THE ROLE OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND SOCIO-MORAL CLIMATE ON ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: EXAMINING THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY’S WORK-RELATED BASIC NEED SATISFACTION

Abstract

Despite an extensive stream of academic research conducted on self-determination theory (SDT), antecedents such as leadership and organizational climate that dually influence SDT have not been examined in many empirical studies. Research indicates that successful leaders create a climate that fulfill team members’ needs and promote organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using the motivational framework of SDT’s basic psychological needs, this study investigated the role of servant leadership and socio-moral climate (SMC) on OCB for the ORU Missions program. The objective of this program is to develop student-led teams, and promote organizational citizenship behaviors like altruism and courtesy. Data were collected from 88 participants for the academic year 2016-2017. The study found that servant leadership and socio-moral climate (SMC) help fulfill members’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, as well as, a significant correlation between servant leadership and OCB, and is the first study to find a positive relationship between socio-moral climate and self-determination theory’s basic psychological needs.