The influence of perceived support on service providers' organizational citizenship behavior: A multi-focal perspective

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behavior has been studied as an important antecedent of organization effectiveness. This dissertation extends the multi-focal perspective on the social exchanges of employees in organizations to include customers, and provides an overall test of the linkage of perceived support to citizenship behavior within each of four social exchange relationships, the relationships of employees with their employing organizations, supervisors, co-workers, and customers. Within these social exchange relationships, organization-based self-esteem is incorporated as a key mediating variable, and reciprocation wariness is identified as a moderator. While past research has given limited attention to the role of customers, a constituency outside of an employeeb s primary network of social relations, as a source of social support, the empirical findings reported here highlight their strategic relevance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.