Common good human resource management, ethical employee behaviors, and organizational citizenship behaviors toward the individual

Abstract

What happens to the behaviors of employees when their organizations' human resource management (HRM) systems take into account any challenges to the common good? Despite common good HRM (CGHRM) having recently been raised, the existing literature has not yet investigated the role played by CGHRM in relation to employee behaviors. Drawing on social exchange theory, we addressed this issue by exploring CGHRM and its influences on employee ethical behavior and organizational citizenship behaviors toward the individual (OCBI). We conducted this study in Vietnam, in two subsequent stages. Stage 1 involved a mixed‐method approach to develop and validate four items suited to measure CGHRM. In Stage 2, we examined a mediation‐moderation model showing the relationship between CGHRM and employee behaviors, and investigated the roles played by value commitment and spiritual leadership. We also included a survey using time‐lagged data and different sources. The findings reveal that CGHRM directly and positively influences ethical employee behaviors and OCBI, and indirectly and positively influences these two types of behavior via value commitment. Interestingly, the relationship between CGHRM and ethical employee behaviors was found to be significantly stronger when combined with high levels of spiritual leadership. Unexpectedly, however, spiritual leadership was not found to moderate the CGHRM‐OCBI relationship.