Impact of Leader-Leader Exchange on Project Citizenship Behavior: Roles of Job Insecurity and Psychological Empowerment

Abstract

Whether project managers exhibit project citizenship behavior has a significant impact on project performance. However, existing research has not fully explored the factors that influence project citizenship behavior. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study proposes a moderated mediation model to examine the impact of project managers' job insecurity on their project citizenship behavior. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 233 project managers in China. The results indicated that: (1) leader-leader exchange has a significant positive effect on project citizenship behavior; (2) job insecurity partially mediates the relationship between leader-leader exchange and project citizenship behavior; and (3) psychological empowerment strengthens the negative effect of leader-leader exchange on job insecurity. Our findings provide useful insights for the project management and organizational behavior literatures.