Sustainable Workplace: Impact of Authentic Leadership on Change-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior and the Moderating Role of Perceived Employees’ Calling

Abstract

To be sustainable in the current rapidly changing business environment, organizations must strive to adapt and respond to a new environment. Employees are the key performers of organizational change. Furthermore, change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is essential for them to positively accept and implement organizational change. Additionally, the leader’s role is crucial to promoting such change-oriented OCB. In this regard, this study investigates the effect of authentic leadership on change-oriented OCB, demonstrating that the vocational calling of employees strengthens such positive influences. Based on the self-determination theory (SDT), this study examines that the moderating effect between authentic leadership on change-oriented OCB increases when employees have a higher perception of calling for work than lower. This study uses a two-wave data set gathered from 485 currently working employees in South Korea. The empirical analysis is revealed below. First, authentic leadership has a positive effect on direct OCB. Second, employees’ perception of calling has a positive effect on direct change-oriented OCB. Third, the higher the level of employees’ perception of calling, the greater the effect of authentic leadership on change-oriented OCB. The most significant theoretical contribution of the study is that it is the first to determine that calling acts as a moderating factor between authentic leadership and change-oriented OCB. The fact that the positive effect of authentic leadership on change-oriented OCB increases when there is a high calling implies that employees are more likely to conduct change-oriented OCB when they perceive a high level of calling. Based on this result, this study explains the method and reason for maximizing change-oriented OCB through authentic leadership.