Linking Change-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior to Turnover Intention: Effects of Servant Leadership and Career Commitment

• Author: Wei Xie,Yue Li
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0091026020985907
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026020985907

Public Personnel Management

2022, Vol. 51(1) 3 –23

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026020985907

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Article

Linking Change-Oriented

Organizational Citizenship

Behavior to Turnover

Intention: Effects of

Servant Leadership and

Career Commitment

Yue Li1 and Wei Xie1

Abstract

Prior research in public management has emphasized the value of change-oriented

organizational citizenship behavior (CO-OCB) and provided valuable insights on

the antecedents of CO-OCB. However, questions regarding the consequences of

CO-OCB have received limited attention. Using data collected from Chinese civil

servants, this study utilized a moderated mediation model to examine how CO-OCB

relates to turnover intention in the public sector. The results demonstrated that

CO-OCB was negatively related to turnover intention through the mediating role

of career commitment, and servant leadership moderated the positive association

between CO-OCB and career commitment. More importantly, our findings showed

that the indirect relationship between CO-OCB and turnover intention through

career commitment was more pronounced when servant leadership was higher.

Results are discussed in terms of their implications for research and practice.

Keywords

change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, turnover intention, servant

leadership, career commitment

Introduction

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) refers to voluntary and proactive employee

behaviors that go beyond normal role expectations explicitly required to further

1East China Normal University, Shanghai, P.R. China

Corresponding Author:

Wei Xie, School of Public Administration, East China Normal University, 3663 Zhongshan North Road,

Putuo District, Shanghai 200062, P.R. China.

Email: wxie@cpa.ecnu.edu.cn

985907PPMXXX10.1177/0091026020985907Public Personnel ManagementLi and Xie

research-article2021

4 Public Personnel Management 51(1)

organizational interests (Paillé, 2013). OCB generally falls into two broad groups:

affiliative and challenging forms (Bettencourt, 2004). The affiliative form includes

behaviors that aim to improve work performance by maintaining existing work rela-

tionships and task procedures, whereas the challenging form encompasses behaviors

designed to improve work performance by challenging the status quo of the workplace

(Choi, 2007). With an increasing emphasis on the quest for innovative and proactive

behaviors among employees in the public sector (Vigoda-Gadot, 2007), a growing

number of researchers are turning their attention to the challenging form, change-

oriented OCB (CO-OCB), in public organizations (Choi, 2007; Vigoda-Gadot &

Beeri, 2012). Defined as the constructive efforts by employees to introduce positive

change into the organization with respect to work methods, policies, and procedures

(Bettencourt, 2004; Morrison & Phelps, 1999), CO-OCB is also referred to elsewhere

as voice and taking charge (Choi, 2007). Although research has provided valuable

insights on the antecedents of CO-OCB (Bettencourt, 2004; Campbell, 2015), we

know surprisingly little about its consequences, especially at the employee level, in

public organizations.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between CO-OCB and

turnover intention among Chinese public employees. This can not only provide public

organizations with practical implications but also add insight to the ongoing academic

literature on the behavior–turnover relationship. There has been an increasing interest

in understanding the role of extra-role behavior in leading to turnover intention in

public organizations (Campbell & Im, 2016; Jin et al., 2018b). Although there is evi-

dence that OCBs contribute to reduced turnover intention, previous works have pri-

marily focused on the affiliative forms of the construct, whereas the challenging aspect

has received surprisingly much less attention (Coyne & Ong, 2007; Paillé, 2013).

On one hand, sharing some similarities with the traditional affiliative OCB,

CO-OCB may exert equal influence on turnover intention. On the other hand, CO-OCB

is uniquely different in that it seeks to challenge or change rather than just support or

maintain the status quo. Accordingly, it carries some potential risks for the initiator,

such as resistance from and creating tension with others in their work unit (Campbell,

2015; Choi, 2007). These special characteristics of CO-OCB suggest that it may have

different consequences for turnover intention. In fact, there is no consensus thus far

regarding its relationship with turnover intention. Some scholars suggest that employ-

ees who display CO-OCB should have a greater expectation of receiving organiza-

tional rewards and thus are less likely to withdraw from their organizations (Campbell

& Im, 2016). Other scholars, however, argue that employees who are committed to

their organization are unlikely to engage in this kind of behavior because such acts

may be resisted by other colleagues or embarrass the supervisor and lead to relation-

ship strains (Bu et al., 2011). Moreover, if employees receive a lower level of respon-

siveness from management to address issues raised by them, they may feel impotent

and not valued, which may lead to an even higher intention of voluntarily leaving

(McClean et al., 2013). We propose that the inconsistency in the current literature

points to the importance of uncovering the underlying mechanism that links CO-OCB

to turnover intention as well as the boundary condition in which this effect might take

place. We aimed to address this issue with a moderated mediation model.