organization rules and/or objectives relevant to
specific content/context.

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Infrastructure Support
According to we are no longer dealing with traditional learning problems
versus technical solutions, but instead we are developing tools and supporting
personalized digitally mediated learning practices that evolve and mutate as
learners and workers follow their own learning trajectories that often cannot
be predicted or prespecified.
Definition POS:
Perceived organizational support(POS)is defined as the employees' “beliefs
concerning the extent to which the organization values their contribution and
cares about their well-being
Optimizing Perceived Organizational Support to Enhance
Employee Engagement
There is eight tactics for optimizing POS.
1. Implement supportive workforce services thatare discretionary—
“Don't just do the things you are required to do.”
Favorable treatment received by employees from an organization can be of
many different kinds, such as recognition for good work, opportunities for
promotion and job security. However, such treatment does not necessarily
translate into high POS. Employees understand that benefits received from the
organization can arise from a variety of motives, not all of which are concerned
with employees’ welfare.
2. Be fair and equitable in the making, monitoring and enforcementof all
managementpractices.
Fair organizational procedures and policies yield major contributions to POS
because such procedures and policies are often viewed as strongly under the
control of the organization and central to employees’ long-term interests In this
way, organizations that treat their employees fairly and equitably convey a
sense of concern for their well-being.

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Types of fair treatment include:
(1) procedural justice ,which involves the fairness of processesused to
determine how resources such as pay, promotions and job assignments are
distributed;
(2) distributive justice, which concerns the fairness of the outcomes
themselves;
(3) interpersonal justice, which involves the fairness in the treatment of
employees, such as with respect and dignity; and
(4) informational justice, which involves the provision of necessary job
Research suggests three useful ways to promote justice perceptions:
(1) rewards and resources should be distributed fairly across employees and the
rationale for the ways they are distributed should be effectively communicated;
(2) employees should be provided with opportunities for active involvement in
the development and application of organizational procedures and policies; and
(3) supervisors and other representatives of the organization should treat
employees with respect and sensitivity
3. Setachievable goals and reward proportionately.
Appropriate rewards and recognition for the achievement of high performance
are strong drivers of POS. When rewards and recognition for high performance
are appropriately provided, organizations promote an environment that
employees can expect to gain rewards for high performance.
4. Offer individualized benefits—“Learnand provide the type of support
your workers and workforce needs.
” Benefits that are tailored to employees’ individual needs more strongly
convey the organization’s positive valuation of employees.
5. Support supervisors so they will fosterPOS in their subordinates.
Supervisors, who act as representatives of the organization responsible for
directing, evaluating and coaching subordinates, play a key role in seeing that
the goals and objectives of higher management are effectively implemented.
Supervisors have been found to repay the organization for their own POS by

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carrying out their jobs more effectively, including more supportive supervision
of subordinates.
6. Train subordinates to be supportive.
Because supervisors have more power over subordinates than subordinates
have over supervisors, most leadership research neglects the possible influence
of followers as a group over their supervisor.
7. Promote strong socialnetworks.
Workplace social networks provide a web of interpersonal relationships that
offer information about how to become a successfulorganization member as
well as provide friendships that make work-life more pleasant. New employees
who become strongly embedded in a social network generally adapt more
successfully to their work environment.
8. Beginorganizationalsupport prior to the start of employment.
Pre-employment treatment by the organization establishes employee
expectations concerning future treatment, including organizational support.
Anticipated organizational supportrefers to the extent to which prospective
employees expect they would be valued and cared for by the organization if
they became employees.
Consequences of Perceived Organizational Support
Organizational Commitment
Job-RelatedAffect
POS has been hypothesized to influence employees’ general affective reactions
to their job, including job satisfaction and positive mood. Job satisfaction refers
to employees’ overall affect laden attitude toward their job .POS should
contribute to overall job satisfaction by meeting socioemotional needs,
increasing performance-reward expectancies, and signaling the availability of
aid when needed.
Job Involvement
Job involvement refers to identification with and interest in the specific work
one performs Perceived competence has been found to be related to task interest

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.By enhancing employees’ perceived competence, POS might increase
employees’ interest in their work.
Performance
POS should increase performance of standard job activities and actions
favorable to the organization that go beyond assigned responsibilities.
Strains
POS is expected to reduce aversive psychological and psychosomatic reactions
(i.e., strains) to stressors by indicating the availability of material aid and
emotional supportwhen needed to face high demands at work. Such buffering
effects of POS on stressor–strainrelationships are discussed in a later section on
the socioemotional need-fulfilling role of POS.
Desire to Remain
Witt and colleagues examined the relationship between POS and employees’
desire to remain with the organization. propensity to leave the organization if
offered slightly higher pay, more professional freedom or status, or friendlier
coworkers. Desire to remain should be distinguished from the discomforting
perception of being trapped in an organization because of the high costs of
leaving (i.e., continuance commitment).
Withdrawal Behavior
Withdrawal behavior refers to employees’ lessening of active participation in
the organization. The relationship of POS to behavioral intentions to leave (i.e.,
turnover intention) have been assessed, as have actual withdrawal behaviors
such as tardiness, absenteeism, and voluntary turnover. Retention of
organizational membership, high attendance, and punctuality provide publicly
identifiable ways for employees to reciprocate POS.
Nursing role on O S
- Communication as a Primary Element of the Supervisory Role.
–communication and formal shift reports. RN/ LPN job descriptions identified
general expectations for nurse reports to UAP; however, observed practices

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suggested inconsistencies between job descriptions and actual employee
practices.
Communication of Expectations.
—Nurses’ autonomy to determine their supervisory style was a common theme.
However, there were differences in management’s explicit expectations for role
style, ranging from ‘‘captain of the team’’ to ‘‘parenting.’’ Managers’
communication of role expectations varied.
Role of leadership on OS
 Perceptions of leader effectiveness are associated with a number of variables
such as empowering leadership .
 the leader’s use of humor the use of transformational yet unconventional
behavior and communicating a strong vision.
 found that leader exemplification, the modeling of behaviors, was related to
perceived leader effectiveness. Effective leaders can also behave in a way
that provides a buffer for subordinates from negative consequences and
influences subordinate leadership perceptions
 Openness to experience is also a quality related to perceptions of effective
leadership
 Relationships are important to the leadership dynamic and subordinates may
perceive leader effectiveness as a function of that relationship through the
leader’s activation of self-concepts, schemas, or implicit theories of
leadership.
 Certain leader roles are also associated with leader effectiveness and found
that for superiors and direct reports goal orientation was the most important
predictor of leader effectiveness, while the facilitator role was a significant
predictor among peers.
Implication of OS on nursing and health care organization
*Organizational supportand consequently the ability to influence is how the
workers interpret the motives underlying the treatment by the organization.

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*Organizational supportwas a more significant predictor of organizational
commitment than was supervisor supportand mentoring.
(OS) fulfils employees’ social and emotional needs and their role and social
identity becomes integrated with the organization.
A high level of organizational support(OS) provides aid to workers
In terms of socio-emotional needs, equipment, funding, technology, ideas, and
physical assistance without such resources, achieving quality and quantity
performance expectations is difficult
Organizational support(OS)strengthens employees’ beliefs that the
organization recognizes and rewards increased performance or expected
behaviors.
High levels of organizational supportshould increase employees‟ felt obligation
to help the organization reach its objectives and lead to decreases in employee
turnover.
In the nursing context,
Nurses require organizational supportto keep them intrinsically motivated since
the delivery of patient care
With organizational support, nurses are able to succeed in continuing their
professional development
In fact, there is rising indication that when registered nurses perceive more
support, they are likely to be more happy with their job and plan to stay with
their present hospital
In addition, sufficient organizational supportallows nurses to pay out extra
time with their patients Because nursing is a stressful profession ,organization
supportmay have protected nurses from the harmful effects of stress by
enhancing their self-esteem and communicating that the organization cared for
their well-being