Does Helping Others Make You Happier?

Abstract

Abstract: This study integrates the need fulfillment and affective events theories to investigate the effects of the interaction between job involvement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on employee well-being. Two-wave data, collected from 196 paired samples of employees and their supervisors, were analyzed. This study confirms that both job involvement and OCB are positively related to well-being. Furthermore, job involvement moderates the relationship between OCB and well-being. Specifically, OCB had a positive relationship with well-being when job involvement was high, but a negative one when job involvement was low. This study’s findings suggest that OCB is beneficial to employees only when they have high-level involvement in their jobs. Implications for practice and further research are also discussed.