Aligned but Disengaged: Self-Estrangement Weakens Citizenship Behavior in Higher Education

Higher education depends on discretionary employee contributions that sustain coordination, service continuity, and institutional functioning. Yet contemporary governance and accountability pressures can reconfigure higher education work in ways that erode autonomy, line-of-sight, and intrinsic reward, elevating the risk of work alienation, weakening the discretionary behaviors institutions rely on. This study tests whether person–organization fit (POF) predicts organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and whether multidimensional work alienation mediates this relationship through powerlessness, meaninglessness, and self-estrangement. Using survey data from 325 employees across four U.S. higher education institutions, we applied confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with bias-corrected bootstrapping. Model comparisons were most consistent with a selective mediation pattern in which self-estrangement was retained as the sole mediator, while powerlessness and meaninglessness did not improve model fit. The final model demonstrated strong fit (χ ²  = 127.81, CFI = 0.97, SRMR = 0.04, RMSEA = 0.08) and explained substantial variance in OCB ( R ²  = .52). Bootstrapped estimates indicated that POF was associated with lower self-estrangement, self-estrangement was associated with lower OCB, and the indirect effect of POF on OCB through self-estrangement was significant (−0.17, 95% CI [−0.27, −0.10]), consistent with partial mediation. Findings refine human resource development’s (HRD) fit-to-contribution logic in higher education by distinguishing value alignment from psychological work ownership: even when employees are value-aligned, discretionary contribution is vulnerable when work becomes psychologically distancing and less intrinsically rewarding. Implications emphasize mechanism-specific HRD strategies that monitor and reduce self-estrangement through role and system design, rather than relying solely on values messaging or governance-visible interventions.