An Integrated Model of Dark Side of Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

This research examines the formation of compulsory citizenship behavior in the employees of insurance sector through the lenses of JD-R theory and COR theory. For this purpose, active-aggressive abusive supervision, passive-aggressive abusive supervision, perceived support of coworkers, emotional exhaustion and compulsory citizenship behavior are articulated in a conceptual framework for empirical testing. Questionnaires were administered to 205 managerial level employees working in the insurance sector of Pakistan. Results showed that both aspects of abusive supervision have direct as well as indirect effects through emotional exhaustion on compulsory citizenship behavior. Active-aggressive abusive supervision, coupled with low perceived coworkers’ support causes emotional exhaustion that culminates into increased compulsory citizenship behavior of employees. Interestingly, when perceived support of coworkers is high then the indirect link between active aggressive abusive supervision and compulsory citizenship behavior through emotional exhaustion decreases. These findings imply that job demands and resources along with psychological distress play crucial roles as far as development of compulsory citizenship behavior is concerned. The reason is that employees tend to exhibit this behavior primarily because of abusive supervision and depletion of their emotional resources. Therefore, it is imperative for managers to foster such organizational environment that strengthens relationships among coworkers as it can lessen the undesirable impact of abusive supervision.