How does responsible leadership affect healthcare professionals’ customer-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors? Mediating and moderating effect analysis

This research draws upon stakeholder and social identity theories to examine the influence of responsible leadership on customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (CO-OCB) and the role of relational identification as a mediator and moderator in this connection. The findings suggest that implementing responsible leadership practices can effectively encourage CO-OCB and add to the existing literature on responsible leadership. The research was conducted on 216 healthcare professionals employed in family health centers, who were chosen through convenience sampling method. A time-lagged and multisource data approach was employed through an online survey questionnaire to ensure accurate results and establish causal relationships, thereby minimizing common method variance (CMV). The collected data was then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the research model. The study results indicate that responsible leadership positively impacts CO-OCB, and relational identification plays a significant role as a mediator in this association. Moreover, it was observed that relational identification acts as a moderator in the link between responsible leadership and CO-OCB. Specifically, as the level of relational identification increases, the relationship between responsible leadership and CO-OCB becomes more pronounced. The research’s contributions and limitations were discussed, and suggestions for future studies were presented.