When do-good meets empathy and mindfulness

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and customer-oriented citizenship behavior (CCB) are the social currency in socialization process, especially in the service encounter context. However, less is known about how OCB and CCB influence employee performance and the intervening role of trait-related moderators (i.e. empathy and mindfulness). Premised upon socialization process, altruistic motivation and self-determination theory, we propose a moderated mediation model that integrates OCB, CCB, empathy, mindfulness, and employee performance. We find that OCB positively affects employee performance through CCB. We also find that the effect of OCB on CCB and, ultimately, on employee performance is stronger for high levels of empathy and mindfulness compared to low levels. We discuss the implications for theory, practice, and future research.