Organizational Citizenship Behavior

What is organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)? Describe in your own way. Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is behavior that goes beyond the basic requirements of the job, is to a large extent  left to one’s own discretion, and is largely beneficial to the organization. OCB comes about as a result of job satisfaction. As employees that are highly satisfied with their jobs are more likely to think that they are being treated fairly , therefore trust in the organization and their employer is likely to arise .

This then leads employee’s to be more willing in helping out during extra hours voluntarily, volunteering for extra job activities, avoiding unnecessary conflict etc… This is OCB. How is OCB different from normal working behavior? OCB is different from normal working behavior in the sense that the “employee goes out of his normal working behavior to get involved” (Allen, T. D. , 2006 ) into helping others and go beyond the normal expectations of their jobs.

As a normal working behavior would be doing the tasks being asked of you and forced upon you as it is in your job description, but OCB differs from normal working behavior as “OCBs are employee behaviors that, although not critical to the task or job, serve to facilitate organizational functioning” (Lee and Allen, 2002, p 132). If you are a manager, how do you motivate your subordinates to exhibit more OCBs? Use the theories you have learned from different chapters.

Firstly I would like to emphasize the importance of OCB to managers and the organization as a whole as successful organizations need employees who will do more than their usual job duties and provide performance that is beyond expectations and as I have mentioned before OCB describe actions in which employees are willing to go above and beyond their prescribed role requirements. Therefore reiterating the belief that these behaviors are correlated with indicators of organizational effectiveness, therefore showing us that OCB’s are crucial for managers.

Now, how to motivate subordinates to exhibit more OCB’s, using Herzberg’s two-factor theory that suggests that motivation factors (which include achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth, and work itself) are strongly related to job satisfaction. I can then say that if I was a manager I would have to make the jobs of my employees challenging, exciting , interesting and satisfying as employees who find their jobs to be such things, “tend to tolerate demanding supervision, avoid complaining, focus more on positive sides, and forgive organization’s minor faults.

These kinds of behaviors are typically related to OCB. ” (Herzberg et al. ’s 1959) Since hygiene factors are related to an individual’s job dissatisfaction, one can expect that hygiene factors may also influence an individual’s OCB. Therefore as a manager I would focus on placing hygiene factors such as job security, fringe benefits, and good work conditions so that dissatisfaction from the lack of these factors doesn’t occur and OCB is therefore encouraged.

Allen, T. D. (2006). Rewarding good citizens: The relationship between  citizenship behavior, gender, and organizational rewards. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, 120-143. Lee, K. , & Allen, N. J. (2002). Organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance: The role of affect and cognitions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(1), 131-142. Herzberg, F. , Mausner, B. , & Snyderman, B. (1959). The motivation to work. New York: Wiley.