Remote working and organizational citizenship behaviour in European public administrations: the role of social and cultural context

Purpose This study examines how remote working relates to public sector employees' willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in European public administrations, and whether team social cohesion, leader helping behaviour and national cultural context (individualism) shape this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Data on public sector employees from 22 countries from Round 10 of the European Social Survey (2020–2022) are used. Linear multilevel models test main effects and cross-level moderations by national individualism. OCB is operationalized as willingness to take on unpaid extra responsibilities. Findings Remote working is positively associated with OCB and the association strengthens with higher remote work frequency. Team social cohesion and leader helping show positive relationships with OCB. Cross-level interactions with national individualism are not significant, suggesting proximal organizational mechanisms outweigh broad national value differences in shaping OCB under remote work. Practical implications Sustaining OCB in hybrid public organizations requires deliberate social architecture: cohesion-preserving team routines and visible leader helping practices. Originality/value The study reframes remote working as a normalized public management practice and clarifies how social and managerial conditions enable discretionary extra role engagement among public sector employees across European administrations.