Co-workers’ Solidarity and Citizenship Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement

The work environment plays a detrimental role in shaping workplace behavior of employees. Recent studies focused on the influence of work environment factors on individual and organizational level outcomes. We extend this work by exploring the impact of coworkers’ solidarity on organizational citizenship behaviors through work engagement in private universities in Ethiopia. A survey method was used to collect data from 335 employees selected using a proportionate stratified sampling method. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect primary data from employees composed of academic and administrative staff. The data collected was examined using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling through Smart PLS 3.0 software. A bootstrapping path analysis algorithm with a resample of 5000 was employed to generate direct and indirect effects and significance of path coefficients in testing hypotheses. The study found that solidarity among coworkers affects citizenship behavior of employees positively and significantly and work engagement played a partial mediating role in this relationship. The study recommends that private universities should give due attention to cultivating coworkers’ solidarity to derive the required behavior on the part of employees.