How Does Leader OCB Influence Group And Individual OCB

Organizational citizenship behavior(OCB), as an extra-role behavior, is proved to be an antecedent of organization performance[1, 2]. Extant research mainly examines related relationships of OCB at individual level, whereas recently some studies begin to pay attention to the construct at group level. Based on social identity theory, this paper builds a cross-level model to explore how leader organizational citizenship behavior(leader OCB) influences group organizational citizenship behavior(GOCB) and individual employee OCB. We hypothesize that identification with group mediates the positive relationship between leader OCB and GOCB, and that identification with leader mediates the positive relationship between leader OCB and individual OCB.OCB refers to “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization”[3]. Since Organ(1988) first gave the definition of OCB, great attention has been paid to this extra-role behavior for these several decades [4]. Organizational systems make rules for in-role behavior for the employees in the organization, but it is believed that any organizational system is defective[5]. As a result, we need extra-role behavior to assure completing the organization’s performance objectives. Thereby, OCB as one kind of extra-role behavior has become a classic topic in the organization behavior literature in the past three decades, and it is universally viewed as an essential part of the employee performance[6] and organization effectiveness[7].Extant research mainly explores antecedents, mechanisms, and outcomes of OCB at individual level, whereas recently some studies begin to pay attention to group-level OCB. Although individual-level OCB is verified to predict organization performance, GOCB still deserves attention because: firstly, every single OCB behavior is modest, and it is the aggregate-level OCB that can make a significant difference of unit performance; secondly, individual behavior is affected not only by motivations, but also by social contexts, and GOCB involves that kind of social exchange environment. Extant research of GOCB mainly examine antecedents of GOCB, including leadership styles, organization characteristics, HPWS and so forth, more antecedents needed to be developed.We use social identity theory to support our hypotheses. Social identity theory refers to an individual’s self definition that he/she is a member of group, rather than a unique individual. Based on social identity theory, this paper explores the mediating effects of identification with group and identification with leader. Identification with group means the degree to which individual group members perceive themselves as a member of the group in terms of the values, goals, attitudes, and behaviors they share with other group members. Identification with leader refers to the degree to which a follower believes that he/she shares similar values with the leader and this identification may change the follower’s attitudes and behaviors. These two specific kinds of identification are studied to predict positive attitudes and behaviors in work place.We first premise that leader OCB has a positive relationship with GOCB. Yaffe and Kark(2011) used model effect theory to examine the relationship between leader OCB and GOCB. They argued that leader OCB has a direct relationship with GOCB and indirect relationship through the meditating effect of group belief in the value of OCB[8]. Based on their research results, we also hypothesize that leader OCB can predict GOCB, but we argue that this process can be explained by social identity theory.Then we premise that identification with group mediates the positive relationship between leader OCB and GOCB. A leader’s OCB behavior is related with members’ organization commitment and trust of the leader, and these two kinds of positive factors are strongly related with identification with group. High collective identification provides the group members a positive social context. According to social identity theory, the group context is a key determinant to change people’s attitudes and behaviors in the group.Additionally, we premise that leader OCB has a positive relationship with individual OCB. The influence of leaders on their followers comes not from their use of position power, but from their use of personal idiosyncratic power, such as referent and expert power. One way to accumulate a leader’s referent power is leader OCB, which represents the altruism, unselfishness, broad mind and virtue. In this research, we argue that leader OCB can predict individual OCB.Last but not least, we premise that identification with leader mediate the positive relationship between leader OCB and employee OCB. Social identity theory incorporates three psychological processes-social categorization, social comparison, and social identification, this research argues that leader OCB makes an effect on identification with leader through these three processes. When employees have high identification with their leaders, they are more likely to agree with the way their leaders behave and to act as the leaders because of two motivations. The first motivation is to be a better person like leaders. This motivation is more pure OCB that aims to improve inner virtue. Another one is impression management which is out of more self-serving motives. Thus, identification with leader provides individual motives to exhibit OCB.We target at hospitals and banks in Jiangsu province to carry out empirical research. We send out 68 sets of questionnaires to nursing groups, including 68 supervisors and 508 nurses, and withdraw from 58 supervisors and their 428 nurses. Besides, we send out 15 sets of questionnaires to bank groups, including 15 supervisors and 62 employees, and withdraw from 14 supervisors and their 58 employees. After getting rid of null questionnaires, we totally withdraw from 64 supervisors and their 433 employees.We use SPSS 18.0 to test the group-level relationships, and use Mplus 5.0 to test cross-level mediating effect. According to empirical results, leader OCB is positively related with GOCB(β=0.387, p=0.002), and the mediating effect of identification with group is marginally significant(β=0.210, p=0.088). Hypotheses 1 and 2 are supported. Leader OCB is positively related with individual employee OCB(β=0.085, p=0.031), and the mediating effect of identification with leader is significant(β=0.097, p=0.006). Hypotheses 3 and 4 are supported.According to the results, we conclude that:(1)identification with group mediates the positive relationship between leader OCB and GOCB;(2)identification with leader mediates the positive relationship between leader OCB and individual OCB;(3)leader OCB can predict GOCB and individual OCB at the same time.