Organizational identification, psychological ownership, professional isolation and citizenship behaviors during Covid-19 crisis

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the role of two feelings of organizational belonging as antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviors in a context of crisis and worker isolation. Clarifying their respective roles would enable practitioners to grasp them from a resilience perspective. We also looked at the feeling of professional isolation and studied its factorial composition, and its moderating role in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach The study was carried out during covid-19 with 185 French participants who to complete an online questionnaire consisting of 22 items of the scales concerned during periods of imposed teleworking and curfew during the covid-19 crisis. The influence of feelings of belonging on OCBs, considering telework and professional isolation, were analyzed using mediated and moderated regressions. Findings The results confirm the mediating role of organizational identification between psychological ownership and organizational citizenship behaviors. The feeling of professional isolation played a moderating role, particularly for those who felt the most isolated and who then reported more organizational citizenship behaviors than the others. Originality/value This research addresses the ongoing debate in the literature regarding the roles of identification and organizational psychological ownership in developing organizational citizenship behaviors. By studying professional isolation, we revealed its dual nature. This study contributes to the existing literature by suggesting that organizational citizenship behaviors are not always the result of positive organizational factors; rather, they can be adopted to mitigate professional isolation in a telework context.