Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Hospitality Management

Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in hospitality management refers to voluntary, discretionary actions by employees that go beyond formal job requirements to support colleagues, enhance service quality and foster a positive organisational climate. In the hospitality sector—hotels, restaurants and airlines—OCB manifests as staff offering unsolicited assistance, demonstrating courtesy in high‐pressure environments, and showing conscientiousness in day‐to‐day tasks. Such behaviours contribute to improved guest satisfaction, stronger team cohesion and elevated brand reputation. Key antecedents include supportive leadership, well‐designed human resource practices (selection, training, compensation and rewards), psychological empowerment and affective commitment. Moreover, employee well‐being and life satisfaction have emerged as important predictors, linking non‐work experiences to on‐the‐job extra‐role contributions. On a global scale, fostering OCB is recognised as a strategic lever for operational resilience, competitive advantage and sustainable service differentiation. Practical applications include leadership development to strengthen supervisor support, empowerment initiatives that heighten staff autonomy and systematic recognition schemes that reinforce discretionary service behaviours.

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Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Hospitality Management publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in organizational citizenship behavior in hospitality management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: Voluntary, discretionary employee actions that exceed formal job requirements and promote organisational effectiveness.

Service-oriented OCB: Extra-role behaviours by front-line staff that enhance service quality and customer satisfaction beyond core duties.

Psychological Empowerment: A motivational construct reflecting employees’ sense of meaning, competence, self‐determination and impact in their work.

Affective Commitment: Emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in an organisation driving voluntary supportive actions.

Spillover Theory: Concept that experiences or attitudes in one life domain carry over to influence behaviours in another domain; often applied to work–life research.

References

1. The Spillover Effect of Life Satisfaction on Customer Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship and the Moderating Role of Competition Climate. Behavioral Sciences (2022).
2. Employee Involvement and Socialization as an Example of Sustainable Marketing Strategy and Organization’s Citizenship Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Beirut Hotel Sector. Sustainability (2022).
3. Workplace Support and Service - Oriented Organisational Citizenship Behaviour: The Mediating Role Of Psychological Empowerment And Affective Commitment. Cogent Business & Management (2022).