The Mediating Role of Organizational Identification on Sustainable Human Resources Management and Organizational Citizenship Behavior’s Relationship

Background: There is a general theme in studying employees in the research and development (R&D) department individual performance studies, where tremendous attention has been paid to innovation performance compared to behavioral and particularly extra-role behavior of employees in this department. Objectives: This study investigates the relationship between sustainable human resource management (s-HRM) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through the mediating role of organizational identification (OI) in R&D employees. Methods: A standard questionnaire was used to evaluate s-HRM, OI, and OCB. Five hundred questionnaires were delivered to all employees of the research and development departments of 59 Iranian pharmaceutical companies, and finally, 316 completed questionnaires were collected. Results: The results of data analysis with WarpPls software revealed a positive and significant relationship between s-HRM and OI, as well as OI and OCB. Investigating the mediating role of OI showed that OI partially mediates the relationship between s-HRM and OCB. The model was checked in terms of its fit indices, which were evaluated as favorable. Conclusions: The findings suggest that s-HRM improves employees' willingness to go beyond their defined job description to display in OCB. Additionally, they imply that strengthening OI can improve OCB in employees.