Workplace loneliness mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and job performance: Differing by extraversion

Guomei Tian; Tingting Liu; Ruo Yang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1058513

Workplace loneliness mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and job performance: Differing by extraversion

Front Psychol. 2023 Mar 13:14:1058513. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1058513. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Guomei Tian¹, Tingting Liu², Ruo Yang³

Affiliations

¹ School of Business, Xi'an University of Finance and Economics, Xi'an, Shanxi, China.
² School of Management, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai, China.
³ School of Management, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Abstract

This study investigated the mediating role of workplace loneliness relating perceived organizational support to job performance, as well as the moderating role of extraversion in such relationship. 332 full-time Chinese employees from various enterprises voluntarily participated in the two-wave surveys via either paper-and-pencil or online survey conducted at Credamo and Tencent Questionnaire website. Hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses were employed to examine the hypotheses. Results indicated that workplace loneliness partially mediates the linkage between perceived organizational support and job performance; extraversion serves as a moderator in the relationship between workplace loneliness and job performance, as well as the mediating role of workplace loneliness linking perceived organizational support to job performance, such that the relationship is stronger when extraversion is high. Supplementary analyses revealed that social companionship, but not emotional deprivation, serves as a mediator in the relationship between perceived organizational support and job performance; extraversion enhanced the direct influence of social companionship on job performance, as well as the indirect influence of perceived organizational support on job performance via social companionship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords: conservation of resources theory; extraversion; job performance; perceived organizational support; social cognitive theory; workplace loneliness.