Exploring Differences In-house Human Resource Versus Outsourced Human Resource Small Business Employee Samples in Perceived Organizational Support

No prior research has focused on comparing in-house human resource (HRI) versus outsourced human resource (HRO) small organization employee samples on perceived organizational support (POS). Using a survey methodology, the sample sizes of 101 HRI United States (US) employees and ninety-seven HRO US employees were equivalent in terms of company size, company age, gender, years of work experience, work schedule, average HR response time, and POS. Comparisons between HRI versus HRO samples for specific type of organizational support on POS showed that the HRI employee sample perceived higher POS for the Personalized and Collectivist than Monistic type. No differences were found for the HRO sample. In addition, a significant difference in correlations was found between HRI versus HRO employees’ average HR response time for resolving an issue to POS, with the relationship more negative for the HRI sample. Collectively these results suggest that HRI employees were more sensitive to the type of perceived organization support, and a slower HR response time negatively affected their POS. Study limitations and future research issues are discussed.