The Influence of Perceived Organizational Support on Job Stress among Selected Public and Private Sector Employees in Lagos State, Nigeria

This study explored the influence of perceived organizational support on job stress among selected public and private sector employees in Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select three hundred and fifty four (354) participants (M=181: F=173) from both public (n=177) and private organizations (n=177). Two psychological Tests, namely: Perceived Organizational Support Scale (POSS) and the Job Stress Scale (JSS) were completed by the participants and the data collected were analyzed using Pearson’s product moment correlation, independent sample t-tests and simple linear regression at 0.05 level of significance for the purpose of testing the three hypotheses proposed in this study. The results revealed a significant inverse relationship between perceived organizational support and job stress, this implies that an increase in perceived organizational support will lead to a decrease in the level of job stress and vice versa; it was also found that perceived organizational support accounted for 6% variance in job stress and finally, there was no significant difference in the responses to job stress between the participants who had high scores and low scores in perceived organizational support scales. Based on these findings, management should endeavour to provide supportive working environment in order to minimize employees' job stress. However, it is recommended that further researches should be done to ascertain other variables responsible for variances in job stress in workplaces.