How Self-sacrificial Leadership Inspires Employee Organization-directed Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Role of Mutual Commitment

Abstract In the era of brittleness, anxiety, non-linearity, and incomprehensibility, the effectiveness of self-sacrificial leadership has become increasingly important. From the perspective of social exchange theory, this study explores the impact of self-sacrificial leadership on employee organization-directed citizenship behavior (OCBO), the mediating mechanism of employee-organization mutual commitment, the moderating effect of supervisor organizational embodiment, and an integrated moderated mediation model. By analyzing 398 valid sample data from five affiliated public hospital in China, the results indicate that (a) self-sacrificial leadership positively influences employee OCBO; (b) employee-organization mutual commitment mediates the relationship between self-sacrificial leadership and OCBO; (c) supervisor organizational embodiment positively moderates the relationship between self-sacrificial leadership and mutual commitment; (d) supervisor organizational embodiment further moderates the mediating effect of mutual commitment. Organizations can refer to the research findings to cultivate their leaders’ self-sacrificial behavior, which can foster employee OCBO to obtain positive organizational performance.