Linking Perceived Organizational Support to Organizational Identification: Role of Organization Based Self-Esteem

Perceived organizational support has been a widely studied construct during the past three decades, and it has been linked to organizational identification. However, not many studies have investigated this link. This study aimed to explain this relationship through organization based self-esteem and empirically examined the relationship between organization-based self-esteem and organizational identification, which has also not been studied adequately. Hence, inter-relations among the perceived organizational support, organization-based self-esteem, and organizational identification were studied in depth. The present study proposed the hypothesis that perceived organizational support and organization-based self-esteem are positively linked to organizational identification. Further, it examined the hypothesis that organization-based self-esteem will mediate the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational identification. The data was collected from 325 employees, of which 75 respondents were females, using established scales. Overall, 75 percent of the respondents were less than 40 years of age and 66 percent of the respondents had at least 3 years of work experience. Structural equation modelling and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results from the data supported the hypothesized relationships. The model fit indices of both the direct and the indirect models were acceptable. Moreover, the regression analysis results also indicated partial mediation, indicating that organization based self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational identification. The managerial implications of the findings are also discussed.