Gendered Support Matters at Work: How Giving and Receiving Support Is Linked to Work Outcomes.

This dissertation investigates how work-related social support is linked to men’s and women’s work outcomes. Although progress has been made toward gender equality in employment, substantial differences in pay, career advancement, and workplace opportunities remain. The dissertation studies informal workplace relationships as a potential yet understudied way through which such inequalities may be maintained or reduced. Work-related social support, including instrumental support such as advice and task assistance, and emotional support such as empathy and encouragement, enables employees to access resources through others and can influence both individual and organizational outcomes. The dissertation studies both getting and receiving support, access to and returns from support networks, and the role of the organizational context in shaping support relationships at work. It contributes to the literature by analyzing gender differences in work-related support at three interconnected levels: the individual level, focusing on support and career outcomes; the interpersonal level, focusing on structural aspects of support relationships and networks; and the organizational level, focusing on workplace gender composition and gender norms. By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective combining theories from sociology and psychology and leveraging multiple datasets, including a cross-national European dataset, the German Socioeconomic Panel, and an ego-network survey in a female-dominated Dutch organization, the dissertation offers a comprehensive analysis of gendered workplace support. Four main conclusions are drawn. First, both giving and receiving support are beneficial. Employees who received support reported higher job satisfaction and salaries, while those who helped coworkers performed better themselves, and managers evaluated the performance of teams with higher levels of support more positively. These findings support social exchange theory, suggesting that reciprocal resource exchanges enhance both individual and collective outcomes. Second, instrumental support, particularly from supervisors, is more strongly associated with career success than emotional support. Career-related support from workplace contacts was more beneficial than support from non-work contacts, and supervisors were especially important. These findings indicate that the value of support depends not only on having supportive relationships but also on the type of resources exchanged and the position of the support provider. Third, workplace support relationships are gendered. While men and women received similar overall levels of support, women more often received emotional support, whereas men more often received instrumental support from work contacts. Moreover, men benefited more from support in terms of salary and job satisfaction, whereas women experienced weaker or no comparable returns. These findings suggest that gender stereotypes and status expectations shape workplace relationships and disadvantage women despite the presence of supportive ties. Finally, organizational characteristics shape support networks and their outcomes. Gender composition and managerial gender influenced who had supportive relationships with whom. However, even in female-dominated organizations, returns from support networks are only linked to work outcomes of men, suggesting that structural changes alone may be insufficient to reduce gender inequalities.