A Paradox of Ethics: Why People in Good Organizations do Bad Things

First, Be a Good Citizen: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Well-Being at Work and the Moderating Role of Leadership Styles

The study investigates the effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on well-being at work. The study further examines the moderating role of people and task-focused leadership styles between OCB on well-being at work. Individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) and organizational-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO) will also be analyzed. A quantitative study was conducted and convenient sampling was adopted in selecting respondent workers (n = 200) in different Portuguese organizations. The results show that OCBs positively and significantly influence well-being at work. The strength of individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) on well-being at work is stronger than that of organization-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO). Contrary to expectations, the relationship between leadership styles and well-being was not statistically significant, offering possibilities for discussion regarding the central importance usually attributed to leadership in the organizational context. However, leadership styles have a moderating effect between OCB and well-being at work, except when the employee adopts OCBO and the leadership style is people-oriented. The present study is innovative because it positions OCB as an antecedent in the relationship with well-being at work and investigates the moderating role of leadership styles in the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and well-being.