How Does Sense of Power Influence Change-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior? Evidence from China

Abstract

Although the change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) exhibited by civil servants is crucial for public organizations to swiftly adapt to environmental changes, the formation process of this behavior from a power perspective has been largely ignored. Drawing upon the Situated Focus Theory of Power, this study examines whether, how, and when civil servants’ sense of power impacts their change-oriented OCB. Through a combination of two experiments (Study 1 and 2) and a survey (Study 3), we found a positive correlation between civil servants’ sense of power and their change-oriented OCB (Study 1). Furthermore, psychological safety plays a mediating role in the above relationship. A fault-tolerant organizational climate moderates the relationship between a sense of power and psychological safety, as well as the mediating role of psychological safety. Specifically, the impact of a sense of power on change-oriented OCB through psychological safety becomes weakened when the organizational climate’s fault tolerance is high (Study 2 and 3). These findings provide theoretical and practical insights into how to stimulate the change-oriented OCB of civil servants.