Navigating emotions and identities during the pandemic crises and their effect on organizational citizenship behaviors

Frame of the research: Organizational citizenship behaviors promote the effective functioning of organizations and become especially relevant during crises and emergencies. Understanding how to elicit these behaviors is essential for effective crisis response. Previous research acknowledges the role of emotions, organizational, and shared social identity in promoting positive employee behaviors. However, the link between identities and how employees manage their emotions during crisis situations, particularly through the surface and deep acting inherent in emotional labor, remains under-explored. Purpose of the paper: The study aims to investigate how emotions, surface and deep acting inherent in emotional labor, organizational identity, and shared social identity influence organizational citizenship behaviors among professionals during crises and emergencies. Methodology: A questionnaire survey was administered to 223 professionals in the province of Bergamo, Italy, during the COVID-19 crisis. Hypotheses were tested through regression and mediation analysis. Results: Results show that positive emotions, deep acting, organizational and shared social identity encourage organizational citizenship behaviors. The effect of deep acting on organizational citizenship behaviors is positively mediated by both organizational and shared social identity. Research limitations: Limitations of the study include potential biases in selfreported data and the specific context analyzed. Practical implications: The study offers managerial insights to foster positive organizational behaviors during crises. Results highlight the importance of increasing the level of identification of employees with the organization and their social group. Originality of the paper: This research contributes to the literature by examining the complex interplay between organizational citizenship behaviors, emotions, emotional labor, organizational and shared social identity, taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an illustrative case of extreme emergency.