Self-rated and peer-rated organizational citizenship behavior, affective commitment, and intention to leave in a Malaysian context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine if self-rated and peer-rated organizational citizenship behavior mediated the relationship between affective commitment and intention to leave in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – A survey yielded 516 responses from multiple locations in Malaysia across varied industries for a response rate of 64.5 percent. Validity based on confirmatory factor analysis and reliability were confirmed. Findings – Affective commitment influenced self- and peer-rated organizational citizenship behavior and intention to leave. Only self-rated organizational citizenship behavior partially mediated affective commitment and intention to leave. While self-rated organizational citizenship behavior increased intention to leave positively, peer-rated organizational citizenship behavior did not influence intention to leave. Practical implications – The findings confirm earlier research that self-ratings and peer-ratings are different, and, surprisingly, organizational citizenship behavior is not a factor supporting talent retention. Human resource practitioners need to shift their focus to affective commitment that reduces intention to leave and increases organizational citizenship behavior. Originality/value – Past studies on organizational citizenship behavior relied on self-ratings, supervisor-ratings, or both ratings used in Western contexts. Little was known about the assessment of organizational citizenship behavior from peer perspectives and its relationship between affective commitment and intention to leave. Moreover, the relationships between affective commitment and self-rated and peer-rated organizational citizenship behavior were inconsistent. This study responded to those gaps by integrating affective commitment, self-rated, and peer-rated organizational citizenship behavior, and intention to leave into a single hypothesized model.