Unlocking the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: the key roles of organizational support and identification
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify the intermediate psychological mechanism – organizational identification – that links authentic leadership with follower’s organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Moreover, it examines the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational identification.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a cross-sectional research design involving 356 employees from diverse corporations in South Korea. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire to measure perception of authentic leadership, organizational identification, POS and OCB.
Findings
The results indicate that organizational identification significantly mediates the relationship between the perception of authentic leadership and follower’s OCB. Furthermore, POS acts as a moderating variable, strengthening the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational identification. Specifically, followers who perceive strong support from their organization are more likely to develop a robust sense of organizational identification under authentic leadership, which in turn, enhances their OCB.
Originality/value
This study offers a novel integration of social identity theory and organizational support theory to examine how authentic leadership influences follower’s OCB. It is among the first to introduce organizational identification as an intermediary in this context and to investigate the moderating effect of POS. The findings provide valuable insights for managers aiming to cultivate a workplace culture that fosters organizational identification and citizenship behaviors, thereby enhancing organizational effectiveness. Future research directions are also highlighted.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Data availability statement (DAS): Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.
Ethical statement: This study was conducted primarily using a company survey, which was distributed anonymously over the internet. The practice of distributing anonymous surveys is well established and is widely considered an ethical method for research as it ensures the confidentiality and voluntary participation of the respondents. The data for this study were collected about a decade ago when the institutional review board structure was not prevalent in South Korea. The concept and practice of ethical review of social science research were different at that time and researchers commonly created and distributed surveys for data collection without formal ethical approval.
Citation
Jun, K., Hu, Z. and Lee, J. (2024), "Unlocking the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: the key roles of organizational support and identification", Management Research Review, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-09-2023-0662
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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