Why and When Do Motives Matter? An Integrative Model of Motives, Role Cognitions, and Social Support as Predictors of OCB

We extend prior thinking about citizenship behavior by integrating employee motives, social support, and role cognitions as predictors of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Drawing on trait activation and situated self theories, we provide insights into why and when motives predict OCB using multi-source data from two field samples. In Study 1, we propose and demonstrate that the quality of social support functions as a boundary condition that qualifies relations of motives with OCB. In Study 2, we expand further by introducing role cognitions as a proximal motivational factor that mediates relations of the motives by social support interactions with OCB. Our findings support our hypothesized moderated mediation. Overall, our set of results enhances understanding of OCB by integrating the OCB motive and role cognition literatures, which to date have developed separately. As our results demonstrate, role cognitions are domain-specific obligations to perform OCB that mediate relations of more distal predispositions to perform OCB (i.e., motives) with helping and voice behavior