Good mercenaries: Performing organizational citizenship behavior in a foreign land

Introduction

Research on expatriates has typically left underexplored the critical antecedents of expatriates’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Objectives

This study aims to fill this research gap by studying the effects of constructs specific and nonspecific to the expatriate context of expatriates’ OCB performance.

Methods

Using online surveys, data were collected from 200 expatriates and 280 of their coworkers working in 62 host countries. The hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling analysis.

Results

First, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, job satisfaction, work adjustment and interaction adjustment all had unique contributions in predicting expatriates’ OCB. Second, there was initial support for the indirect effect of the host country coworkers’ OCB performance targeted at expatriates on expatriates’ OCB-I performance. Finally, the results did not provide support for the indirect effect of personality factors on expatriates’ OCB performance.

Conclusion

Compared to job satisfaction, expatriates’ personality traits (i.e., Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) may have a stronger effect on expatriates’ OCB performance.