The impact of organizational support on employee performance: evidence from the automotive industry with flexible manufacturing in China

Purpose Building on organizational support theory and social exchange theory, the purpose of this paper is to study the impact of organizational support on employee performance (EP) in the context of flexible manufacturing. In particular, the authors aimed to investigate the mediating role of employee attitude between organizational support and EP, and the moderating role of organizational justice (OJ). Design/methodology/approach A total of 180 participants from 36 work teams employed in 7 large automotive manufacturing enterprises in China were surveyed using a questionnaire designed by the authors. Multiple linear regressions were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results revealed four new performance indicators of frontline workers in the context of flexible manufacturing: continuous learning, teamwork, problem solving and active work. Organizational support can be divided into reinforcing support and inhibitive support. Reinforcing organizational support has a positive effect on new performance of frontline workers, and a sense of belonging plays a strong mediating role between them. Inhibitive organizational support plays an important role in the sense of awe (SA) of employees, but the SA has no influence on new performance of frontline workers. OJ plays a strong moderating role between organizational support and employee attitudes. Originality/value This study is one of the first attempts to explore the performance of frontline workers in the context of flexible manufacturing and contributes to the existing literature on the relationship between organizational support and EP.