Journal of Behavioural Sciences, Vol. 26, No.

1, 2016

Organizational Virtuousness, Perceived Organizational Support and

Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Mediation Framework

*Sania Zahra Malik, PhD and Ramsha Naeem

Institute of Business Administration, University of the Punjab, Lahore,
Pakistan

An increasing emphasis on morality and ethics in the business

environment has called for an enhanced focus on virtue-based
phenomenon in organizational research. This study explores a
recently conceptualized phenomenon of organizational
virtuousness and tests its relationship with organizational
citizenship behavior (OCB) directly and through mediating role of
perceived organizational support (POS). An empirical study was
conducted on a sample of 250 employees in four banks of Pakistan
to test the relationship between these constructs through
Hierarchical Multiple Regression. Organizational virtuousness has
significant positive relationship with organizational citizenship
behavior. Further, perceived organizational support is a partial
mediator of organizational virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior. The findings make an important contribution
to positivity literature and suggest that organizations should adopt
practices and procedures which help in building the climate of
virtuousness in organizations.
Keywords. Organizational virtuousness, organizational
citizenship behavior, perceived organizational support, positive
psychology, mediation

In the highly turbulent current environment, profitability,

efficiency and control are inadequate criteria for achieving competitive
advantage. Change is becoming very rapid, thus organizational life has
become extremely challenging and unpredictable (Rego, Ribeiro, &
Cunha, 2010). It is need of the time to focus on attributes that result in
ennoblement and excellence (Eisenberger, Fasolo, & Davis-Lamastro,
1990), transcendence (Ryff & Singer, 1998) and meaningful purpose

*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sania Zahra Malik,

PhD, Assistant Professor, Institute of Business Administration, University of the Punjab,
Lahore, Pakistan. Email: saniazmalik@ibapu.edu.pk
Ramsha Naeem, Alumnus, Institute of Business Administration, University of the
Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Email: n_ramsha@yahoo.com
114 MALIK AND NAEEM

(Becker, 1992). This has led to widespread interest in positivity-related

phenomena in organizational life.
Organizational virtuousness is a considerably new concept and
has emerged after the spread of positive psychology movement by
Seligman (2000). Organizational virtuousness is the “pursuit of highest
aspirations in the human condition” (Rego, et al., 2010, p. 216).
Research findings indicate positive association between organizational
virtuousness‟ perceptions and performance (Cameron, Bright, & Caza,
2004), organizational citizenship behavior (Rego, et al., 2010) and
employee affective commitment (Rego, Ribeiro, & Jesuino, 2011).
Cameron et al. (2004) found significant relationships between
organizational virtuousness and performance. This study aims to
promote this trend and systematically investigates positive phenomena in
organizational setting by exploring relationships between two concepts of
organizational virtuousness (OV) and organizational citizenship behavior
(OCB) directly and through mediating role of perceived organizational
support (POS) in the banking sector of Pakistan. Banking sector is facing
numerous challenges to retain employees. Hence, this study can make an
important contribution in service sector to help organizations to
understand that how perception of virtuousness helps to transform an
employee into one who works for the organization beyond his self-
interest.
Organizational citizenship behavior was first defined
comprehensively by Organ (1988) as a discretionary and voluntary
behavior being followed by formal reward system. Studying
organizational citizenship behavior is valuable because it leads to higher
productivity in organizations (Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 1997) and
augments the previous findings of researchers who reviewed the literature
on the nature and antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior
(Organ, 1988; Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 1997; Sevi, 2010). This study
adds to the literature through associating organizational citizenship
behavior with organizational virtuousness and perceived organizational
support.
Fredrickson‟s (2001) broad and build theory supports the
relationship between organizational virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior. According to him, frequent experience of positive
emotions leads to social integration within organization which ultimately
leads to organizational citizenship behavior. Social exchange theory
provides support for mediating relationship. This theory suggests that
when employees develop positive beliefs about organization, they tend to
ORG. VIRTUOUSNESS, PERCEIVED ORG. SUPPORT AND OCB 115

reciprocate this treatment based on the norm of reciprocity (Blau, 1964).

In coherence with such theory, favorable organizational treatment which
transcends instrumental concerns (i.e. virtuousness) leads to positive
perceptions about organization (Johlke, Stamper, & Shoemaker, 2002),
which in turn prompts the employees to reciprocate this favorable
treatment in the form of organizational citizenship behavior (Deckop,
Cirka, & Andersson, 2003).

Organizational Virtuousness
The Latin word “virtues” means “strength” or “excellence” that
means the attributes, a person must possess to excel (Rego, et al., 2010, p.
216). Virtues are not a list of ethical principles but they are the “internal
values that characterize an individual” in Aristotelian sense (Cameron, et
al., 2004, p. 173). Virtuousness is the “pursuit of highest aspirations in
the human condition” (Rego, et al., 2010, p. 216) and it is associated with
not just the absence of negative outcomes but also the presence of
positive outcomes (Cameron, et al., 2004). Virtue is a study of
capabilities, reserves, and attributes of organization that lead to positive
deviance in members of organization (Manz, Cameron, Manz, & Marx,
2008). At the aggregate level, virtuousness is associated with
organizations, communities, and culture and no organization in this world
can survive without representation of virtuousness. Organizational
virtuousness means that the organization supports and enables virtuous
activities. Lastly, a general definition of organizational virtuousness has
been given by Cameron et al. (2004, p.768) as “individual activities,
collective actions, characteristics of culture, or processes that enable or
disable virtuous deeds”.
Virtuousness is a considerably new concept. It is related to the
field of positive organizational scholarship which is aimed at achieving
the best of human condition and concerned with extraordinary behavior
of individuals. The recent moral and financial collapse made the concept
of virtuousness worthy of attention. It is assumed that organizational
virtuousness improves individual betterment and organizational
performance (Rego, et al., 2011). Cameron et al. (2004) empirically
examined the relationship between virtuousness and performance in 18
organizations and found positive association between these constructs
through amplifying and buffering attributes of virtuousness. Virtuousness
leads to building positive emotions, social capital and prosocial behavior
through its amplifying effect. On the other hand, virtuousness buffers the
organization against negative effects by enhancing resiliency, harmony
116 MALIK AND NAEEM

and a sense of efficacy. Rego et al. (2010) have found positive

association between organizational virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior directly and through mediating role of affective
well-being in industries in Portugal. In another study, Rego et al. (2011)
have shown association between organizational virtuousness and
affective commitment directly and through mediating role of affective
well-being in 14 small and medium companies.
Cameron et al. (2004) developed a five-factor model of
organizational virtuousness. In this study, organizational virtuousness is
adapted from the conceptualization of Cameron et al. (2004) with five
factors i.e. optimism, forgiveness, trust, compassion, and integrity. This
is the only model of organizational virtuousness which has been tested
and validated so far. Hence, this model is used to operationalize
organizational virtuousness in the current study due to its high reliability
and validity.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior

The concept of organizational citizenship behavior is being
discussed in literature for the past three decades (Bateman & Organ,
1983). There has been a widespread interest by researchers to study the
nature and antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior (Organ,
1988; Podsakoff, Ahearne, & MacKenzie, 1997; Sevi, 2010).
Organizational citizenship behavior is attracting academic attention due
to its positive association with organizational effectiveness (Podsakoff &
MacKenzie, 1997), and job satisfaction (Bateman & Organ, 1983).
Podsakoff and Mackenzie (1997) have found an association between
organizational citizenship behavior and organizational effectiveness.
Bateman and Organ (1983) found that the relationship between job
satisfaction and citizenship behavior is stronger than job satisfaction and
performance. There are relatively few studies investigating relationship
of organizational citizenship behavior with other organizational behaviors
(Organ, 1988; Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 1997; Sevi, 2010). To address
this literature gap, this study examines how organizational citizenship
behavior and organizational virtuousness are associated. This relationship
has been studied by Rego et al., (2010) previously. This study contributes
to literature through incorporating perceived organizational support as
mediator between organizational virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior. This combination will be studied in the banking
sector, which will guide the organization about how to reduce turnover of
employees. The term organizational citizenship behavior was first
ORG. VIRTUOUSNESS, PERCEIVED ORG. SUPPORT AND OCB 117

defined comprehensively by Organ (1988) as: “Individual behavior that is

discretionary, not directly recognized by the formal reward system, and
promotes the effective functioning of the organization. Discretionary is
the behavior which is not an enforceable requirement of the job
description; clearly specifiable terms of the person‟s employment
contract with the organization; a matter of personal choice, such that its
omission is not generally understood as punishable” (Organ, 1988, p. 4).
Rezai and Sabzikaran (2012) classify organizational citizenship
behavior into four key elements i.e. behaving beyond specified role
requirements, behavior which is self-initiated, behavior which is not
rewarded officially and behavior crucial for organization success.
Recently, Takeuchi, Bolino, and Lin (2015, p.1) conceptualized
organizational citizenship behavior as: “maintenance and enhancement of
the social and psychological context that supports task performance”
Following Organ (1988), this study assesses organizational
citizenship behavior encompassing five dimensions, i.e. altruism,
conscientiousness, courtesy, civic virtue and sportsmanship.

Perceived Organizational Support

Perceived organizational support is a recently developed concept
and is considered an important work attitude in current environment
where companies are in need of employees who perform above their
specified job descriptions. Employees are willing to perform beyond their
job requirements when they have positive perceptions regarding
organization‟s treatment (Noruzy, Shatery, Rezazadeh, & Hatami-
Shirkouhi, 2011). Studies have been conducted on the antecedents and
consequences of perceived organizational support (Rhoades &
Eisenberger, 2002); the impact of perceived organizational support on job
performance and organizational citizenship behavior (Chiang & Hsieh,
2012). Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) conducted meta-analysis of 73
studies. It indicated that fairness, supervisor support, organizational
rewards and favorable job conditions are antecedents of perceived
organizational support. Moreover, perceived organizational support leads
to job satisfaction, positive mood, affective commitment, performance,
and reduced withdrawal behavior. Chiang and Hseish (2012) examined
the relationship between perceived organizational support, psychological
empowerment, and organizational citizenship behavior and job
performance. The results indicated that perceived organizational support
and psychological empowerment positively influenced organizational
citizenship behavior and negatively influenced job performance.
118 MALIK AND NAEEM

Kurtessis et al., (2015, p.2) conceptualize perceived

organizational support as: “general perception developed by employees
concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions
and cares about their well-being.” Perceived organizational support has
emerged out of social exchange theory where employees are prompted to
reciprocate the favorable treatment and feel an obligation to help the
organization achieve its goals when they develop positive beliefs about
the organization.
Previous literature suggests that virtuousness in organizations
leads to a number of positive behaviors, one of which is citizenship
behavior (Cameron, et al., 2004). Citizenship behavior not only involves
improving the productivity of employees but also enhancing the ability of
others in the organization by leaving spare time for efficient planning and
solving problems (Takeuchi et al., 2015). Manz et al. (2008, p. 2)
suggested that the attributes of organizations “move individuals toward
better citizenship, responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility,
moderation, tolerance, and work ethic”. This clearly shows that virtue in
organization leads to many other behaviors: one of which is citizenship.
The relationship between organizational virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior can also be predicted as “virtuousness in societies
provides the integral elements of good citizenship, reciprocity and
stability needed to ensure societal endurance” (Cameron, et al., 2004, p.
767). One of the attributes of organizational virtuousness (i.e., social
betterment) focuses on achieving the same objective as organizational
citizenship behavior (i.e. to help others without own personal interest)
(Cameron, et al., 2004). Fredrickson‟s broad and build theory helps to
support the relationship between organizational virtuousness and
organizational citizenship behavior. Frequent experience of positive
emotions leads to social integration within organization which ultimately
leads to organizational citizenship behavior (Fredrickson, 2001). Thus,
we expect that organizational virtuousness will be positively related with
organizational citizenship behaviors.
When employees have higher perceptions of organizational
virtuousness, they tend to develop positive beliefs about their
organization (Johlke, et al., 2002). Social exchange theory supports the
relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational
virtuousness. When an organization repeats the acts of fairness,
employees feel that organization values their wellbeing (Rhoades &
Eisenberger, 2002). Therefore, higher levels of organizational
ORG. VIRTUOUSNESS, PERCEIVED ORG. SUPPORT AND OCB 119

virtuousness are expected to relate to higher levels of perceived

organizational support.
The literature review reveals that relationship between
organizational citizenship behavior and perceived organizational support
has been well studied (Moorman, 1991; Noruzy, et al., 2011; Wayne,
Shore, Bommer, & Tetrick, 2002; Wayne, Shore, & Liden, 1997). This
can be explained through perspective of social exchange theory.
Employees are dedicated to help others when they feel organization
respects and cares for them. When employees feel they are important to
organization, they develop connection of trust with organization and
become willing to offer productive suggestions to help organization
achieve its goals. When employees develop positive beliefs about
organization, they tend to reciprocate this treatment based on the norm of
reciprocity (Deckop, et al., 2003). Thus, we expect that perceived
organizational support will be positively related to organizational
citizenship behavior.
Given the proposed relationship between a) organizational
virtuousness and organizational citizenship behavior b) organizational
virtuousness and perceived organizational support c) perceived
organizational support and organizational citizenship behavior, we
hypothesize the mediation model in which perceived organizational
support can explain the relationship between organizational virtuousness
and organizational citizenship behavior. Social exchange theory supports
the mediating relationship. It is expected that an employee who has
higher perceptions of organizational virtuousness develops positive
beliefs about the organization‟s care and in turn engages himself in
helping behavior above specified role requirements known as
organizational citizenship behavior (Meier, 2015).
Based on the literature presented above, the present research aims
to make a contribution in organizational sector. As Cameron et al. (2004)
point out that there is much need for research in domain of positive
organizational scholarship. There had been barriers in study of positive
phenomena in the past because of dominance of negative phenomena.
The present study aims to investigate positive phenomena in
organizational setting and contributes to the field of POS by exploring
relationships between two concepts which are virtuousness and
citizenship behavior. In addition to virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior, this study aims to measure the mediating role of
perceived organizational support on relationship between virtuousness
and organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, banking sector is
120 MALIK AND NAEEM

facing numerous challenges to retain employees. Employees are an

important asset for service organizations. This study can make an
important contribution in service sector because the organizations will
understand how perception of virtuousness helps to transform an
employee into one who works for the organization beyond his self-
interest.

Hypotheses
 Organizational virtuousness is likely to have positive relationship
with organizational citizenship behavior and perceived
organizational support.
 Perceived organizational support is likely to mediate the
relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and
organizational virtuousness.

Schematic Diagram
The hypothesized model is shown in the schematic diagram in
Figure 1.

H4

H2 H3

H1

Figure1. Hypothesized Model

Method
Sample
This study was conducted among employees in banking sector of
Pakistan. For this purpose, four banks were selected, out of which two
were public banks and the other two were private banks. This was done
in order to delineate the differences between the policies and perception
of employees in public versus private banks. Out of the 215 respondents,
70 percent of them were male, and 30 percent were female. The
respondents were managers from different functional areas and 15
ORG. VIRTUOUSNESS, PERCEIVED ORG. SUPPORT AND OCB 121

percent belonged to age group (18-25), 30 percent belonged to age group

(26-30) and 17 percent belonged to age group (40 & Above). The
majority (i.e. 38 percent) of respondents belonged to age group (31-40).
Three percent of the respondents had High School degree, followed by
Bachelor‟s degree (25%), Master‟s degree (70%), Doctoral degree (1.4%)
and the rest had other qualification (0.5%). Majority of respondents
(38%) had work experience in current organization between 1 to 5 years,
16% had less than 1 year work experience, 28% had 6 to 10 years work
experience and 19% of the respondents had more than 11years work
experience.

Assessment Measures
Detail of the tools used in the present study is given in following.

Organizational Virtuousness. Cameron et al. (2004) gave a five

factor model having 15 items for measuring organizational virtuousness.
The Alpha reliability coefficients for each factor ranged from .83 to .89.
Cronbach‟s Alpha calculated in present study was .82 which corroborates
with previous results.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Scale developed by

Organ (1988) was employed. Podsakoff et al. (1997) have shown that the
scale meets the reliability of .70 recommended by Nunnally, Bernstein,
and Berge (1967) for new scales. Cronbach‟s Alpha of OCB scale was
.85 within this dataset.

Perceived Organizational Support. Present study measures

perceived organizational support through 8-item scale developed by
Eisenberger et al. (1990). Ghani and Hussin (2009) have reported a
reliability coefficient of .89 for this scale. In this study, the coefficient
was slightly lower (.70) but adequate as Nie, Bent, and Hull (1975)
suggested that a score of .70 or more was satisfactory.

Procedure
First of all, a pilot study was conducted in which 15 employees of
a bank were assessed. Reliability coefficients for the tools were high i.e.
for organizational citizenship behavior was .82, organizational
virtuousness was .84, and perceived organizational support was .90. No
problematic issues were pointed out by the participants. In main study, a
sample of 300 employees working in 3 to 5 branches of each bank were
122 MALIK AND NAEEM

recruited on the basis of convenience sampling. Researchers contacted all

employees and gave them Questionnaires to be completed and after
getting all the questionnaires filled, they were checked for logical
consistency and only valid questionnaires were selected. Table 1 shows
the frequency of valid responses for each bank.

Table 1
Distribution of Questionnaires and Response Rate
Banks Distributed Returned Not Response Valid
Returned Rate Responses
Bank 1 71 65 6 91% 50
Bank 2 80 65 15 81% 58
Bank 3 80 75 5 94% 73
Bank 4 69 60 9 87% 34
Total 300 265 35 88% 215

Table 1 depicts that a total of 300 questionnaires were distributed

in four banks, 265 were returned. A response rate of 88 percent was
achieved. There were 215 complete and valid questionnaires which
qualified analysis. About one third of responses per bank were received
on the spot and the rest were collected later from banks.

Results
Correlation analysis was used in combination with regression to
test the hypotheses. Table 2 shows that organizational virtuousness has
positive correlation with organizational citizenship behavior and
perceived organizational support has moderate correlation with
organizational citizenship behavior. Perceived organizational support has
positive correlation with organizational virtuousness.

Table 2
Correlation, Mean and Standard Deviation of Variables
Variable 1 2 3 M SD
Organizational Citizenship Behavior - .51** .33** 3.80 .46
Organizational Virtuousness - .40** 3.63 .47
Perceived Organizational Support - 3.35 .54
Note. ** p < .01.

All hypotheses of study were tested through performing

hierarchical multiple regression. In step 1, control variables (age,
education, organizational tenure, bank, gender) were entered, followed by
organizational virtuousness in the step 2 and perceived organizational
support in step 3.
ORG. VIRTUOUSNESS, PERCEIVED ORG. SUPPORT AND OCB 123

Table 3 indicates that organizational virtuousness explained

significant unique variance (∆R2 = .23, β = .49, p < .05). It proves
significant positive relationship between organizational virtuousness and
organizational citizenship behavior. Organizational virtuousness had a
positive association with perceived organizational support (∆R2 = .15, β =
.40, p < .05). Perceived organizational support was also positively
associated with organizational citizenship behavior (∆R2 = .10, β = .33, p
< .05).

Table 3
Hierarchical Multiple Regression Predicting Organizational Citizenship
Behavior from Organizational Virtuousness through Mediation of Perceived
Organizational Support
Model Dependent Independent Variable (s) R2 ∆R2 β
Variable
1 OCB (i) CVs .05 .05
(ii) CVs
+OV .28* .23* .49*
2 POS (i) CVs .02 .02
(ii) CVs
+ OV .17* .15* .40*
3 OCB (i) CVs .05 .05
(ii) CVs
+ POS .15* .10* .33*
4 OCB (i) CVs .05 .05
(ii) CVs
+OV .28* .23* .42*
+POS .30* .02* .19*
Note. ** p < .05. CV= Control Variables; OCB= Organizational Citizenship Behavior;
OV= Organizational Virtuousness; POS= Perceived Organizational Support
Control Variables: Gender, Education, Bank, Tenure, Age

After controlling for mediator, the partial (direct) significant

relationship between organizational virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior (β = .42, p < .05) was less than the partial (direct)
relationship between organizational virtuousness and organizational
citizenship behavior without controlling for perceived organizational
support (β = .49, p < .05). Furthermore, the variance accounted by
mediated model (R2 = .3, p < .05) was more than the variance accounted
by direct model (R2 = .28, p < .05) (see table 3) which proves that
perceived organizational support partially mediated the relationship
between organizational virtuousness and organizational citizenship
behavior. The Sobel Test was conducted to gain additional support for
124 MALIK AND NAEEM

mediation model. It gives value (z = 2.25, p < .01) which shows that
perceived organizational support is a partial mediator.

Discussion
The findings of present study showed that organizational
virtuousness significantly effect organizational citizenship behavior
which explore that when individuals develop positive perceptions about
organizations, they tend to reciprocate this favorable treatment by
becoming more concerned about organization‟s performance and are
prompted to adopt organizational citizenship behavior. These results
suggest that when virtuousness exists in organizations, organizational
citizenship behavior is more likely to be developed. Similarly, Rego et al.
(2010) found a positive relationship between organizational virtuousness
and organizational citizenship behavior in the cultural context of
Portugal. These findings are also supported by the „broad and build
theory‟ of Fredrickson (2001) who states that virtuousness in
organizations leads to the development of positive behaviors which in
turn broadens the people‟s thoughts and results in improving
organizational functioning and goodwill of organization. Organ and Ryan
(1995) also proposed that those variables that have employee morale
inclined to be an antecedent of organizational citizenship behavior, for
example, trust which is both an important dimension of organizational
virtuousness and an antecedent of organizational citizenship behavior.
This study confirms the strong relationship between overall
organizational virtuousness and organizational citizenship behavior in the
banking sector of Pakistan which indicates that employees are willing to
engage in extra role behaviors if organizational virtuousness would be
inculcated in the climate.
The present study also contributes to literature by providing
evidence of the indirect link between virtuousness and citizenship
behavior through perceived organizational support. It demonstrates that
perceived organizational support is a partial mediator. According to this
finding, when employees develop positive perceptions of virtuousness,
they develop positive beliefs regarding organization and consequently
engage in organizational citizenship behaviors. Rego et al. (2010) also
demonstrated that the relationship between perceptions of virtuousness
and citizenship behavior was mediated by affective wellbeing. The
present study is not replicating this relationship as it is concerned with
perceptions of employees about organization rather than positive feelings
by employees and makes a major contribution by confirming a
ORG. VIRTUOUSNESS, PERCEIVED ORG. SUPPORT AND OCB 125

relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and

organizational virtuousness through perceived organizational support in
the banking sector of Pakistan. It is an important contribution in the
banking sector to understand how perception of virtuousness helps to
transform an employee into one who works for the organization beyond
his personal interest and eventually banks will bring changes in
themselves to foster organizational virtuousness.
There are also some limitations which provide avenues for future
research. This study does not consider the effect of virtuousness and
perceived organizational support with each dimension of organizational
citizenship behavior. For instance, the relationship between optimism and
civic virtue mediated through perceived organizational support.
Secondly, this study evaluates the association between independent and
dependent variables with no indication of causal relationships that can
exist between them. It is difficult to determine whether virtuousness
causes citizenship behavior or citizenship behavior causes virtuousness
either by developing social capital (Bolino, Turnley, & Bloodgood, 2002)
or increasing feelings of pride and meaningful work (Miles, Borman,
Spector, & Fox, 2002). In the same way, perceived organizational
support can also influence the organizational features and leads to more
virtuous organization. As this study is cross sectional study, it does not
take into account the effect of positive emotions that develop with
passage of time through amplifying effect of virtuousness and the process
through which individual traits of employees convert the organization
into positive institution (Fredrickson, 2001). Hence, longitudinal study
instead of cross sectional study should be conducted in future to get real
and accurate results and explore reciprocal causal links between these
variables.
This study demonstrates positive association between
virtuousness and citizenship behavior. Hence, future studies should
explore the management practices which result in building virtuous
organization. Another issue that needs attention is to explore relationship
between virtuousness and citizenship behavior through other mediating
variables apart from perceived organizational support. This study is
conducted in four banks of one city. Therefore, the findings of the study
cannot be generalized to all banks of the country. Future studies should
be conducted with larger sample size (Osborne & Fitzpatrick, 2012) and
encompassing more regions as one region reduces the external validity of
findings. The extant literature review reveals that extensive research has
been done on the antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior
126 MALIK AND NAEEM

(Organ, 1988; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). Hence,

future studies should determine how these antecedents interact differently
with organizational virtuousness which will lead to more meaningful
results.
The managerial implications of this study cannot be
underestimated. In this highly turbulent and competitive environment,
those organizations are likely to be successful where virtuous acts are
common and where employees are willing to perform above the role job
duties. As employees are lifeblood of organizations in service sector,
managers should be more concerned with perceptions and beliefs of
employees about the organization. Positive perceptions of employees are
very important to make employees happy and productive. Hence,
managers should foster climate where acts of forgiving, compassion,
integrity and trust are widespread to improve functioning and
performance of organization. Distribution of rewards among employees
should be fair and a clear purpose should be set for all employees to
follow. Managers should also promote mentoring of employees which
enhances morale and has a positive impact on performance. In short, a
high level of organizational virtuousness will ensure that employees are
happy and satisfied and will in turn engage in organizational citizenship
behaviors.
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Received October 24, 2014

Revisions received April 20, 2016
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