Emotional Contagion—As a Moderator in Personality and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Relationship

Abstract

Despite broad evidence in the past demonstrating the relationships between personality traits and organizational citizenship behavior, research on organizational citizenship behavior from the perspective of emotional contagion has not received deserving attention to date. Drawing on the trait theory and affective event theory as an overarching reference, this study theorizes emotional contagion as a moderator by arguing that it improves the above relationship incrementally. This study conducted hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses and adopted the Johnson–Neyman method using SPSS PROCESS Macro to probe the pattern of the significant interactions. A total of 320 bank employees took part in the survey. The findings revealed, agreeableness and conscientiousness as significant predictors of organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the above association was enhanced for employees at the conditional level of high emotional contagion. The study provides insight into recognizing the significance of employees’ emotional levels and their contribution to organizational growth.