The Influence of Workplace Friendship on Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Service Industry: the Mediating Role of Organizational Identification

Abstract

The spontaneous organizational citizenship behavior has been a focus for organizational behavior research. Not only the benefits which such a behavior might bring but also the causes of its occurrence have been extensively investigated. Grounding on the perspective of the informal relationship among organizational members, this study explored the influence of the service workers' workplace friendships on the organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, the mediating effect on the above relationship was also studied. To test the relationships between variables, the top 500 service companies listed in World Magazine in 2012 were adopted as research population, and questionnaires were mailed to the employees who work in service industry. A total of 463 questionnaires were released and 348 valid questionnaires were returned. The valid response rate was 75.2%. The finding of this research indicated a significantly positive influence of the workplace friendships on the organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, a partial mediating effect of the organizational identification on the above relationship was also found. Specifically, when employees have more opportunities to build workplace friendships, they will be more likely to share their organizational belief and information and as a result, members will understand the organizational value more deeply and generate the organizational identification of fellowship in prosperity and adversity, and show more organizational citizenship behavior. Based on the results, this paper concluded with theoretical and practical implications.