Lack of control over work and organizational citizenship behavior: overwork climate as a suppressor variable

This study investigates a suppressor effect in the relationship between lack of control over work and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Suppressor effects operate when the addition of a predictor (in our study it is an overwork climate) increases the predictive power of another variable (lack of control over work) in predicting an outcome variable (OCB). Suppressor effects can play a valuable role in explicating the meaning of examined variables by bringing into clearer focus opposing elements that are inherent - but largely hidden - in the measurement of these variables.

Data were collected through online questionnaires in a cross-sectional study. Using a sample of Polish employees (N = 580) we performed structural equation modelling (SEM) with robust maximum likelihood estimation to test our hypotheses.

Confirming our hypothesis, we found that overwork climate, as a suppressor variable, in isolation is not correlated with OCB, but is strongly associated with lack of control over work, which is a significant predictor of OCB.

In our study, we demonstrated that both lack of control over work and organizational citizenship behaviors encompass two dimensions simultaneously. The first, namely dedication to work (which they both share), constitutes the positive correlation between these two variables. The second dimension (which separates the two variables), which constitutes the negative correlation between them, is an attitude. Lack of control over work is rooted in the negative attitude and stems from the overwork climate, while organizational citizenship behaviors can be more widely associated with the positive attitude which generally stems from positive evaluation of the working environment.