The Elusive Link Between Sleep and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Are We Looking in the Wrong Direction?

Although there is ample research on sleep and negative work behaviors, our understanding of the link between organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and sleep is scarce and inconsistent. Theory-driven research on this topic is dominated by asleep-enhances-OCB perspective, which focuses on the detrimental effects of sleep on OCB. Using an inductive research approach, this project conducted exploratory analyses to examine whether an OCB-disrupts-sleep perspective could provide a fresh new direction of research. We explored our research questions with full-time working adults in the U.S. in two daily diary studies. Study 1 (N = 86) data used surveys over five consecutive workdays with employees reporting their prior night’s sleep (quantity and quality) in the morning and OCB at the end of the workday. Study 2 (N = 136) used the same design for sleep and OCB assessment, but with additional measures of potential mechanisms at bedtime (self-regulatory depletion, work-to-family conflict, psychological detachment) and in the morning (technological tethering) explaining the sleep and OCB link. Both studies supported an alternative OCB-disrupts-sleep perspective for sleep quality but not quantity. Specifically, OCB during the workday preceded sleep quality problems, rather than the reverse. Yet none of our explored mechanisms explained the direct effect of OCB on sleep. We discuss implications for how these findings can guide future directions of research on sleep and citizenship behavior, as well as contributions to sleep-related occupational health theories and organizational practice.