A matter of hope: Perceived support, hope, affective commitment, and citizenship behavior in organizations

Abstract

Encouraging organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is an ongoing challenge, particularly in today's workplace. This study explores employees' hope as an avenue to understanding their OCB. Specifically, we predicted and found a serial multiple mediation model indicating that perceived organizational support is positively related to employee beliefs regarding the feasibility of achieving personal goals (the pathway component of hope) that are subsequently associated with employees' motivation and determination to implement strategies required to achieve them (the agency component of hope). Next, the agency component associates with employees' affective commitment to the organization, which in turn predicts their OCB. Notably, the relations between perceived organizational support and OCB become insignificant when the mediators are entered into the model. The theoretical and practical implications of these relationships are discussed by addressing the importance of OCB in the modern workplace and pointing out directions for future research.