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Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions

BACKGROUND: Social support from colleagues is a key resource for employees and organizations, with beneficial effects on performance, employee well-being and resilience. Although the importance of social support is well-known, the factors that help to build and maintain social support are not equall...

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Autores principales: Pauksztat, Birgit, Grech, Michelle R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: IOS Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9484093/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35723163
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/WOR-220020
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author Pauksztat, Birgit
Grech, Michelle R.
author_facet Pauksztat, Birgit
Grech, Michelle R.
author_sort Pauksztat, Birgit
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Social support from colleagues is a key resource for employees and organizations, with beneficial effects on performance, employee well-being and resilience. Although the importance of social support is well-known, the factors that help to build and maintain social support are not equally well understood. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzes the impact of workgroup characteristics (i.e., workgroup composition regarding national diversity and tenure; workload) and the COVID-19 pandemic on employees’ perceptions of instrumental and emotional support, and examines the mediating role of informal interactions. METHODS: The study is based on responses from 382 seafarers to a cross-sectional online survey. Hypotheses were tested using OLS regression and mediation analysis using PROCESS. RESULTS: Workgroup composition regarding national diversity had indirect effects on social support through informal interactions around social foci (here: joint leisure activities). High workload and pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic reduced interactions around social foci, thus contributing to the erosion of perceived social support. CONCLUSION: The findings provide insights on the development of social support, suggesting that informal interactions provide an important mechanism for the development of social support at work. From a theoretical perspective, this highlights the value of a relational perspective on the development of social support, a perspective that is based on the insight that social support is embedded in social relationships. From a practical point of view, this indicates that organizations can proactively foster the development of social support through practices that shape workgroup characteristics and social foci.
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spelling pubmed-94840932022-09-30 Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions Pauksztat, Birgit Grech, Michelle R. Work Research Article BACKGROUND: Social support from colleagues is a key resource for employees and organizations, with beneficial effects on performance, employee well-being and resilience. Although the importance of social support is well-known, the factors that help to build and maintain social support are not equally well understood. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzes the impact of workgroup characteristics (i.e., workgroup composition regarding national diversity and tenure; workload) and the COVID-19 pandemic on employees’ perceptions of instrumental and emotional support, and examines the mediating role of informal interactions. METHODS: The study is based on responses from 382 seafarers to a cross-sectional online survey. Hypotheses were tested using OLS regression and mediation analysis using PROCESS. RESULTS: Workgroup composition regarding national diversity had indirect effects on social support through informal interactions around social foci (here: joint leisure activities). High workload and pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic reduced interactions around social foci, thus contributing to the erosion of perceived social support. CONCLUSION: The findings provide insights on the development of social support, suggesting that informal interactions provide an important mechanism for the development of social support at work. From a theoretical perspective, this highlights the value of a relational perspective on the development of social support, a perspective that is based on the insight that social support is embedded in social relationships. From a practical point of view, this indicates that organizations can proactively foster the development of social support through practices that shape workgroup characteristics and social foci. IOS Press 2022-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9484093/ /pubmed/35723163 http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/WOR-220020 Text en © 2022 – The authors. Published by IOS Press https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pauksztat, Birgit
Grech, Michelle R.
Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions
title Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions
title_full Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions
title_fullStr Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions
title_full_unstemmed Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions
title_short Building social support: The impact of workgroup characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and informal interactions
title_sort building social support: the impact of workgroup characteristics, the covid-19 pandemic and informal interactions
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9484093/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35723163
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/WOR-220020
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