Social support in offices

: elements, driving factors and their influence on work engagement

Abstract

The influence of the Professional Dimension of Social Support on work engagement has often been the topic of investigation and is mostly seen as the decisive and only dimension for investigating Social Support in organizations. Despite the known influence of Social Support on Work Engagement, there is only little attention paid to the Personal Dimension of the employee/coworker and employee/superior relationship. This thesis first examines the relationship between “liking” (having a good personal relationship) and “working supportively together “(having a good professional relationship) and afterwards investigates their influence on Work Engagement. Additionally the possible negative influences of too strong personal relationships and the existence of common good practices and work environment attributes in organizations that drive Social Support is investigated. For the Co-worker relationship Work Engagement found the Companionship and Informational Dimension to positively and the Emotional and Instrumental Dimension to negatively affect Work Engagement. For both, the Co-worker and Supervisor relationship, the Personal- and Professional Support levels are highly correlated and too high Supervisor Personal Support that don’t match the employees Power Distance Index negatively effects Work Engagement. Lastly regular team and supervisor meetings, as well as the recognition of good performance and the existence of break out spaces are found to positively affect Social Support levels.

Date of Award	17 Oct 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Teresa Oliveira (Supervisor)