The relationship between perceived organizational support and affective commitment: More than reciprocity, it is also a question of organizational identification

Caesens, Gaëtane [UCL] Stinglhamber, Florence [UCL] Marique, Géraldine [UCL]

Two distinct perspectives have emerged in the literature to explain the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and affective commitment (AC): a social exchange perspective and, more recently, a social identity perspective. However, these views have never been considered together. Filling this gap, our study aims to examine the conjoint role of felt obligation (i.e., the social exchange perspective) and organizational identification (i.e., the social identity perspective) in the relationship between POS and AC. Based on two different samples, our results indicate that both felt obligation and organizational identification partially mediate the relationship between POS and AC. In sum, this research shows that the two mechanisms play a concomitant role in the link between POS and AC.