Leadership behavior and organizational citizenship behavior: the role of paternalism, climate regarding ethics, and cultural orientations

This study attempts to explain how leadership behavior can advance follower organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Several hypotheses were developed and tested, aiming to examine the potential mediators and moderators that could explain and influence the link between leadership behavior and OCB. This study was conducted among 711 full-time employees working in the top 45 high-performing companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX). Of the various theories of leadership, transformational leadership and servant leadership were this study’s interest. Therefore two conceptual models (i.e., the Transformational Leadership-OCB Model and Servant Leadership-OCB Model) were examined to investigate the relationship. One hundred and twenty-three leader-follower dyads participated in the surveys. In the first model, the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB mediated by paternalism was examined. In addition, in-group and institutional collectivism orientations were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and paternalism. Results suggested that transformational leadership influenced OCB through paternalism, and that collectivism orientations moderated the link between transformational leadership and paternalism. The second model hypothesized and examined the relationship between servant leadership and OCB directed toward the individual (OCBI) and the organization (OCBO) as mediated by climate regarding ethics, and moderated by cultural orientations. Results of tested structural models suggested that climate regarding ethics mediated the influence that servant leaders have on followers’ OCBI and OCBO. This study also revealed that the effects of servant leadership on OCBI and OCBO were moderated by power distance orientation. Additional contextual data and descriptive analyses were also presented. In-depth interviews with fifteen executives revealed expected behavior of highly effective leaders. Inspirational, visionary, performance orientation, people orientation, role modeling, and personal integrity were key features of effective leadership in the context of Indonesia. In addition, drawing on sample of 450 full-time subordinates who participated in the self-reported surveys, data implied that (a) transformational and servant leadership might be generalizable to the context, and (b) variations on cultural orientations existed among surveyed organizations. In summary, this study addressed the gaps in the leadership and OCB literatures by revealing additional mediational mechanisms that would link transformational leadership and OCB as well as servant leadership and OCB. This study has joined earlier studies in recognizing that the relationship between leadership behavior and follower OCB could be indirect. It also has advanced the examination of transformational leadership and servant leadership theories to broader contexts, as recommended by the literature. The theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings for research on leadership and OCB domain, and future research directions are discussed in the general discussion chapter.