Towards a better understanding of the “buffering effects” of organizational virtuousness’ perceptions on employee outcomes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the buffering effects of organizational virtuousness. More specifically, the study investigates employee reactions (job satisfaction, intent to quit and willingness to support the organization) to organizational virtuousness’ perceptions both in conditions without crisis and in conditions with crisis. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts the experimental methodology to explore its main hypotheses and research question. The results of a field study are also presented in order to add generalizability to the experimental results. A post hoc qualitative analysis based on focus-group interviews sheds light on the above findings and enables their better understanding. Findings – The results indicated that even during a financial crisis those perceiving higher organizational virtuousness expressed higher job satisfaction, lower intent to quit and higher willingness to support the organization compared to those perceiving lower organizational virtuousness. Organizational virtuousness’ perceptions have also been found to moderate (accentuate) the effects of the financial crisis on job satisfaction and intent to quit. Willingness to support the organization seems to be unaffected by the financial crisis. Practical implications – Managers should be aware of how individuals respond to organizational virtuousness during conditions of financial crisis. Originality/value – The study makes a unique contribution to the literature by being the first to investigate the effects of organizational virtuousness’ perceptions on employee reactions both pre- and during-financial crisis.