The Moderating Effect of Impression Management on the Organizational Citizenship Behavior -Voluntary Turnover Relationship

In a lagged field study involving 135 state employees and their immediate supervisors, we examined the relationship between employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and voluntary turnover and the moderating role of employees’ tendencies toward the use of impression management by association on this relationship. We found citizenship behavior was negatively related to voluntary turnover at one year and that this relationship was stronger for those who engaged in impression management by association. Implications of these results for theory and practice are explored.