Proactive personality and citizenship performance : The mediating role of career satisfaction and the moderating role of political skill

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of political skill in the relationship between proactive personality and citizenship performance, as mediated by career satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data from a diverse sample of 356 employees, and tested a moderated mediation model, in which proactive personality and political skill jointly impact career satisfaction, which in turn impacts citizenship performance. Findings The results indicate that career satisfaction mediates the relationship between proactive personality and two forms of citizenship performance, citizenship toward supervisor, and job/task conscientiousness. Political skill moderates these mediated relationships such that proactive individuals who are also politically skilled are more likely to demonstrate greater citizenship toward supervisor and job/task conscientiousness via increased career satisfaction. Research limitations/implications The study suggests that proactive employees, due to their enhanced career satisfaction, tend to demonstrate greater organizational citizenship. Such positive tendencies are enhanced when proactive employees are equipped with political skill. Limitations include the use of cross-sectional design and single source data. Practical implications Organizations and human resources managers should be aware of the importance of personal career satisfaction and interpersonal competency in building organizational citizenship. Organizations may facilitate citizenship performance by recruiting individuals high in proactive personality and political skill. Originality/value Prior research has typically considered career satisfaction as an outcome variable. The authors examine career satisfaction as an intermediate variable leading to citizenship performance. The authors also examine the contingent effect of proactive personality.