HR, perceived organisational support and organisational identification: an analysis after organisational formation

Academic research has rarely investigated the role that people management plays in encouraging employees to identify with their employing organisation. This article reports on a study investigating the role that employee perceptions of the HR environment plays in encouraging organisational identification and the importance of perceived organisational support in this relationship. Two research surveys are discussed, one carried out shortly after the formation of the new organisation within the UK National Health Service, and one is a replication study undertaken 13 months later. The results show that key HR-related factors predict organisational identification; this effect is both direct and indirect through perceptions of organisational support. The findings also demonstrate that, as the organisation matures, there are some interesting changes in which aspects of the HR environment predict identification and perceptions of organisational support.