The Paradoxical Effects of the Contagion of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Purpose: Previous research on the service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees has mainly focused on the examination of its driving factors, and has ignored the consequences that it may bring to the workplace. To bridge this research gap, by shifting the focus to the event observers, a double-edged sword model is constructed in the present study, which helps explain whether, when, and why the service-oriented OCB of coworkers is contagious.

Methodology: Multi-wave data of 239 employees from seven service-oriented companies in the hospitality industry in central and southwestern China were used to support the proposed model. The time-lag method and critical incident techniques were introduced during the data collection stage. OLS regression and the bootstrapping method were employed for hypothesis testing.

Findings: Drawing on attribution theory, it is argued that the contagion (vs non-contagion) effects of service-oriented OCB work through the dual cognitive pathways (hypocrisy perception vs serving self-efficacy) of observers, which depend on the self-serving attribution of the observers to the behaviors of their coworkers. Specifically, when the self-serving attribution of observers is high, the service-oriented OCB of their coworkers is positively associated with the hypocrisy perception of the observers, which in turn inhibits their own service-oriented OCB. In contrast, when the self-serving attribution of observers is low, the service-oriented OCB of their coworkers is positively associated with the serving self-efficacy of the observers, which in turn promotes their service-oriented OCB. This framework provides a valuable theoretical explanation perspective and empirical evidence for the exploration of how service-oriented OCB affects observers.