Who is supporting whom?: quality team effectiveness and perceived organizational support

Using a multifoci approach, we explored the relation of perceived support to worker attitudes, citizenship behaviors, and quality team performance. By expanding previous theoretical models, we formulated three foci of support: an organization's support for an individual (S_O→I), a quality team's support for an individual (S_T→I), and an organization's support for a quality team (S_O→T). Hypotheses were tested with 136 participants of 25 quality teams. As expected, S_O→I was the best predictor of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions from the organization. S_T→I was the best predictor of individual levels of team commitment, team satisfaction, turnover intentions from the team, and group cohesion. Finally, S_O→T was the best predictor of team performance. Contrary to expectations, none of the support foci predicted citizenship behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of the ability of these three foci to expand the domain of perceived support and to guide managers in the development of more effective quality improvement teams.