Why Do Employees Go the Extra Mile? The Role of Authentic Leadership, Organisational Justice, and Employee Resilience in High-Demand Work Environments

HRMARS - This study examines why employees engage in organisational citizenship behaviour in high-demand work environments by integrating leadership, organisational justice, and individual-level adaptive capacity within a multilevel framework. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and Conservation of Resources theory, the study investigates the distinct pathways through which organisational and individual factors influence discretionary behaviour. Data were collected from 523 employees across 53 organisations in Malaysia’s energy and power sector and analysed using hierarchical linear modelling. The findings indicate that authentic leadership is positively associated with employee resilience, which in turn contributes to organisational citizenship behaviour, supporting a capacity-based pathway. Organisational justice demonstrates a weaker relationship with resilience but maintains a direct association with discretionary behaviour, indicating a normative pathway. Emotional intelligence shows a strong positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour but does not moderate the relationship between resilience and behaviour. Overall, the results show that employees go the extra mile not only due to motivational and relational factors, but also because of their ability to sustain performance under continuous demands. This study contributes to the literature by introducing a dual-pathway perspective that distinguishes between capacity-building and normative mechanisms in explaining organisational citizenship behaviour. The findings offer practical insights for organisations seeking to strengthen employee capability and sustain performance in demanding work environments.