Job Stressors and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Roles of Organizational Commitment and Social Interaction

This study investigates the relationships of two job stressors (work overload and interpersonal conflict) with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), as well as the potential mediating effect of organizational commitment and the moderating effect of social interaction in these relationships. Multisource data from employees and their supervisors in a Mexican-based organization reveal that organizational commitment fully mediates the relationship between work overload and OCB. Empirical support also emerges for a direct negative relationship between interpersonal conflict and OCB, as well as a partial mediation effect of organizational commitment in this relationship. Further, social interaction moderates the negative effects of the two job stressors on organizational commitment, such that the relationships are attenuated when social interaction increases. Finally, the results indicate support for the presence of moderated mediation, in that the indirect effects of work overload and interpersonal conflict on OCB are attenuated at higher levels of social interaction. Human resource professionals aiming to instill OCB among their employees thus can counter the inherent pitfalls of stressful work conditions by promoting social relationships among their employees.