Union influence on change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior: evidence from China

Purpose: Despite the considerable research into China's industrial relation system, little attention has been focused on what do Chinese unions at the enterprise level do and how their daily work influences employees' work-related outcomes. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this paper aims to examine the impact of Chinese enterprise union practices on employees' change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior through the mediating roles of psychological safety, perceived insider status, and role breadth self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 450 employees at 45 unionized enterprises in China through a three-wave survey. Multilevel analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized effects. Findings: Chinese enterprise union practices positively predicted change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Critically, psychological safety and role breadth self-efficacy mediated the positive relationship between Chinese enterprise union practices and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Originality/value: This study provides new evidence on the effectiveness of Chinese enterprise union practices from a perspective of employees' work-related outcomes. It also enriches the existing literature on antecedents of change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior and provides a “planned” perspective to understand the mechanism that underlies the relationship between Chinese enterprise union practices and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior.