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The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Exploring the Relationship Between Perceived Interpersonal Influence and Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Roles of Social Identity and Team Member Exchange

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>Social or interpersonal influence has been widely studied in both social and organizational psychology, however no research to date has examined how perceptions of one’s ability to influence their coworkers impacts work-related attitudes and behavior. Experimental work in lab settings provides evidence that successfully influencing others consistently leads to increased helping behavior (Bruno, 2013; Bruno et al., 2008; Sywulak, Sommer & Bourgeois, 2013), but the relationship between influence and helping has not been studied in an organizational setting. Further, while several mediating mechanisms have been tested, how perceived influence leads to helping is still unknown. I present a study that attempted to model how the perceived ability to influence one’s coworkers can lead to helping at in the work environment, conceptualized as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). I argued that perceived influence over coworkers can lead to OCB through social processes, specifically social exchange and social identification, to impact specific types of OCB. Some support was found for these relationships, indicating that perceived influence over others is as an important construct in organizational life and that social processes mediate the relationship between influence and helping.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
Doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Psychology
Grantor
The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York
Year dc:date.available
2020

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Sywulak, Laura
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Harold Goldstein
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Lise Saari
  • Robert Silzer
  • Charles Scherbaum
  • Zhiqing Zhou

Subjects

dc:subject × 9

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3604
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-4657

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
City University of New York - Graduate Center
Base URL
academicworks.cuny.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Sywulak, Laura. Exploring the Relationship Between Perceived Interpersonal Influence and Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Roles of Social Identity and Team Member Exchange. Doctoral thesis, The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York, 2020. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3604