Influence of impression management on interpersonal citizenship behavior: Leader-member exchange as a mediator

This paper formulates a framework postulating impression management (IM) as an antecedent of two complementary forms of interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB), namely task-focused and person-focused. Employees who are motivated by impression management perform ICB to obtain desired rewards and avoid undesired outcomes. Even though ICBs are viewed as prosocial behavior not impression management, a process by which people control the impressions others form of them, plays an important role in interpersonal behavior. Since ICB is claimed to be more overt and visible than organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), the mediation of leader-member exchange may increase the likelihood of being more friendly and offering help among IM-oriented employees. This framework shows how impression management concerns may motivate ICB and addresses the consequences of citizenship in this context. Finally, a discussion on implications for future theory development is presented.