The Impact Organizational Size has on the Relationship Between Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Transformational Leadership

Employee Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) can have a significant impact on organizational performance. The frequency of employee OCB is positively related to transformational leadership. This study utilized this established positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee OCB, and rigor tested if this relationship was impacted by the size of the organization. Size as a moderating factor hasn’t really been studied between this relationship of transformational leadership and OCB in the US. I proposed size as a moderating variable because access to an employee’s leader can have an impact on the frequency and quality of employee OCB. Participants (N=131) were invited to respond to an online survey about the frequency of their own OCB as well as their interactions with their transformational leader. Participants were provided definitions for both OCB and transformational leadership to receive accurate results. Results showed that the effects of transformational leadership on employee OCB matter substantially in larger organizations when compared to small organizations. Findings revealed that employees in larger organizations tend to perform acts of OCB less often when they didn’t perceive that their transformational leader was accessible. This study sets the ground for further research into this phenomenon of whether size impacts employee OCB when they have a transformational leader in the United States. Further research is recommended to investigate whether this impact is exclusive to transformational leadership or are other types of leadership also impacted. Keywords: transformational leadership, Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), leadership behavior, organizational size.