The Relationship Between Affective Commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence

Theory suggests that affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior are positively correlated. Previous studies, however, report weak relationships between affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The present study provides an interactive perspective in which we propose that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between affective commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) – altruism and compliance. We found significant interaction between emotional intelligence and affective commitment in predicting altruistic behavior. In other words, the positive relationship between affective commitment and OCB-altruism was stronger for high emotional intelligence individuals. Our prediction for compliance behavior was not supported.