The effect of ethical climate and employees' organizational citizenship behavior on U.S. fashion retail organizations' sustainability performance

To support businesses' efforts to improve sustainability performance, the role of employees should not be neglected, as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can improve the effectiveness and flexibility of a business as a whole. Given the potential impact of OCB on organizations' performance, this study investigated how the role of employees' OCB can help to achieve the triple bottom line of sustainability-financial, social and environmental performance. Using U.S. fashion retail employees as the sampling framework, a total of 278 datasets were used to test the hypothesized relationship. The results showed that the ethical climate of an organization indeed positively affects employees' OCB, consistent with previous studies in non-fashion retail organizations. Regardless of the size of the organization, the role of employees on the organization's overall sustainability performance was found to be highly important. These findings suggest that businesses should consider ethical climate to enhance sustainability through employees' OCB.