Does Organizational Support Promote Citizenship in Service Settings? The Moderating Role of Service Climate

摘要

The present study integrates social exchange, role theory, and climateresearch to suggest that employees who have contact with customers ("contact employees")will reciprocate felt obligations of high-quality employment relationships (i.e., perceivedorganizational support [POS]). They do this by expanding their role in ways that are con-sistent with contextual behavioral expectations. A longitudinal survey of 1,387 contactemployees and 666 supervisors in a large supermarket chain in Taiwan demonstrated thatthe positive relationship between POS and service-oriented organizational citizenshipbehavior (SOCB) role definitions was strengthened by service climate. In summary, orga-nizational support resulted in expanded SOCB role definitions within a strong service cli-mate, while this relationship was much weaker and not significant in weak service climate.I discuss theoretical and managerial implications through this empirical examination.