Intra-organizational Social Connection, Support at Work and Organizational Identification

AbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the extent to which relational resources, (a) support at work (in organizational, supervisor, and coworker dimensions) and (b) intra-organizational social connection, are associated with organizational identification. A survey with 209 participants showed that supervisor support was not significantly related to organizational identification, but organizational support, coworker support and intra-organizational social connection were. However, the influence of coworker support on identification was found to be negative. Thus, it was possible to conclude that, depending on the valence of their effects, different relational resources can be complementary or competitive in explaining variation in the degree of organizational identification. Therefore, organizations should be understood as constellations of social ties characterized by different contents, sometimes synergistic and others competing regarding construction of the uniqueness an employee has with an organization.