How to Elicit Organizational Citizenship Behavior? The Role of Strengths-Based Leadership

Abstract

This paper sought to study the association of strengths-based leadership with follower organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and to consider the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating role of role overload in the relationship. We collected data at three time points from a sample of 272 employees working in diverse organizations in China. Structural equation modeling analysis was utilized to examine our hypotheses. Results showed that strengths-based leadership has a positive relationship with follower OCB even after controlling for humble leadership, and organizational identification mediates this relationship. Moreover, results also indicated that role overload negatively moderates the direct relationship of strengths-based leadership with organizational identification and the indirect relationship of strengths-based leadership with OCB via organizational identification. The present article is the first to investigate the strengths-based leadership and OCB relationship, which contributes to deepening our understanding of how, why, and when strengths-based leadership is associated with OCB.