1 - WEN-CHING, WU, WENG 2014 - THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT

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The Effect of Perceived Organizational Support on 
Work Engagement and Performance: A Study of 
International Assignees 
Wen-ching Chang, Chiung-han Wu, Liang-chieh Weng 
Providence University, Taiwan 
 
ABSTRACT 
Perceived organizational support (POS) emphasizes the degrees that employees recognize 
organizations commit to them. Randall et al. (1999) and Armeli et al. (1998) found that POS positively 
affects employee performance. Previous empirical studies have found that POS can positively influence 
the level of employee engagement (James et al. 2011; Biggs et al. 2014; Villotti et al. 2014), which shows 
when employees feel the concern, encourage, and support from organizations, they will have a strong 
work engagement in return (Bakker et al. 2008). 
Under the current international trend many companies are gradually becoming international. The relevant 
expatriate literature indicated that expatriates play very important roles in the overseas operation of 
multinational corporations (MNCs). Therefore, the effective management of expatriates is one of the keys 
to the success of MNCs. The failure of assignments, cross-cultural adjustment, turnover intentions, and 
repatriation are most discussed issues in the expatriates’ studies (Wang 2009; Hong 2004; Lee 2007), 
whereas the psychological factors is relatively rare been discussed. In addition, there are a few 
researches focused on the relationships among POS, work engagement, and performance of expatriates. 
This study thus attempts to explore the relationships among these three variables, and furthermore to 
investigate the mediating effect of work engagement. 
A total of 161 valid questionnaires answered by international assignees were used to test the hypothesis, 
and the results indicated that (1) POS has a significant positive effect on work engagement; (2) POS has 
a significant positive effect on performance; (3) work engagement has a significant positive effect on 
performance; and (4) work engagement has partial mediating effect on the relationship between POS and 
performance. In the end, this study proposes academic and practical implications and recommendations 
based on the research results, as well as the research limitations and recommendations for future studies. 
 
1 INTRODUCTION 
Previous studies found a significant correlation between perceived organizational support and 
work engagement (James, McKechnie, and Swanberg 2011), moreover, many empirical 
studies reveal that perceived organizational support positively affects employees’ work 
engagement (Biggs et al. 2014; Villotti et al. 2014). It can be seen that when employees feel 
the concern, encouragement and support of the organization, they will be more willing to 
contribute to the organization and to accept challenging tasks. They will be passionate about 
their work, dedicate themselves to work, so that they will have higher work engagement (Bakker 
et al. 2008). 
Internationalization is the current trend worldwide. In the process of globalization, most 
multinational companies (MNCs) usually choose to set up subsidiaries or offices overseas for 
Aleria Sousa
O suporte organizacional percebido (POS) enfatiza os graus que os funcionários reconhecem
organizações comprometem-se com eles. Randall et al. (1999) e Armeli et al. (1998) descobriram que o POS positivamente
afeta o desempenho dos funcionários. Estudos empíricos anteriores descobriram que o POS pode influenciar positivamente
o nível de engajamento dos funcionários (James et al. 2011; Biggs et al. 2014; Villotti et al. 2014), que mostra
Quando os funcionários sentem a preocupação, o incentivo e o apoio das organizações, eles terão uma forte
trabalho engajado em troca (Bakker et al. 2008).
Sob a atual tendência internacional, muitas empresas estão gradualmente se tornando internacionais. O relevante
A literatura de expatriados indicou que os expatriados desempenham papéis muito importantes na operação de
empresas multinacionais (EMNs). Portanto, o gerenciamento eficaz de expatriados é uma das chaves
para o sucesso das multinacionais. O fracasso de atribuições, o ajuste transcultural, as intenções de rotatividade e
repatriamento são as questões mais discutidas nos estudos dos expatriados (Wang 2009; Hong 2004; Lee 2007),
enquanto os fatores psicológicos são relativamente raros foram discutidos. Além disso, existem alguns
pesquisas focadas nas relações entre POS, engajamento no trabalho e desempenho de expatriados.
Assim, este estudo tenta explorar as relações entre essas três variáveis ​​e, além disso,
investigar o efeito mediador do engajamento no trabalho.
Um total de 161 questionários válidos respondidos por cessionários internacionais foi usado para testar a hipótese,
e os resultados indicaram que (1) o POS tem um efeito positivo significativo no engajamento no trabalho; (2) O POS possui
um efeito positivo significativo no desempenho; (3) o envolvimento no trabalho tem um efeito positivo significativo sobre
desempenho; e (4) o envolvimento no trabalho tem efeito mediador parcial sobre a relação entre POS e
desempenho. No final, este estudo propõe implicações e recomendações acadêmicas e práticas
com base nos re
 
 
 
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international deployment. In this period, MNCs need more talents which in turns of the demand 
of expatriates. Expatriates management has also received increasing attention as the pace of 
corporate internationalization has accelerated. As enterprises move toward globalization, 
talents must also be internationalized. The human resources department of the enterprise 
effectively selects outstanding talents and puts forward the method of good selection and 
training, and has become one of the important indicators of the enterprise. The expatriate 
literature also pointed out that expatriates play a very important role in the overseas company's 
business strategy of multinational corporations. Therefore, the effective management of 
expatriates is one of the keys to the success of multinational corporations in overseas 
operations. 
This study conducted a literature review and found that the majority researches of expatriates 
management is related to the reasons for failure of assignment, assignment performance, 
cross-cultural adaptation, and resignation. Few studies are aimed at the psychological level of 
expatriates. Previous studies on perceived organizational support, work engagement, and 
performance have less explored the interrelationships among these three variables on 
expatriates. The current study, therefore, attempted to investigate the mediating effect among 
these three variables. 
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 
2.1 POS and Work Engagement 
According to the jd-r model, organizational support is also a work resource (Sawang 2012; 
Schaufeli and Bakker 2004), which minimizes the psychological impact of employees on job 
demands and promotes individual employee growth, learning and development (Schaufeli and 
Bakker 2004), as well as work engagement (Bakker and Demerouti 2007). The higher the 
perceived organizational support employees have, the more encouragement, caring, 
assistance and appreciation from organization they recognize. When employees are aware of 
the organizational support, according to the social exchange theory, they will have a high sense 
of responsibility and obligation to the organization, and give back to the organization with 
progressive and positive attitudes and behaviors (Kuo and Tsaur 2004; Lo and Chou 2006). 
A significant correlation between perceived organizational support and work engagement is 
supported by James, Mckechnie and Swanberg (2011), moreover, empirical studies have 
found that perceived organizational support can positively influence the degree of work 
engagement (Biggs et al. 2014; Villotti et al. 2014). These findings indicate that employees 
can feel the concern, support and encouragement of the organization, and it will make 
employees willingto contribute to the organization, to accept challenging tasks, as well as have 
vitality to work, love their work, and have a strong work engagement (Bakker et al. 2008). 
Therefore, based on the results of previous researches, this study proposes the following 
hypothesis: 
Hypothesis 1. Perceived organizational support will have positive correlation with work 
engagement. 
2.2 POS and Job Performance 
Previous researches have generally confirmed that the higher the organizational support 
perceived by employees, the higher the performance of citizenship they have (Podsakoff et al. 
2000; Eisenberger et al. 2001; Bishop et al. 2000). Similar result found by Armeli et al. (1998) 
 
 
 
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and Randall et al. (1999) indicated that perceived organizational support affects employee 
performance, and the results of the study indicated that when employees perceive the 
organization to value and assist them, the employee's performance will be better than others 
who don’t perceive organizational support. 
Witt (1991) pointed out a mutual commitment between employees and organization that 
perceived organizational support is not only the organization's commitment to employees; 
relatively, employees also have a sense of obligation to the organization and work harder to 
improve work performance. In an organization, when employees feel the help of the 
organization and the supervisor, they will give more effort to the organization or supervisor. 
Wayne et al. (1997) pointed out that when employees feel that the interaction with the 
supervisor is good, employees will be aware of more supervisor support. Based on the principle 
of reciprocity, employees will want to repay their supervisors and organizations, and then 
improve their work performance. Such a positive reciprocal exchange relationship between 
employees and organization were revealed by many scholars (Armeli et al. 1998; Moorman, 
Blakely, and Niehoff 1998; Organ and Konovsky 1989; Seers, Petty, and Cashman 1995; 
Wayne, Shore, and Liden 1997). Along with this logic, we propose the following hypothesis: 
Hypothesis 2. Perceived organizational support will have positive correlation with performance. 
2.3 Work Engagement and Job Performance 
Organizations exist for certain purposes. The organization controls its overall performance 
through effective management activities to bring its operations closer and even to achieve its 
goals. Performance is the extent to which an organization achieves its goals (Sloma 1980; 
Robbins 1990). Performance can be divided into individual job performance and overall 
organizational performance. Carmeli and Josman (2006) point out that there is a positive 
relationship between emotion and intelligence and job performance, indicating that emotion 
and intelligence are factors that affect individual job performance. According to past research, 
Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) proposed that work engagement is more stable and enduring. It 
is generated in the presence of enthusiasm and enthusiasm. Work engagement is a positive 
emotion and therefore has an impact on job performance. In view of this study, the relationship 
between work engagement and job performance is proposed. 
Hypothesis 3. Work engagement will have positive correlation with performance. 
2.4 POS, Work Engagement, and Job Performance 
In the above discussion, it is pointed out that the degree of POS affects work engagement and 
job performance, and work engagement also affects job performance. However, there is very 
little research and inquiry work to deliberate whether the mediating effect exist in the 
relationship between POS and job performance, that is, the level of employees’ POS affects 
employee performance through work engagement. When employees feel the organization's 
appreciation, encouragement and assistance in the provision and performance of its resources, 
employees based on the principle of reciprocity will produce a sense of feedback, responsibility 
or obligation, willing to return to the organization. Therefore, this study considers that work 
engagement has a mediating effect on POS affecting job performance, so this study proposes 
the following hypothesis: 
 
 
 
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Hypothesis 4. Work engagement will have a mediating effect on the relationship between 
perceived organizational support and job performance. 
3 METHODOLOGY 
The target participants were expatriates on an international assignment when taking this 
survey. These expatriates were identified through purposive sampling along with a snowball 
sampling method. A total of 161 valid questionnaires were used adhering to statistical analysis. 
The gender distribution was 54.7% male and 45.3% female. The average age of participants 
was 34.42. There were 64.6% of respondents who had maximum 3 years international 
assignments and most of them only have one foreign country working experience (54.7%). Of 
the participants answering the survey 37.2% did not have people management responsibility, 
whereas 62.8% did. 
3.1 Perceived Organizational Support (POS) 
The POS scale was adopted from Eisenberger et al. (1986; 2001). A total of 8 items were 
incorporated into one dimension of this scale. All items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 
= strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Sample item was included “The company really care 
about my personal wellbeing”. Cronbach’s alpha was .9 for the scale. 
3.2 Work Engagement 
The work engagement scale was adopted from Schaufeli et al. (2006). A total of 9 items were 
incorporated into the one dimension of this scale. All items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale 
(1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Sample items included “I am very committed to my 
work”. Cronbach’s alpha was .82 for the scale. 
3.3 Job Performance 
Job performance was measured on a 4-item scale that was drawn from Selmer and Lauring 
(2011). All the items were rated on a 5- point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly 
agree). Cronbach’s alpha was .82 for the scale. 
4 RESULTS 
Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations among the study 
variables. We tested the proposed hypothesis by hierarchical regression (Table 2). To provide 
a more rigorous test of the proposed hypothesis, we included control variables, including 
gender (cf. Schaufeli and Bakker 2004), age (cf. Simpson 2009; Pitt-Catsouphes and Matz-
Costa 2008; Schaufeli and Bakker 2004) and status (cf. Shaufeli and Bakker 2004), that may 
affect work engagement. The status variable was intended to measure if the expatriates had 
people management responsibility or not. 
Support for H1 required a significant relationship between POS and work engagement. This 
hypothesis was accepted, as the results indicated that POS was positively related to work 
engagement before and after control (r = 0.585, p< 0.01 and β = 0.544, p< 0.001). The 
correlation between POS and job performance were significant (r = 0.420, p< 0.01 and β = 
0.400, p< 0.001), thus H2 was supported. H3 investigated the relationship between work 
engagement and job performance, and it was supported by the evidence of significant 
coefficients (r = 0.510, p< 0.01 and β = 0.508, p< 0.001). 
H4 predicted that work engagement would mediate the relationship between POS and job 
performance. Support for the mediation hypothesis required the following condition: the 
 
 
 
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independent variable (POS) must significantly impact the mediating variable (work 
engagement) in the first step; the independent variable (POS) must significantly impact the 
dependent variable (job performance) in the second step; and in the third step, the mediating 
variable (work engagement) must significantly impact the dependent variable (job 
performance). Additionally, in the third step the impact of independent variable (POS) on the 
dependent (job performance) must either become insignificant(total mediation) or become 
significant but the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable would be 
reduced in size (partial mediation) (Baron and Kenny 1986). 
Consistent with Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedure for testing mediating effect, work 
engagement (β=0.403, p<0.001) was significantly related to job performance in step six (see 
Table 2). The predictor variable (POS) in model 6 was significant and the beta value has 
reduced in size when the mediating variables (work engagement) entered in the equation (see 
model 6). This indicates that work engagement partially mediates the relationship between 
POS and job performance. Hence, it is fair to conclude that H4 is partially supported. 
Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlation of the variable (n=161). 
Variable Mean Sd 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 
1 Gendera - - 1 .215** .187* -.002 .053 .049 
2 Statusb - - 1 .351** .207* .274** .238** 
3 Age 34.42 7.35 1 .114 .271** .047 
4 Perceived organizational support 
(POS) 3.66 .76 1 .585** .429** 
5 Work engagement 3.89 .65 1 .510** 
6 Job performance 4.09 .56 - 1 
Note: ** p<.001, * p<.05; ab Dummy variables. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Table 2. Results of mediated regression analysis for POS and job performance (n=161). 
 Work Engagement (WE) Job Performance 
M1（β） M2（β） M3（β） M4（β） M5（β） M6（β） 
Controls 
Gender -.030 .000 .003 .025 .018 .025 
Status .209* .100 .252*** .172* .146 .131 
 
Age .204* .175* -.042 -.064 -.146 -.134 
Predictor 
POS .544*** .400*** .181* 
Mediator 
WE .508*** .403*** 
R2 .111 .393 .058 .211 .288 .309 
Adj R2 .094 .377 .040 .190 .269 .287 
F 6.527*** 25.230*** 3.223* 10.403*** 15.751*** 13.864*** 
Note: * p<.05, ** p< .01, *** p<.001; POS=perceived organizational support. 
5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 
The purpose of this paper is to enhance our knowledge of the psychological effects of job 
performance for international assignees. We examine how perceived organizational support 
influences job performance both directly and indirectly. In this study, work engagement was 
found to partially mediate the relationship between POS and job performance. This means 
POS is partly direct contribute to the variance in job performance, and it is partly indirect 
mediated through work engagement. Therefore, in this study it can be concluded that in 
addition to the direct effect, POS (independent variable) predicts work engagement (mediator 
variable), and work engagement in turn predicts job performance (dependent variable) among 
international assignees from Taiwan. 
The results of this study appear to be in line with previous research that POS significantly 
influences the level of work engagement. The result confirmed the findings of Biggs et al. 
(2014), Villotti et al. (2014) and James, McKechnie, and Swanberg (2011) indicating that The 
higher level of organizational support expatriates perceived, the more they dedicate 
themselves to the work, as well as the higher work engagement they develop. 
This study also revealed a significantly positive correlation between POS and job performance. 
Based on these results, it can be concluded that individuals develop their psychological 
attachment and engagement to their work relied on the level of organizational support they 
received. When the individual's perceived organizational support increased and the follow up 
 
 
 
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positive experience enhanced their psychological affection, in so doing their work engagement 
will also be increased. This result echoed research results of Armeli,et al. (1998) and Randall 
et al. (1999) that POS and work engagement play important roles on job performance for 
expatriates. 
MNCs, therefore, can adopt methods that have been suggested by scholars to enhance 
expatriates’ perceived organizational support, such as increasing employees’ autonomy by 
providing supervisors' support and improving organizational justice. That is, when employees 
noticed that their needs, ideas, efforts, and performance are appreciated, understood, and 
recognized by their organizations, they are not only more willing to contribute to their 
organization, but to face the challenges. They will in addition to focus on the work and improve 
their performance. 
This study has certain limitations that provide avenues for future research. First, a cross-
sectional study design restricts the ability to prove a cause-effect relationship. Future research 
should consider a two-wave study design since job performance is a consequence variable 
influenced by predictors. Second, we acknowledge that some concerns might exist in that self-
reported measures (i.e., POS, work engagement, and job performance) have social desirability 
and the common method bias problem. Therefore, future research should include assessment 
from multiple sources including peers and supervisors. 
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