FROM COMPLIANCE TO CITIZENSHIP: THE COMBINED EFFECT OF COERCION AND TRAINING ON THE ADOPTION OF COVID-19 SAFETY BEHAVIORS IN THE WORKPLACE

Abstract

The COVID crisis has confronted society and organizations with an ethical dilemma between calling on individual responsibility and a sense of citizenship in the respect of COVID safety rules and the sanctioning of non-compliant behaviors. The purpose of the present research is to examine the combined effects of these two a priori opposite approaches. Based on a two-sample study (employees from various domains = 288; hospital employees n = 182) using multiple regression analyses and Hayes’ (2015) techniques, our results show the effects of fear, coercion and short training sessions on COVID safety compliance and a form of citizenship behavior that involves persuading others to comply. Drawing on escalation behavioral commitment theory, our study validates an indirect effect of coercion on citizenship behaviors through compliance. Second, our results indicate that training moderates this mediation, meaning that the transformation of compliance into citizenship behaviors is stronger when training is high. Study 2 replicates most of the results from study 1. Our results confirm the benefits of short training sessions. These can include both practice-oriented and awareness-raising contents that focus on making COVID safety protocols more acceptable.