Significant task activates trait gratitude for organizational citizenship behaviors: The mediating role of psychological availability

Ye Li; Minya Xu; Lea Waters; Xuhua Yang; Changchang Wu; Zhengyang Wu

doi:10.1080/1359432X.2022.2064745

Significant task activates trait gratitude for organizational citizenship behaviors: The mediating role of psychological availability

Ye Li, Minya Xu^*, Lea Waters, Xuhua Yang, Changchang Wu, Zhengyang Wu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

The benefits of gratitude are universally recognized in psychology and other disciplines. However, the capacity for trait gratitude to bring advantages to employees and organizations is an under-explored area despite the fact that trait gratitude could offer considerable benefits to organizational performance and success through its potential impact on organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). Based on trait activation theory, a model was put forward to examine the influence of trait gratitude on OCBs through the impact that trait gratitude has upon psychological availability. Additionally, task significance was explored as a moderator of the relationship between trait gratitude and psychological availability. The model was tested across two studies. Study 1 involved a multi-phase and multi-source survey of 178 leader-member dyads from a chemical company and an electricity firm. Study 2 was a preregistered experiment involving 205 full-time employees from a range of industries including finance, retailing, entertainment, information technology, law, engineering and other industries. In both studies the mediated moderation model of workplace trait gratitude on OCBs was supported. Limitations, implications for research and practice are addressed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	817-829
Number of pages	13
Journal	European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Volume	31
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2022.2064745
Publication status	Published - 27 Apr 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding:
This work was supported by the Youth Fund Project of the Humanities and
Social Sciences Research Project of the Ministry of Education of China
[20YJC630071]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [72102104];
the Introduction Plan of High-level Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talents
in Jiangsu Province [(2020)30231]; the Center for Statistical Science at
Peking University; the Key Laboratory of Mathematical Economics and
Quantitative Finance (Peking University), Ministry of Education of China.

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title = "Significant task activates trait gratitude for organizational citizenship behaviors: The mediating role of psychological availability",

abstract = "The benefits of gratitude are universally recognized in psychology and other disciplines. However, the capacity for trait gratitude to bring advantages to employees and organizations is an under-explored area despite the fact that trait gratitude could offer considerable benefits to organizational performance and success through its potential impact on organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). Based on trait activation theory, a model was put forward to examine the influence of trait gratitude on OCBs through the impact that trait gratitude has upon psychological availability. Additionally, task significance was explored as a moderator of the relationship between trait gratitude and psychological availability. The model was tested across two studies. Study 1 involved a multi-phase and multi-source survey of 178 leader-member dyads from a chemical company and an electricity firm. Study 2 was a preregistered experiment involving 205 full-time employees from a range of industries including finance, retailing, entertainment, information technology, law, engineering and other industries. In both studies the mediated moderation model of workplace trait gratitude on OCBs was supported. Limitations, implications for research and practice are addressed.",

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AU - Wu, Zhengyang

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Significant task activates trait gratitude for organizational citizenship behaviors: The mediating role of psychological availability

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