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IIMK/WPS/111/ OB&HR /2012/14
Measuring humane orientation of organizations
through social exchange and organizational
identification facilitation and control of
burnout and intent to quit
Manish Kumar
1
Shailendra Singh
2
Himanshu Rai
3
Abhijit Bhattacharya
4
1
Visiting Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, IIMK Campus PO,
Kozhikode– 673570, email: manish@iimk.ac.in
2
Professor, HRM area, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, email: shail@iiml.ac.in
3
Associate Professor, HRM area, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, email:
himanshu@iiml.ac.in
4
Professor, Decision Sciences Group, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, email:
abhijit@iiml.ac.in
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Measuring Humane Orientation of Organizations through Social
Exchange and Organizational Identification Facilitation
and Control of Burnout and Intent to Quit
The paper explores relationship of humane orientation of organizations with
members’ reactions to such treatment by the organization. Orientation of
mangers to form good relationship with subordinates has been reflected through
subordinates’ perception of quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) and it
was expected to predict members’ reaction through feeling of exhaustion
(burnout). Role of humane orientation of organizational support measured
through perceived organizational support (POS) by subordinates and
organizational identification (OID) as possible explicators of the relationship
between LMX quality and organizational burnout have also been explored. In
addition, the relationship of OID and POS with yet another reaction of
members’ to treatment of organizations through their intent to quit (termed as
“turnover intention” in this study) has been explored. Organizational burnout
has been considered as explicator of the two relationships.
We conducted three step hierarchical linear regressions on a sample involving
data at two time waves. Items on quality of LMX, POS and OID were answered
in first wave by participants while those on TI and organizational burnout were
answered by same participants in second wave. A total of 192 usable responses
were obtained for all items. The analysis was done with SPSS 16.0.
As expected, all the hypotheses were supported. A major contribution of the
research to academic literature is the corroboration of directionality of some of
the relationship through two time wave design. Also, burnout in this research
has been measured at organizational level and the results were in line with
burnout measured at job level in some of the earlier studies on burnout. It is
hoped that managers will pay increased attention to humane practices as
benefits of the same have been supported through this study.
Keywords: Quality of Leader-Member Exchange, Organizational Identification,
Perceived Organizational Support, Turnover Intention, Organizational Burnout.
INTRODUCTION
The paper explores relevance of humane orientation of organizations.
Contemporary organizational behavior variables have been explored to test the effect of
such practices on some of the variables which organizations consider as important.
Specifically the study tests the linkage among social exchange theory, social identity
theory, and literature on burnout and intent to quit. For example, recognizing the
importance of relationships in organizations, academic scholars have stressed on
importance of finding out how it associates with important outcomes (Dutton & Ragins,
2007; Gersick, Bartunek, & Dutton, 2000). Particularly, social exchange research has
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established importance of quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) for organizational
outcomes but research on ‘how’ aspects of the association are still lacking (Ilies,
Nahrgang, & Morgeson, 2007). We would therefore test the relationship of aspects of
good relationship between leader and member as manifestation of humane gesture of
managers as agents of the organization on members’ experiencing exhaustion (burnout)
and therefore thinking of quitting the organization. Role of additional measure of
humane orientation, i.e., how much supporting the organization is perceived to be; as
members perceived organizational support (POS) and how much the members feels a
sense of oneness with the organization; as members organizational identification (OID)
will also be explored.
We hypothesize that LMX quality will lead to burnout and the relationship will
be mediated by OID. In relationships marked by high LMX quality, the increased
support by the supervisor may help reduce uncertainty and ambiguity of the subordinate
(Harris & Kacmar, 2006). Those in a low-LMX relationship with their supervisor may
see it as an additional role stressor (Erdogan & Liden, 2002). Social identity theory
emphasizes that individuals self-categorize in order to reduce uncertainty, as
uncertainty reduction, specifically about matters of value that are self conceptually
relevant, is a core human motivation (Hogg & Terry, 2000).
In addition, OID is likely to predict turnover intention (TI) and the relationship
is likely to be mediated by burnout. Identification leads to development of a sense of
being a part of something, as one’s self-definition relates to membership in a particular
firm (Ashforth, Harrison, & Corley, 2008; Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Dutton, Dukerich, &
Harquail, 1994). One is therefore less likely to consider work as a burden and hence
have less of TI. Individual employees who feel a match between own and
organizational values are likely to have higher sense of oneness with the organization
(Edwards & Cable, 2009). Individuals with higher identification are likely to experience
less emotional dissonance and therefore less of strain and burnout. A burnt-out
individual on the other hand is more likely to turnover as a reaction to be able to
conserve her energy (see Mishra & Bhatnagar, 2010).
By virtue of their position, the supervisors play an important role in helping
employees to deal with work-related stress by providing them with emotional support
(e.g., Rego, Sousa, Cunha, Correia & Saur-Amaral 2007). The employees therefore are
not only likely to have less motivation and effectiveness but they are likely to react to
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the higher job stress by feeling burnt-out; a common reaction to job stress (Ciftcioglu,
2011). POS therefore is likely to mediate the relationship between LMX and burnout.
Also, support makes threatening events less frequent as a supporting environment is
synonymous with a caring workplace. Organizational support therefore indicates a
secure, positive environment (Shore & Shore, 1995). Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter
(1996) hypothesized that the presence of job demands such as work overload and
personal conflicts and the absence of specific job resources such as social support,
autonomy, and decision involvement predicts burnout, which in its turn will lead to
various negative outcomes including turnover. Burnout therefore will mediate the
relationship between POS and TI.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Quality of Leader-Member Exchange
Leader-member exchange theory stipulates that as a leader may not be able to
make contact with all the followers, he/she tries to satisfice by forming a special
relationship with a small set of followers (Gerstner & Day, 1997). This however is
likely to results in two groups of followers; one consisting of members who are part of
inner circle of the leader or in-group members and the other consisting of members for
whom the relationship with the leader is restricted to formal or superficial relationships,
i.e., out-group members. The in-group includes a small number of followers whom the
leader trusts and with whom he/she has better exchange relationship (Liden & Graen,
1980).
Quality of leader-member exchange has been found to be positively related to
follower’s satisfaction, organizational commitment, role clarity, work group
cohesiveness, organizational climate, leader power, performance ratings given by
leaders, and objective performance, and negatively related to role conflict and turnover
intentions (Bauer & Green, 1996; Cogliser & Schriesheim, 2000; Deluga, 1998;
Gerstner & Day, 1997; Schriesheim, Castro, & Cogliser, 1999). Overall, a high-quality
relationship with one’s leader can have a positive effect on performance and affective
outcomes (Gerstner & Day, 1997). Please refer to Dulebohn et al. (2011) for a recent
meta-analysis of antecedents and consequences of LMX.
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Perceived Organizational Support
Employees develop general beliefs regarding the extent to which the
organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. The motive for
the same is to determine the organization’s willingness to reward increased work effort
and to facilitate fulfillment of socio-emotional needs of members (Eisenberger,
Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986; Shore & Shore, 1995). POS is also valued as
assurance that help will be available from the organization to do one’s job effectively
and to face stressful situations (see Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). Since its
introduction more than two decades ago, perceived organizational support (POS) has
become a central construct in the organizational literature (Rhoades and Eisenerger,
2002).
POS has been found to be related to attitudinal variables like commitment
(e.g., Chew and Wong, 2008) particularly affective commitment (e.g., Rhoades,
Eisenberger, & Armeli, 2001), continuance commitment (e.g., Shore & Tetrick, 1991),
job satisfaction (e.g., Duke et al., 2009); organizational characteristics such as leader-
member exchange (e.g., Wayne, Shore, & Liden, 1997), procedural justice (e.g.,
Andrews & Kacmar, 2001) and supervisor support (e.g., Malatesta, 1995), behavior
such as citizenship behaviors ( e.g., Chen et al., 2009) and turnover intention (see
meta-analysis by Rhoades and Eisenerger, 2002) . Organizational practices such as
participation in decision-making, fairness of rewards (Allen et al., 2003), developmental
experiences and promotions (Wayne et al., 1997), autonomy (Eisenberger et al.,
1999), job security (Rhoades and Eisenerger, 2002) and other variables are
increasingly being empirically related with POS.
Organizational Identification
Organizational identification concerns the perception of belongingness to or
“oneness” with an organization, of which the person is a member (Ashforth & Mael,
1989). OID has been found to be positively associated with performance and
organizational citizenship behaviors and negatively related to turnover (Bhattacharya,
Rao, & Glynn, 1995; Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004; Mael & Ashforth, 1995; van
Knippenberg, 2000). It has also been argued to foster a sense of meaning and belonging
at work and positively affect employees’ job attitudes and perceptions of their work
environment (Ashforth, 2001; Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004). On the organizational level,
