Psychological climate and work outcomes: Mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior and tenure in the organization

Background Organizations, specifically scientific research institutions, significantly impact any nation's growth and development. In these organizations, the scientists put in their efforts, time, and motivation to achieve their research institute's goals and the nation's growth. Through them, this study will provide insight into the relationship between psychological climate and work consequences. It is the first study in India to measure the perceptions of scientists’ psychological working climate in their research institutions. Objective This article investigates the linkage between psychological climate and work consequences, such as job satisfaction and engagement. It extends the knowledge of this link by exploring the potential mediating mechanism of organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, this study examines the moderator role of scientists’ work tenure in the relationship between psychological climate and their citizenship behavior in the organization. Method The study used quantitative methods to collect cross-sectional data and adopted constructs from previous research tailored to the present study's needs. Results The study shows work engagement (r = 0.648), job satisfaction (r = 0.704), and citizenship behavior (r = 0.537) significantly and positively associated with psychological climate of the scientific organization. Additionally, citizenship behavior fully mediates the relationship between psychological climate and work consequences (scientists's work engagement (β = 0.682) and satisfaction (β = 0.843)). However, work tenure (β = 0.023) does not significantly moderate the relationship between psychological climate and scientists's citizenship behavior at their workplace. Conclusions The outcomes imply that factors of positive workplace climate and extra-role behavior performed by personnel facilitate higher work engagement and satisfaction.