Employees' perception of organizational support: A qualitative investigation in the Indian information technology (IT) industry

Objectives: Organizational support relates to an organization's readiness to reward increased work effort and to meet socio-emotional needs. This study investigated the various constructs of employees' perceptions of organizational support in the Indian context, with specific reference to the information technology (IT) industry. Participants: Thirty six semi-structured interviews were conducted from three different organizations over a period of four months. The participants were employed as Project Managers, Team Leaders and Executives in these organizations operating in Pune and were selected via randomized quota sampling to reflect a mix of age, positions, genders and experience with organization. Methods: Qualitative methods were used in order to collect the data, through phenomenological principles. Results: Discussion with the participants led to the emergence of five different themes which influence employees' perception of organizational support. These were: materialistic support, supervisor support, building reciprocal relationships, Organizational justice and intentions to leave. Conclusions: This study provided a tentative starting point towards the greater understanding of the employee's perceived notion of organizational support. Based on the study findings, there is an imperative that the human resource department and organizational forerunners continue to use research findings to support IT professionals in various ways in order to improve their quality of work life.