by Dr Deirdre O’Donovan, Lecturer in HRM and MA HRM Course Coordinator, Cork Institute of Technology.
Over the past 9 weeks, 9 posts in this series have explored Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB); from what it is and what it looks like, to why we do it and its relationship with other HR and People Management concepts, such as Inclusion and Engagement. This, the last, post brings all of those posts together, giving an overview of the series.
First, what are OCBs? They are supra-role, voluntary behaviours, meaning they are things that individuals do at work, that they do not have to, typically as a result of goodwill. As OCB refers to behaviours that extend beyond an employee’s job, the term can be considered an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of behaviours, indicating OCB is a multi-dimensional construct. In Post 3, Podsakoff and colleagues’ (2000) seven common dimensions of OCB were outlined and discussed, specifically:
1. Helping Behaviour
2. Sportsmanship
3. Organizational Loyalty
4. Organizational Compliance
5. Individual Initiative
6. Civic Virtue
7. Self-Development
Helping Behaviours are those which relate to voluntarily helping others in the organisation with work-related problems, or helping them to avoid these problems, while Sportsmanship concerns a willingness to accept work-related inconveniences without complaint. Organisational Loyalty refers to promoting the organisation to outsiders, and protecting the organisation from threats in the organisational environment. Loyalty behaviours also concern employees staying committed to the organisation when it is operating under adverse conditions.
Organisational Compliance concerns behaviours such as accepting rules, regulations and procedures, and adhering to them, even when adherence is not monitored or observed. In a similar vein, the Individual Initiative dimension of OCB is categorised as supra-role behaviour as while it involves engaging in behaviours that are task-related, it is at a level that is so far beyond what is expected or required that it begins to take on voluntary characteristics. Again in a somewhat similar vein, employees displaying Civic Virtue behaviours possess a macro-level interest in, or commitment to the organization. Finally, the Self-Development dimension of OCBs refers simply to employees voluntarily improving their knowledge, skills and abilities.
Evidently, and as discussed throughout the series, particularly in Posts 2 to 5, OCBs relate to a wide range of activities, some perhaps more obvious than others. In addition, OCBs are behaviours that, while possibly quite small when considered individually, combine to positively impact the organisation. Indeed, overall, OCBs present the organisations with a number of potential advantages.
Helping behaviour, for example, may result in ad hoc mentoring, coaching and training of employees by other employees, potentially reducing T&D costs, and creating a culture of collaboration and problem-solving. Sportsmanship may see some employees being willing to work late to meet deadlines and complete projects, negating the need to hire extra staff.
Furthermore, Individual initiative OCBs refer to when employees go “beyond the call of duty”, that is, undertake tasks that are job-related, but at a level that is so far beyond requirements that it begins to take on a voluntary flavour, which can be particularly advantageous when considered in light of customer service roles, as, in service provision, employees are the face When employees engage in self-development OCBs, they are improving their skills, knowledge and abilities, which can reduce future training costs to the organisation, but also can bring extra skills into the organisational skills pool, which can be called upon if and when needed in the future. These, and more advantages, were discussed more fully in Post 5 of the series.
There was also discussion with regard to influencers and determinants of OCBs i.e. what may be the reasoning behind the undertaking of OCBs by some individuals, and not by others. In particular, Job Satisfaction, Social Exchange Theory (i.e. reciprocity), Positive Affect, Employee Engagement, Individual Disposition, Perceived Organisational Justice, and a Supportive Work Environment were all discussed for their potential to comprise an antecedent. In this series, Inclusion is considered so likely an antecedent, that the links between it and OCB were given their own post (Post 7). The ultimate contribution of Post 4 and Post 7 to the series was the discussion of how managers can capitalise on the knowledge of antecedents to increase the likelihood of employees engaging in OCBs. This discussion, however, resulted in a post that dealt with the “dark” side of OCBs.
In that post (Post 6), it was noted that some OCBs are undertaken by employees in response to pressure placed on them by individuals of significance, for example, managers or peers. It was also noted that, in reality, not all instances of OCB are prosocial, originating in goodwill, rather may have their roots in self-serving motives. Employees engaging in OCBs may also be aiming to overcompensate i.e. doing more in the workplace than they have to due to dissatisfaction in their own lives. It was also cautioned that an issue lies in the knowledge that, often, the more an individual does, the more they are expected to do. Ultimately, this post served as a warning that while OCBs are beneficial to the organisation, frequent occurrences by some employees, or coercion to result in their undertaking may result in burnout, increased dissatisfaction, and perhaps turnover and legal issues.
Consequently, the latter pieces of this series raised the question as to whether OCBs truly are unrewardable, as they are suggested to be given they are supra-role in nature. Discussion relating to this query can be found in Post 8, which argues that OCBs should be rewarded in some way. Moreover, that post drew on a study which found that some employees are unlikely to continue to engage in significant instances of supra-role behaviour if that behaviour is never rewarded. Capitalising on that finding, this series suggests that at the least, non-financial reward in the form of recognition or flexibility is both warranted and advisable.
Overall, it is hoped that this series, comprising 10 posts over 10 weeks, has given HRPs, managers and leaders an understanding of what OCBs are, why they are beneficial, and what red flags to look out for. Moreover, it is hoped that while now being equipped with the knowledge of how to encourage OCBs, individuals do so responsibly, and at the very least, thank employees.
About the author
Dr Deirdre O’Donovan is currently a lecturer in Human Resource Management in Cork Institute of Technology, Cork, Ireland, and the course coordinator for the MA in HRM. Previous research focussed on National Culture and Performance Management, while her current research interests are primarily rooted in Industrial/Organisational Psychology, Inclusion and HRM.
LinkedIn: Deirdre-O-Donovan-phd
Email: [email protected]
