Can humble leadership spark change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior? A moderated mediation study

Purpose This study aimed to investigate the relationship between humble leadership and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) by testing the mediating role of meaningful work and the moderating role of leader-member exchange (LMX). Design/methodology/approach Survey data were obtained from 203 employees selected from three Pakistani organizations. The research hypotheses were tested through multiple regression analysis, moderated regression analysis and the PROCESS macro. Findings Results showed that, as expected, humble leadership was positively related to change-oriented OCB. Furthermore, it was found that meaningful work fully mediated the effect of humble leadership on change-oriented OCB. Finally, results revealed that LMX moderated the direct effect of humble leadership on meaningful work and also moderated its indirect effect on change-oriented OCB, such that these effects were stronger when LMX quality was high. Originality/value This paper develops and tests an integrated model that explains how and when humble leadership promotes change-oriented OCBs.