Individualism‐collectivism and nation as moderators of the job satisfaction‐organisational citizenship behaviour relationship in the United States, China, and Kuwait

Employees who hold collectivistic values care more about the interests of their group or collective than do their individualistic counterparts. We examined the potential effects of the combination of individual values, nations, and job satisfaction on organizational citizenship behaviours among 308 public school teachers in China, Kuwait, and the United States. Collectivist values of employees predicted their organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). Both collectivistic values and country moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and OCB. Job satisfaction was more positively related to OCB directed at the organization for employees in China and Kuwait than for employees in the United States, but job satisfaction was more positively related to OCB directed toward individuals for employees who were lower in collectivism. This study is one of the few that has tested the potential role of individuals’ collectivism values in their performance of helping behaviours at work across multiple countries.