Research on the influence of organizational trust (OT) on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees has been conducted for years, but the influence of internal mechanism for OT on OCB is not well studied. Based on social exchange theory and organizational identity theory, this paper explored the OT on the OCB and revealed the chain-mediating role of organizational identification (OI) and employee loyalty (EL) from both employees’ cognitive and psychological perspectives. The research employed a two-wave and multi-source strategy to conduct hypothesis validation with 305 validated questionnaires of Chinese enterprises. The results of the empirical analysis show that: (1) OT has a significant effect on OCB; (2) OI plays a mediating role between OT and OCB; (3) EL plays a mediating role between OT and OCB; and (4) OI and EL have a significant chain-mediating role between OT and OCB. The results of this study have deepened the understanding of organizational trust and have important practical implications for improving organizational citizenship behavior, organizational identification, and employee loyalty.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the role of positive workplace gossip (PWG) in employee innovative behavior, whereby a mediating effect of employee loyalty is proposed in this relationship. The moderating effect of organizational trust (OT) is also examined on the indirect of PWG on employee innovative behavior through employee loyalty.Design/methodology/approachThis research used a survey data of 327 employees from the enterprises selected from the Pearl River and Yangtze River Delta region of China. Based on the literature review, five main hypotheses were formulated and explored. The SPSS-Process Macro Plugin was used to analyze the hypothesized model.FindingsResults show there is a positive and significant relationship between PWG and employee innovative behavior. This study also confirm that employee loyalty is an intervening variable and OT as a moderator.Practical implicationsOrganizations should pay more attention to workplace gossip phenomena, encourage employees to take appropriate part in positive workplace gossip and to communicate positive information about other colleagues, and build an inclusive, open, sincere, and interdependent platform in the organization.Originality/valueEmployee innovative behavior plays an essential role in organization’s survival and development. Few studies have investigated PWG may promote employee innovative behavior through employee loyalty. The data, model, and findings of this research address the gap and complement the current state of knowledge.