Work locus of control and interactional justice as mediators of the relationship between openness to experience and organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

PurposePrevious studies conducted in Western context show weak relationship between openness to experience and performance. More empirical evidence is needed to understand the nature of the relationship between openness and performance in a non‐Western context in general and in the Middle East in particular. The purpose of this paper is first, to examine the impact of openness to experience on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) dimensions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); and second, to test the mediating impact of work locus of control (WLOC) and interactional justice on the openness‐OCB dimensions relationship.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 164 employees working in a variety of service organizations in Dubai. The proposed linear relationships were tested using a series of separate hierarchical regression analyses. Proposed mediation hypotheses were tested using Baron and Kenny's recommendations.FindingsContrary to Western studies, openness to experience was found to be strongly related to the four OCB dimensions. Also, WLOC and interactional justice were found to play a role in mediating the influence of openness to experience on OCB dimensions.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of common method bias and cross sectional data are discussed in light of implications for future research. Nevertheless, the results provide new insights on the influence of openness to experience on OCB in a non‐Western context of the UAE by testing the role of WLOC and interactional justice in influencing the relationship between openness and OCB.Practical implicationsThe study has implications for enhancing OCB. In general, selecting employees high in openness to experience and internal WLOC can result in higher level of these employees' OCB performance. In addition, UAE managers should provide sufficient interactional justice in order to improve the impact of openness to experience on the OCB dimensions.Originality/valueThis paper describes what is considered to be the first study to examine the relationship between openness to experience and OCB dimensions in the Middle East, and the first study to test the role of WLOC and interactional justice as mediators for the openness‐OCB relationship in a non‐Western context.