Affective commitment and citizenship behaviors across multiple foci

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the relationships between affective commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) across four foci: organizations, supervisors, coworkers, and customers. Further, it aims to determine whether relationships among commitments and OCBs involve mediated linkages. Design/methodology/approach – This study relies on matched employee‐supervisor data ( n =216). The relative fit of different models representing relationships among commitments and OCBs was examined using structural equations modeling. Findings – Results revealed that commitments to coworkers, customers and supervisors displayed positive relationships with OCBs directed at parallel foci. In addition, commitment to the global organization partially and negatively mediated the relationship of commitments to coworkers and customers to parallel OCBs dimensions. Results also revealed cross‐foci relationships between local commitments and OCBs. Finally, no commitment target was significantly associated with organization‐directed OCBs but the latter were positively related to local OCBs. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates that multiple commitments and OCBs are involved in a complex net of relationships among which local foci play a critical, and positive, role.