How Accountability Shapes Change-Oriented OCB: The Role of Harmonious Passion and Mianzi

Abstract

Accountability is a core institutional mechanism in the public sector, shaping employee behavior and organizational performance. However, its impact on change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among civil servants has received limited attention. This study draws on perspectives from agency theory and stewardship theory to examine how sanction-based and trust-based accountability influence civil servants’ change-oriented OCB. Using a survey experiment with 457 civil servants in the Chinese local government context, this study finds that, compared with sanction-based accountability, trust-based accountability is associated with higher levels of change-oriented OCB. Harmonious passion may be a plausible pathway linking accountability type to change-oriented OCB, while mianzi-oriented relationships may weaken the comparative advantage of trust-based accountability. These findings contribute to accountability theory and provide practical implications for designing accountability systems and encouraging change-oriented OCB in the public sector.