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The authors introduce a new measure of felt obligation to mentor in order to explore generalized reciprocity in mentoring. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether felt obligation to mentor adds prediction to mentor job performance in combination with mentoring functions provided and mentor-assessed benefits and costs of mentoring.

Hypotheses were tested in a sample of firefighters in the Southwestern USA using moderated regression analysis.

Protégé reported mentoring functions provided predicted mentor performance, but neither mentoring benefits nor costs predicted mentor performance. Felt obligation to mentor interacted with mentoring functions reported such that mentor performance was highest when both mentoring functions provided and felt obligation to mentor were high.

The results indicate that the new measure may prove to be of value for exploring generalized reciprocity in mentoring. Further, more research using mentoring benefits and costs is merited. Findings are limited by use of a new measure of felt obligation to mentor as well as the fact that the research was conducted in a setting in which employees were expected to serve as mentors.

Organizations may leverage felt obligation to mentor in order to support effective informal or formal mentoring relationships, whereas focusing on the benefits of mentoring may be a less valuable strategy.

The research offers a new measure to help to understand generalized reciprocity as a motivation to mentor as well as suggesting that more empirical attention should be given to the perceived benefits and costs of mentoring.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivational mechanisms of felt obligation and intrinsic motivation by which felt trust affects promotive voice behaviour and to differentiate the role of two dimensions of felt trust (i.e. felt reliance and felt disclosure).

Self-report data were collected from 269 employees using a two-wave online survey with one-month intervals. A cross-lagged panel model and structural equation modeling were used to test the hypotheses.

Felt reliance has a positive and significant effect on voice behaviour whereas felt disclosure does not. The relationship between felt reliance and voice behaviour is mediated by felt obligation and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, felt disclosure can indirectly affect voice behaviour through intrinsic motivation.

Leaders could make employees feel trusted to promote voice behaviour by allowing latitude and providing information at work. Exhibiting reliance through empowerment and delegation is superior to disclosing personal information.

This paper contributes to the felt trust literature by investigating whether and how felt trust affects voice behaviour and by differentiating two dimensions of felt trust.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the relationship between perceived investment in employee development (PIED) and taking charge is moderated by perceived job autonomy.

Self-report data were obtained from 737 employees. In addition, manager ratings of taking charge were obtained for 154 employees from their respective managers. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

The results revealed a positive relationship between PIED and both self-reported and manager-rated taking charge only for employees who perceived high levels of job autonomy.

Given the cross-sectional nature of the data, no causal inferences can be drawn.

Managers and organizations may benefit from providing work conditions that facilitate a felt obligation to reciprocate, but at the same time provide sufficient levels of perceived job autonomy to actually do so with respect to increasing the levels of employees’ voluntary and constructive efforts to improve work situations.

Greater levels of employee taking charge behaviors may offset the decline of businesses and thus aid in reducing long-term unemployment in the society at large.

This study contributes to a more complete understanding of how job characteristics may facilitate or inhibit the influence of antecedents for taking charge.

Drawing from the social exchange theory, the job demands-resources theory and the employee–organization relationship framework, this article aims to investigate underlying mechanisms through which organizational resources impact frontline service employees’ (FLEs) core service performance and customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

An empirical study was conducted based on a multi-source data from 211 employee–customer pairs, with structural equation modeling used to test hypotheses.

FLE felt gratitude toward the firm fully mediates the impacts of supervisory guidance and employee-oriented relationship investment in influencing employees’ service performance and customer-oriented OCB. The study further finds that when the perceived job autonomy is low, providing supervisory guidance is more effective in eliciting employee gratitude than employee-oriented relationship investments. In contrast, when the perceived job autonomy is high, employee-oriented relationship investment elicits higher employee gratitude than supervisory guidance.

First, as cross-sectional pair data were used to test the proposed hypotheses, a stronger case might be made for the use of longitudinal data. Second, the current study uses a large variety of industries to study the phenomenon of employee gratitude and customer-oriented performance. Third, given recent globalization trends, it is increasingly important for researchers to address how the knowledge gained within an US context is applicable on a global scale. Finally, the two types of organizational resources included in the study are both positive resources.

The findings offer insights about how firms can strategically invest organizational resources to favorably influence FLE gratitude and customer outcomes as well as how job autonomy plays a role in leveraging the impacts of those resources.

This study is one of the few to advance our understanding of how FLE felt gratitude serves as an intervening mechanism through which functional and social resources invested by service organizations lead to desirable customer outcomes. In addition, this study explores the moderating role of FLE perceived job autonomy, suggesting the contingent nature of organizational resources in affecting customer-oriented FLE behaviors, which was rarely attended in previous research.

Front line employees (FLEs) duel challenges of handling exceedingly customer demands and stressful supervision. Service organizations highly dependent on knowledge sharing among organizational employees. This study incorporates the unique internal and external negative forces of abusive supervision and customer mistreatment, forming a negative emotion towards the organization and customers and reduces the knowledge sharing appetite. This study aims to demonstrate the effect of the abusive supervision and customer mistreatment on the revenge attitude and felt obligation to moderate the knowledge hiding.

Survey data collected from the 201 lower rank police officers, who were directly interacting with their respective supervisors and public members (customers). Cross-sectional collected data analysed using structural equation modelling partial least square regression in SmartPLS 3.1.

FLEs perceived abusive supervision and customer mistreatment significantly influence the revenge attitude. The revenge attitude significantly explicates the lack of sharing, playing dumb and rationalized knowledge hiding among FLEs. However, the effect of revenge attitude on the evasive knowledge hiding was insignificant. Moreover, the effect of felt obligation significantly explains the evasive and playing dumb knowledge hiding among the FLEs. Felt obligation significantly moderates the revenge attitude and playing dumb knowledge hiding.

Limitations of study included the direct and indirect role of other factors that can bring more understanding of the knowledge hiding behaviors in the future research. These factors could be culture, service delivery nature and work system at the macro-level,and personality type, ability to focus and locus of control at a personal level, inducing the knowledge hiding behaviors.

The study results highlight the consequences of abusive supervision and mistreatment from the customer as a revenge attitude among the FLEs. Moreover, the revenge attitude may not leads to knowledge hiding with harmful purposes. However, felt obligation at a personal level can reduce the knowledge hiding attitudes at the workplace. A trust climate can promote knowledge sharing.

The study is the first of its kind to explore the FLEs negative emotion of revenge triggered by the abusive supervision and mistreatment from customer leads to different aspects of knowledge hidings. Knowledge hiding is not always associated with the negative motivation and curtailed with the promotion of felt obligation at employee levels. The study also extends the knowledge hiding behaviours antecedents within the work settings. Moreover, the management of knowledge hiding behaviours curtailed with the enhancement of employees felt an obligation. Service industries need to realize the importance of managing customer expectation and supervisor role for better service performance with the promotion of knowledge sharing within the organization.

The purpose of this article is to understand when and why employees engage in contextual performance directed toward one's organization and immediate supervisor.

A survey was conducted to measure study variables. Data collected from 158 professional employees were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and moderated hierarchical analysis was used to test hitherto untested hypotheses.

Results indicate strong support for the hypothesized moderating effects, such that high levels of support compensated for low levels of conscientiousness in influencing contextual performance.

Although contextual performance is unlikely to influence one's level of conscientiousness, the cross‐sectional design of the study does not permit firm conclusions regarding causality for the influence of support on contextual performance.

Results indicate that, by providing organizational and supervisory support, organizations will be able to elicit contextual performance from those individuals who lack the personality predisposition to engage in contextual performance. Given the importance of contextual performance, the practical implications of study results are of immense value.

This study makes several contributions. For instance, it extends Motowidlo et al.'s theory to include subjective measures of situational conditions as factors that interact with personality to influence contextual performance. The study responds to LePine et al.'s call for theory‐based attempts to identify variables that have differential relationships across dimensions of contextual performance. Drawing on individual difference and social exchange perspectives, this study theorized and found that perceived organizational support moderates the relationship between conscientiousness and organization‐directed contextual performance, and that the quality of the leader‐member exchange experience moderates the relationship between conscientiousness and supervisor‐directed contextual performance.

Drawing on the social exchange perspective, the authors explore the roles of satisfaction over material rewards, perceived organizational politics and career ambition in the relationship between harmonious workplace climate and employee altruistic behavior in the context of British public sector.

The authors employed SPSS software to estimate ordinary least squares models to test their hypotheses by analyzing data from 161 supervisor–employee dyads from a UK local government.

Satisfaction over material rewards mediates the relationship between harmonious workplace climate and employee altruistic behavior. Both perceived organizational politics and career ambition moderate the mediated effect of harmonious workplace climate on employee altruistic behavior via satisfaction over material rewards.

This study advances the social exchange theory by showing that the norm of reciprocity (e.g. harmonious workplace climate in this study) may not be the only key driver of exchange for altruistic behavior among public sector workers. Still, it can be mediated by satisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities and may be conditional upon individuals' career ambition or their perceptions of organizational politics.

This study explored whether two Big Five traits – conscientiousness and emotional stability – jointly moderate the positive effects of perceived organizational support (POS) on employee commitment and job performance. Drawing on organizational support theory and a self-regulation perspective, we proposed that employees high on both traits will more effectively leverage POS to enhance both their commitment and their performance.

Data were collected from 141 employees in a multinational transportation security firm. Employees completed measures assessing their POS, personality and affective commitment. Supervisors provided ratings of employees' job performance.

Results indicated that POS exerts a stronger influence on both employee commitment and performance when workers are high on conscientiousness and emotional stability. Moreover, POS was only found to be significantly associated with job performance when employees were high on both traits.

These results suggest that personality traits play an integral role in influencing workers' perceptions of, and responses to, POS. Specifically, employees who demonstrate a stronger task focus and self-regulation capabilities appear to respond more favorably to POS.

These findings reinforce the value of implementing HR practices that convey support for employees but also highlight the importance of attracting and retaining employees who are conscientious and emotional stable in order to fully realize the benefits of these practices.

Recent evidence indicates that the relationship between POS and employee performance is tenuous. Our results are consistent with a contingency perspective on POS and signal that this may be partly owing to the `influence of individual differences, such as personality traits, in moderating the effects of POS.

Drawing on principles of social exchange and equity theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employee reports of leader-member exchange (LMX) and two types of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB): affiliative and change-oriented OCB. Further, equity sensitivity, a dispositional variable reflecting one’s tendency to “give” or “take” in their interpersonal interactions, was tested as a moderator of these effects.

Data were collected from a sample of 240 manufacturing employees in China and their respective supervisors. Multilevel analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized effects.

LMX was found to be positively associated with affiliative, but not change-oriented OCB. Equity sensitivity moderated these relationships, such that LMX was positively associated with both types of OCB when employees are benevolent, but not when they are entitled.

Given the different pattern of relationships that were observed between LMX and affiliative vs change-oriented OCB, the results suggest that LMX may differentially influence these two types of OCB. Future studies should continue to explore the role of dispositional traits in moderating the effects of LMX, including less desirable (“negative”) traits.

Very few studies have examined the role of dispositional variables in moderating the effects of LMX. Consistent with principles of the social exchange and equity theory, the results suggest that LMX will only be associated with OCB when employees are benevolent (i.e. they are “givers”), and not when they are entitled (i.e. they are “getters”).

This paper aims to examine how other-regarding personality traits relate to reciprocity among frontline employees (FLEs).

Other-regarding personality variables were used to model the propensity for reciprocity and actual reciprocal behaviors with coworkers. Surveys of 276 FLEs were examined via structural equations modeling.

Other-regarding personality traits proved to be antecedents of reciprocity. Cynicism was particularly interesting in that it was positively related to reciprocity contrary to findings in other research.

Among the interesting findings relating personality to reciprocity are a more affective type of reciprocity based on empathy and altruism, and a more calculative type based on cynicism related to Machiavellianism.

Managers can use the effects of personality traits on reciprocity and cooperation to hire and place FLEs in ways that provide superior service and increased profits.

This paper indicates that certain individuals who might not typically be thought of as cooperative can in fact reciprocate. Specific ideas about cynicism and Machiavellian reciprocity in FLEs are discussed.

The findings will aid researchers and managers in understanding personality and FLEs cooperation. The findings on cynicism are particularly valuable in that they contradict some earlier research and commonly held managerial ideas.