The Mechanisms of How Narcissistic Duality Traits Influence on College Student’s Organizational Citizenship Behavior from an Impression Management Perspective

PURPOSE: Although plenty of studies have examined the antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior, empirical studies exploring the role of individual narcissism in relation to college students’ organizational citizenship behavior are relatively scarce. Drawing on the dual theory of narcissism and the conservation of resources theory, this study aimed to explore the relationship between narcissistic duality traits (narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry) and organizational citizenship behavior of college students, and to further examine the mediating role of impression management motivation (assertive impression management motivation and defensive impression management motivation) and the moderating roles of teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and optimism. METHODS: We used the questionnaire method with a sample of undergraduate and graduate students from several universities in Hubei, China. The data sample for analysis consists of 583 college students. RESULTS: (1) Narcissistic admiration had a significant and positive effect on college students’ organizational citizenship behavior, while the effect of narcissistic rivalry was significant and negative; (2) assertive impression management motivation mediated the relationship between narcissistic admiration and college student’s organizational citizenship behavior, and defensive impression management motivation mediated the relationship between narcissistic rivalry and college student’ s organizational citizenship behavior; and (3) teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and optimism positively moderated the relationship between narcissistic admiration and assertive impression management motivation, and these variables positively moderated the indirect effects of assertive narcissism on college student’s organizational citizenship behavior through assertive impression management motivation. CONCLUSION: We found that college students with narcissistic admiration engaged in more organizational citizenship behaviors than those with narcissistic rivalry. In addition, narcissistic admiration had a positive effect on organizational citizenship behavior through assertive impression management motivation, and narcissistic rivalry had a negative effect on organizational citizenship behavior through defensive impression management motivation. Finally, teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and optimism significantly and positively mediated the relationship between narcissistic admiration and assertive impression management motivation, and the indirect effect of narcissistic admiration on organizational citizenship behavior through assertive impression management motivation. However, the direct effects of teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and optimism on the relationship between narcissistic rivalry and defensive impression management motivation, and the indirect effect of narcissistic rivalry on organizational citizenship behavior through defensive impression management motivation were not significant.