Abstract
In today’s dynamic organizational environment, employees with a tendency to display discretional behaviors beyond their prescribed formal job duties represent a plus. Underpinned by the theories of social exchange and conservation of resources, these behaviors can be influenced by their level of job satisfaction (JS), defined as the extent to which employees like their work, and work engagement (WE), defined as a positive work-related state of mind. The present study investigates the mediating mechanism of WE in the relationship between JS and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), which refer to discretionary behaviors that could benefit an organization (OCBs-O) and/or its members (OCBs-I). The mediational hypothesis is examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) among 719 Italian private and public sector employees. The significance of total, direct, and indirect effects was tested via bootstrapping. The results showed that JS was positively related to WE, which, in turn, was positively related to both OCBs-I and OCBs-O. The SEM results supported the hypotheses: WE fully mediated the relationship between JS and OCBs-I, and it partially mediated the relationship between JS and OCBs-O. This study sheds new light on this mechanism. Consequently, it is useful for HRM policy. It also helps us to better understand how satisfied and engaged employees are willing to adopt positive organizational behaviors.
Highlights
Due to external events and protracted economic crises, the constant and rapid changes in the world of work have forced both scholars and managers to try to better understand the variables that impact strategic organizational goals and enhance employee well-being in both the public and the private sector.From an organizational point of view, a strategic asset clearly has a high level of performance related to the work
The latter falls in the domain of employee performance, which is composed of activities; that is, a class of behaviors—called organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs)—that go beyond the prescribed formal job duty
This study investigates the dimensionality of the OCB construct, and it validates the utility in the distinction between organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals (OCBs-I) and OCBs-O for a meta-analysis
Summary
Due to external events and protracted economic crises, the constant and rapid changes in the world of work have forced both scholars and managers to try to better understand the variables that impact strategic organizational goals and enhance employee well-being in both the public and the private sector.From an organizational point of view, a strategic asset clearly has a high level of performance related to the work. In addition to performance that is strictly related to the task—which is called task performance—there is another form of performance that is not formally required as part of the job, but which helps to shape the social and psychological context of the organization, which is called contextual performance [1]. The latter falls in the domain of employee performance, which is composed of activities; that is, a class of behaviors—called organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs)—that go beyond the prescribed formal job duty. A multidimensional approach to studying OCBs has been proposed for review (see [5])
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