Does psychological climate affect task and contextual performance through affective commitment? Evidence from public sector companies

Purpose This paper has two main purposes. One purpose is to examine the mediating role of affective commitment in the relationship between psychological climate and contextual and task performance. Another purpose is to conceptualize and measure the psychological climate. Design/methodology/approach Data were analyzed using a sample of 514 employees working in 12 public sector companies in India. Partial least squares (PLS) technique was used to test the proposed research framework. Findings The results of this study revealed that affective commitment has a mediating role in the relationship between psychological climate and contextual performance as well as between psychological climate task performance. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study augment the theory of psychological climate by suggesting that individuals perceiving high a psychological climate are likely to have the high affective commitment that ultimately leads to higher performance. Practical implications Public sector companies are encouraged to provide a favorable psychological climate that can emotionally commit the employees to perform well. Originality/value This study is one of its kinds to overcome the limitations of the earlier studies such as in examining the effect of higher-order psychological climate on task and contextual performances.