Does organization citizenship behavior really benefit the organization?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of compulsory citizenship behavior (CCB) on employees' attitudes and behaviors in the context of Chinese organizations, especially the mediating role of psychological contract violation and the moderating role of Chinese traditionality. Design/methodology/approach – The study sample comprised matched surveys from 450 supervisor‐subordinate dyads in the People's Republic of China. The subordinates completed measures of CCB, psychological contract violation, organizational commitment and Chinese traditionality. The supervisors were asked to rate subordinates' task performance and contextual performance. Findings – Results reveal that: CCB measurement tool of Western is also suitable for the situation in China; CCB has negative impact on contextual performance and organizational commitment, but it has no significant relationship with task performance; psychological contract violation has an partial mediation role between CCB and employees' contextual performance; Chinese traditionality has obvious function of adjusting the relationship between CCB and employees' contextual performance. For the employees with low level of Chinese traditionality, it was found that the relationship between CCB and employees' contextual performance was significantly related with each other, whilst for the employees with high level of Chinese traditionality, the relationship was not significant. Originality/value – This empirical study provides preliminary evidence of the mediation effect of psychological contract violation and the moderating effect of Chinese traditionality in the relationship between CCB and employees' attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, the findings highlight the necessity of study on CCB in the context of China to help advance our theoretical understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the effect of CCB on employees' attitudes and behaviors.