Journal of Organizational Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 24, 649–666 (2003) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/job.206 Perceived organizational support and work status: a comparison of the employment relationships of part-time and full-time employees attending university classes ANIKA GAKOVIC AND LOIS E. TETRICK* Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, U.S.A. Summary Employees who were attending classes at a local university responded to measures of per- ceived organizational support, the content of their psychological contracts (e.g., relational and transactional obligations), social and economic exchange, the level of fulfillment of both employee and organizational obligations, and organizational commitment. Part-time employ- ees (N ¼ 319) reported higher levels of perceived organizational support and stronger eco- nomic exchange relationships, while full-time employees (N ¼ 282) reported higher levels of continuance commitment—sacrifice and greater relational and transactional obligations to their organizations. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of the strength of social exchange relationships, the levels of their organizations’ relational and transactional obligations to them, the degree to which they had fulfilled their obligations to their organizations or their organizations had fulfilled their obligations to them, the level of continuance commitment—perceived alternatives, affective commitment, and normative commitment. There were no differences in the strength of the relations between perceived organizational support and the other exchange variables depending on work status. Overall, the findings suggested that social exchange processes operate similarly for part-time and full- time employees. Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction The relationship between employees and their organizations has been described as an exchange relation- ship (Rousseau, 1995; Shore, Tetrick, & Barksdale, 1999). Eisenberger and colleagues (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986; Eisenberger, Fasolo, & Davis-LaMastro, 1990) proposed that perceived organizational support (POS) is a key factor in the social exchange between employees and their employers. POS is viewed as the perception of individuals that their employers are committed to them and value them, resulting in employees’ reciprocation that involves an increased commitment to their employers (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Thus, POS should be related to other social exchange vari- ables such as the strength of the social and economic exchange relationships employees have with their Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 1 May 2003 *Correspondence to: Lois E. Tetrick, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5341, U.S.A. E-mail: ltetrick@uh.edu