
































Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 40 
 

Perceived Organisational Support: A Panacea for 

Work Commitment among Employees in Private 

Universities in South-East Nigeria 

 

By 

Chukwujekwu Charles Onwuka,  
 

Emmanuel Echezona Nwokolo 
 

& 
 

Sunday Chike Achebe 

 

 

 

Abstract 

Organisational support is one of the cardinal factors that influences employees’ work 

commitment within cooperate organisations. When employees perceive that their 

organisation cares and provides them all the support they require, they are more likely 

to commit to the achievement of their organisation’s goals, which would also translate 

to organisational efficiency and productivity. However, the relationship between 

perceived organisational support and work commitment has not been significantly 

investigated particularly within the context of employees in private Universities within 

the Southeast. This study therefore aimed at investigating the influence of perceived 

organisational support on employees work commitment in selected private 

Universities in the Southeast Nigeria. The study employed the descriptive cross-

sectional survey research design. The sample size for the study was 250 employees 

who voluntarily participated in the study through the Google Form web-based 

questionnaire administration. Data collected from the survey were processed using the 

SPSS software package. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and 

the simple linear regression model in order to determine the influence of perceived 

organisational support on work commitment of employees. Findings of the study 

revealed that the respondents expressed negative perceptions regarding organisational 

support in the private Universities. It was equally found that majority of employees in 

the private Universities were not committed to their jobs and this was found to be 

statistically associated with their perception about organisational support. The study 

recommended the need for the management of private Universities in the Southeast 

Nigeria to incorporate democratic principles that could encourage employees’ 

engagement and openness in expressing their concerns and difficulties. 

Keywords: employees, commitment, organisational, support, perceived 

 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 41 
 

Introduction 

rganisational support is one of the cardinal factors that influences 

employees’ work commitment within cooperate organisations. In 

fact, many scholars have noted that organisational support offers a 

lot of morale to the employees, which ultimately enhances job commitment and 

overall productivity of the employees (Krishnan & Mary, 2012). Perceived 

Organisational Support (POS) reflects the degree of employees’ perception that 

their work organisation values their contributions and cares about their well-

being (Eisenberger, 1986, as cited in Pan, Shen, Liu, Yang & Wang, 2015). It 

relates to the degree to which employees perceive that their work organisation 

values their contributions and cares about them (Allen et al., 2008).  
 

When employees perceive that their organisation cares and provides them all 

the support they require, they are more likely to commit to the achievement of 

their organisation’s goals, which would also translate to organisational 

efficiency and productivity. The concept of organisational support has been 

studies variously in relation with various dependent variables and within 

various organisational contexts (Li, Zhang, Yan, Wen & Zhang, 2020; Liu, 

2009; Tuzun & Kalemci, 2012; Sharif, Bolt, Ahadzadeh, Turner & Nia, 2021). 

However, the concept of POS in relation to the work commitment has not 

gained popularity especially within local empirical researches.  
 

Work commitment has been defined as the feeling of responsibility that a 

person has towards the mission and goals of an organization (Gigli, n.d), or put 

differently, the level of enthusiasm which an employee has towards his/her 

tasks assigned at a workplace. It is the overall feeling of responsibility that a 

person expresses towards the goals, mission, and vision of his or her 

organization. Job commitment has also been conceptualised in three 

dimensions including affective commitment – which refers to how a person 

feels about their organisation, continuance commitment – which refers to 

extent to which a person perceives it would be desirable or undesirable to leave 

the organisation, and normative commitment – which refers to a person’s moral 

orientation to the organisation and the sense of responsibility or obligation to 

the organisation (Allen & Meyer, 1990). 

O 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 42 
 

 

It is believed that when an individual has work commitment, he or she is more 

likely to perform tasks and responsibilities that will help an organization 

achieve a goal. Contrariwise, when employees are not committed to their work, 

they tend to use their time at work to perform unproductive activities such as 

internet surfing for pleasure, playing games, gossiping, sleeping and other anti-

productive work behaviours. However, job commitment cannot be analysed in 

a vacuum. In other words, certain independent variables have been used as 

covariates of job commitment (Adekeye, 2011; Lee & Chen, 2013; Rathi & 

Saeed, 2022). However, there seems to be a dearth of empirical research on the 

relationship between perceived organisational support and job commitment 

particularly within the context of private tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This is 

therefore a research gap which this present study intends to fill.  

 

Specific Objectives 

1. To examine employees’ perception of their organisational support in 

the selected private Universities. 

2. To determine the level of employees’ commitment to work in the 

selected private tertiary institutions. 

3. To investigate the relationship between perceived organisational 

support and employees work commitment in the selected private 

tertiary institutions. 

 

Hypothesis 

Employees’ perceived organisational support significantly influences their 

work commitment in the selected private tertiary institutions. 

 

LITERATURE REVIEW 

Concept of Perceived Organisational Support 

Perceived Organisational Support (POS) reflects the degree of employees’ 

perception that their work organisation values their contributions and cares 

about their well-being (Eisenberger, 1986, as cited in Pan, Shen, Liu, Yang & 

Wang, 2015). POS is significant to increasing the employees` affective 

attachment to the organisation and their expectations that greater efforts 

towards meeting organisational goals will be rewarded. As an important 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 43 
 

concept in organisational theory, POS has been acknowledged to be positively 

related to job satisfaction, job performance, organisational justice, affective 

commitment and job satisfaction (Guan, Sun, Hou, Zhao, Lau & Fan, 2014). 

Perceived organisational support connotes the degree to which the organisation 

values employees’ contributions and cares about them (Allen et al., 2008).  

 

Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) also added that POS is considered as an 

assurance that the organisation will provide financial and emotional support to 

employees when needed to face the challenges presented by their job. In this 

view, the authors argued that employees associate their favourable or 

unfavourable treatment by supervisors (the representatives of the organisation), 

as an indication that the organisation either favours or disfavours them. Hence, 

POS is one of the dimensions of organisational work behaviour which is 

hypothesised in this study to have a significant influence on University 

employees’ work commitment. 

 
 

Theoretical Framework 

 

Organisational Support Theory (OST)  

This theory was propounded by Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchinson and 

Sowa (1986). The theory assumes that in order to meet socio-emotional needs 

and to assess the benefits of increased work effort, employees form a general 

perception concerning the extent to which the organisation values their 

contributions and cares about their well-being. Such Perceived Organisational 

Support (POS) would increase employees’ felt obligation to help the 

organisation reach its objectives, their affective commitment to the 

organisation, and their expectation that improved performance would be 

rewarded (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison & Sowa, 1986). Behavioural 

outcomes of POS would include increases in in-role and extra-role 

performance and decreases in stress and withdrawal behaviours such as 

absenteeism and turnover. 
 

According to organisational support theory, employees tend to assign human-

like characteristics to organisation and thus encourage the development of POS 

(Eisenberger et al., 1986). Agents acting on behalf of the organisations are 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 44 
 

often perceived as acting on organisation’s intentions rather than their personal 

motives (Levinson, 1965). This personification of the organisation is enhanced 

by the organisation’s legal, moral, and financial responsibility for the actions of 

its agents; by organisational policies, norms, and culture that provide continuity 

and prescribe role behaviours; and by the power the organisation’s agents exert 

over individual employees. Equally, due to this personification of 

organisations, employees base their judgments of their perceived value to the 

organisation on how favourably the organisation treats them. 

 

When the organisation gives resources to employees in a voluntary manner 

rather than under circumstances beyond their control, employees will view 

such aid as being genuinely valued and respected by the organisation 

(Cotterell, Eisenberger, & Speicher, 1992). Based on this principle, POS will 

be more effectively enhanced if employees view organisational rewards and 

favourable job conditions such as pay, promotions, job enrichment, and 

influence over organisational policies as voluntary behaviours of organisations 

(Eisenberger et al., 1986). A summary of the tenet of this theory is that, in 

return for a high level of organisational support, employees show commitment 

to help their organisation reach its goals (Aselage & Eisenberger, 2003), 

because organisational support has a significant effect on organisational 

commitment (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002; Riggle, Edmondson & Hansen, 

2009). 

 

In view of the assumptions of this theory, it was hypothesised in this study that 

employees’ perception of the support given to them by their University 

management, would determine the level commitment they would likely exhibit 

in their work places. In other words, perceived organisational support may 

have a significant influence on the work commitment of employees in the 

selected private Universities in Southeast Nigeria. 

 

METHODS 

This study was conducted among employees of selected private Universities in 

the Southeast Nigeria. This study adopted the descriptive cross-sectional 

survey research design. According to Ihudiebube-Splendor and Chikeme  



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 45 
 

 

(2020), descriptive cross-sectional survey research design is that which 

provides data for describing the status or characteristics of a phenomena or 

relationship among phenomena, at a specific point in time. This research 

design was also considered appropriate for this study due its flexibility in 

helping gather data at a specific point in time for a defined population. Based 

on statistical determination of appropriate sample using the Yamane (1967) 

formula, a sample of 250 respondents was determined for the study. The 

respondents were selected through an online-survey approach. Considering the 

fact that data collection was online-based, participation was voluntary. Besides 

the growing popularity of on-line based researches in the contemporary social 

research, the online survey approach was considered more flexible, convenient, 

cost-effective, easy in reaching a large number of respondents within a target 

time frame. The online automated generation of data that saves time and 

energy that could have been used in manual data coding, was another important 

benefit considered for using online survey approach, notwithstanding its 

deficiencies. The online-survey approach involved the use of Google Form 

survey administration software package in designing questionnaire measuring 

“employees’ perception of organisational support and work commitment”.  

 

Through the help of insiders within the selected private Universities, the web-

based questionnaire link was forwarded to different social network groups for 

the employees through Whatsapp and Telegram. The administrators of the 

social network groups helped to instil confidence to the respondents about the 

authenticity of the questionnaire link and equally explained the reason for the 

research to the respondents. Prior to the period of questionnaire administration, 

a timeline of three weeks was set for link sharing and collation of data. This 

implies that the respondents were given a window of three weeks to respond to 

the questionnaire, after which, any other data entry was discarded. At the end 

of the set timeline, more than 250 entries were obtained, which is higher than 

the initial sample size determine for the study. Consequently, only the first 250 

data entries obtained within the open window period were used for data 

analysis. The data obtained originally through excel spreadsheet were 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 46 
 

transformed into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software 

package version 26, which was used in processing all the relevant statistical 

data. Analysis of data involved both descriptive and inferential analysis. While 

the descriptive aspect involved frequency count and percentage, the inferential 

aspect involved regression analysis to test the influence of perceived 

organisational support on employees’ work commitment.  

FINDINGS 
 

Table 1. Distribution of Respondents’ Socio-Demographic Variables 
 

Description of Variables Frequency Percent 

Sex   

Male 96 38.2 

Female 155 61.8 

Total 250 100.0 

   

Age Categories   

27 - 36 Years 33 13.2 

37 - 46 Years 50 20.1 

47 - 56 Years 91 36.5 

57 - 66 Years 61 24.4 

67 Yrs & Above 15 5.8 

Total 250 100.0 

   

Marital Status   

Single 69 27.6 

Married 146 58.4 

Widowed 26 10.3 

Separated/Divorced 9 3.7 

Total 100 100.0 

   

Job Category   

Academic Staff 68 27.2 

Non-Academic Staff 156 62.4 

Casual Staff 26 10.4 

Total 250 100.0 

   

Official Rank   

Junior Staff 62 24.9 

Intermediate 109 43.4 

Senior 79 31.7 

Total 250 100.0 



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  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 47 
 

 
Table 1 contains information on the analysis conducted in relation to the socio-

demographic characteristics of the respondents. The table showed that more 

than half (61.8%) of the respondents were female employees compared to 

relatively lower proportion (38.8%) male employees within the selected private 

tertiary institutions. For the age distribution of the respondents, the largest 

proportion (36.5%) of the respondents aged between 47 – 56 years old, while 

the least proportion (5.8%) were those who aged above 67 years old. These 

findings imply that the majority of employees within the selected private 

tertiary institutions were mid-adult individuals. This equally justifies why 

majority (58.3%) of them were married compare to about a quarter proportion 

(27.6%) of them who were single. In terms of the analysis on the job categories 

of the respondents, it was found that more than half (62.4%) of them were non-

academic staff category compared to 27.2% of them who were in the academic 

staff category, while the least proportion (10.4%) of them were under the 

casual staff category. With regards to the official rank of the employees, data 

analysis showed that majority (43.4%) of them was at the intermediate level. 

This was followed by the senior staff who comprised of 31.7% of the 

respondents, while 24.9% of them were the junior employees. 

Employees’ Perceived Organisational Support 

Table 2. Analysis of Respondents’ Perception of Organisational Support 

 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 48 
 

As observed from the item by item analysis presented in table 2, the largest 

proportion (36.4%) of the respondents went for the option ‘low extent’ in the 

first items – implying that they perceive their supervisors’ support to their work 

activities as less optimal. In the second item, it was equally observed that the 

largest proportion (39.6%) of the respondents rated their ‘to a low extent’, in 

relation to the view that their University management cares so much about their 

welfare. Similar patterns of responses were observed in relation to items iii  to 

vi, which suggests that the respondents perceived organisational support in 

their Universities as less optimal. These data were summed together in order to 

present a general analysis of respondents’ perception of organisational support 

within the selected Universities. Result of the analysis was presented in figure 

1.  

 

 

Figure 1. Summary of Employees’ Perception of Organisational Support 

 

Data contained in figure 1 confirmed that the largest proportion (37.5%) of the 

respondents perceived their organisational support as been only at a low extent. 

This was followed by 25.9% of them who chose the option ‘never’ – implying 

that they perceived that their organisations do not support them at all. While 

21.7% of them were neutral in this regard, only a very lower proportion (9.9%) 

of them gave a fair rating about their organisational support.  

 

 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 49 
 

Employees’ Work Commitment  

Table 3. Respondents’ Ratings on their Work Commitment 

 

From the item by item analysis as presented in table 3, it could be seen that the 

modal frequencies occurred between the responses options ‘disagree’ and 

‘strongly disagree’, compared to the other response options. In other to have a 

clearer picture on the responses, the data were summed together, analysed and 

presented in figure 2.  

 

Figure 2. Summary of Respondents’ Work Commitment 



Global Online Journal of Academic Research (GOJAR), Vol. 1, No. 1, November-December 2022 

 
 

  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 50 
 

As shown in figure 2, majority (37.8%) of the respondents disagreed with the 

items in the questionnaire which measured their work commitment in the 

selected private Universities. This was equally followed by about a quarter 

proportions (28.8%) of them who went for the option ‘strongly agree’. These 

suggest that there was a seemingly lack of employees’ commitment to their 

works in the selected private Universities. This study was equally interested in 

determining whether or not employees’ work commitment was associated with 

their perception of organisational support in their various Universities. To 

ascertain this, items measuring perceived organisational support and work 

commitment were summed up to form discrete variables required for 

parametric test. Thus, the outcome variable (work commitment) was regressed 

unto the independent variable (perceived organisational support) as presented 

in table 4.  

Table 4. Summary of Linear Regression Model Showing the Relationship 

Between POS and Work Commitment 

 

Consistent with the initially stated alternate hypothesis, result of the regression 

analysis showed an evidence to accept the hypothesis, R2 = .019, F(1, 249) = 

4.886, p = .028. This implies that work commitment of employees in the 

selected private Universities could be statistically predicted using perceived 

organisational support. This implies that employees would more likely be 

committed to their works when they perceived that their organisations support 

them. This equally reiterates the importance of organisational support to the 



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  Copyright © GOJAR 2022                                                                    Page 51 
 

workability and commitment of employees to the achievement of 

organisational productivity. 

 

Conclusion/Recommendations 

Commitment of employees to their work is a major factor that influences 

organisational productivity in cooperate organisations. However, employees’ 

work commitment is dependent on major factors of which perceived 

organisational support is one of the most important factors. Having analysed all 

the relevant data in this study, it is concluded that the research questions raised 

in this study has been answered in such a manner that majority of employees in 

the private Universities within the Southeast Nigeria have negative perceptions 

regarding the organisational support in their various work places. It could also 

be concluded that the employees of private universities in the Southeast 

Nigeria are less committed to their works, and this was found to be associated 

with their perceptions about their organisational support systems. These have 

serious implications to the growth, productivity and quality of educational 

outputs in the private Universities in the Southeast Nigeria. Consequently, the 

following are recommended for way forward: 

1. The management of private Universities in the Southeast Nigeria should 

incorporate democratic principles that could encourage employees’ 

engagement and openness in expressing their concerns and difficulties. 

2. There is equally the need for private Universities in the Southeast Nigeria 

to initiate employee support programs that could promptly address 

employees’ challenges and equally encourage them to work better.  

3. The management of private Universities should equally develop clear 

communication and feedback systems that could help employees perform 

their works in relaxed atmosphere rather than in tight time limits.  

 

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Author Information: Dr Chukwujekwu Charles Onwuka is a 

lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Chukwuemeka 

Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Anambra State, Nigeria. Email: 

cc.onwuka@coou.edu.ng. 

 

Dr Emmanuel Echezona Nwokolo is a lecturer in the Department 

of Psychology, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, 

Anambra State, Nigeria.  Email: ee.nwokolo@coou.edu.ng. 

 

Sunday Chike Achebe is affiliated to the Department of 

Psychology, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, 

Anambra State, Nigeria. Email: revachebe@yahoo.com. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


