The curvilinear effects of training participation on job performance through organizational support: The moderating role of entity self-beliefs

Current theory and empirical findings often suggest a positive linear association between employees’ perceptions of training participation, and both their perceived organizational support (POS) and job performance. Drawing on a sample of 432 full-time employees, nested in 46 teams across seven organizations, we hypothesize and test (1) a curvilinear relationship between employees’ perceptions of training participation and their POS; (2) the likelihood that this curvilinear relationship is intensified when employees believe that their abilities are largely fixed and cannot be changed very much (i.e., when the employee holds an entity self-belief); and (3) whether POS mediates the relationship between employees’ training participation and job performance. Our results support each of these hypotheses and confirm a curvilinear moderated mediation relationship between employees’ training participation, POS and job performance. The implications for research and practice are discussed.