OCBs: A critical review

Reference paper:

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Paine, J. B., & Bachrach, D. G. (2000). Organizational citizenship behaviors: A critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. Journal of management, 26(3), 513–563.

Abstract:

(A 50-word quick summary from my understanding)

The paper critically examines the OCB literature and more specifically - explores the conceptual similarities and differences between the various forms of OCB constructs identified in the literature, summarizes the empirical findings of both the antecedents and consequences of OCBs, and identifies several interesting directions for future research.

Quick Notes/queries:

(For my further delving)

Leadership behaviors

• How are ethical and charismatic leadership behaviors related to various OCBs?
• Why do leaders include OCBs in performance evaluations? How does manager's broader conception of OCB as part of performance influence subordinates' OCBs? How does a manager's supervisor's broader conception of OCB as part of performance affect his/her inclusion of OCBs in evaluating performance of her subordinates?
• How do managers weight the importance of various OCBs when evaluating subordinates? What OCBs are more likely to be undervalued or overvalued as compared to others? What leads to differential value of OCBs (for example - manager's ignorance of impact of OCBs or when some behaviors are perceived as norms rather than as exceptional behaviors)? What manager's attitudes or dispositions influence this perceived differential value of specific OCBs? What contextual factors influence this perceived differential value? For example - subordinates' OCBs that have greater impact on manager's personal performance may be more likely to be overvalued.

Employee attributes

• How are demographics (gender, age, etc.) related to various OCBs?
• Is there any empirical support for hypothesized effects of gender on OCBs? Kidder and McLean Parks (1993) hypothesized that empathetic concern and perspective taking (traits associated with females) should influence both helping behavior and courtesy. Conversely they argued that males are more likely to engage in conscientious behavior.
• How are role perceptions (ambiguity and conflict) related to various OCBs? Are there any empirical support for relationship of role ambiguity and role conflict with OCBs?
• How does employee's broader conception of OCB as part of performance influence their OCBs?
• How are OCBs related to employee withdrawal behaviors (like turnover, absenteeism, lateness and tardiness)?
• Are boundary spanners (such as sales people) more likely to enhance organizational performance than non-boundary spanning employees when they engage in OCB?
• How do abilities, experience, training and knowledge of employee moderate the effects of OCBs on Organizational effectiveness?

Cultural context

• How does high vs low context culture affect OCBs? How are OCBs perceived in an organization that has individuals from both the cultures? For example, does a low context supervisor make the importance of OCBs more explicit as compare to a supervisor in a high context culture?
• How does monochronic vs polychronic culture affect OCBs?How are OCBs perceived in an organization that has individuals from both the cultures? (For example, does an American employee perceive his German supervisor to be less responsive to voice?)
• How does future vs present vs past oriented cultural contexts influence OCBs? Since past-oriented cultures (such as China, Britain and Japan) are slow to change things that are tied to past, is it more likely that implicit beliefs' influence on OCBs is stronger in these cultures? Since present-oriented cultures (such as Latin American countries) see future as uncertain, are they less likely to engage in challenge oriented OCBs? Likewise, are future-oriented cultures (such as the US) more likely to engage in challenge-oriented OCBs?
• How does cultural context of 'time' affect OCBs? For example, in time-plentiful cultures (such as India) is punctuality less likely to be considered as a civic virtue? Since time-limited cultures perceive having no time to develop trust, and instead rely on other mechanisms to replace trust (such as strong rule-by-law), are OCBs such as 'organizational compliance' more likely and rewarded, as compared to 'organizational loyalty' type OCBs?
• How does the power distance affect OCBs? For example, are employees in high-power distance cultures (such as India) more likely to remain silent (than speak up) as compared to low-power distant cultures (such as the US)?
• How do individualism vs. collectivism affect OCBs? Do individualistic cultures (such as Anglo) value 'individual initiative' behavior more than other types of OCBs, while collectivistic cultures (such as Asian) place a significant value on compliance and loyalty OCB types?

Helping behavior

• Is helping behavior essentially an extra-role behavior?
• How are helping behaviors classified in extant literature? Is helping behavior classified based on whether it is targeted at an individual, a collective or the organization? For example, consider a faculty voluntarily helping to raise additional research grants. The faculty might be engaging in this behavior with the primary intent to help an individual responsible for raising funds (owing to dyadic relationship), and with no intentional benefit to the school. It could also be the case that faculty is engaging in such a voluntary behavior primarily to help the school rather than the individual. Is not the first behavior (prosocial + nonaligned-organizational) distinct from the second behavior (pro-organizational and nonaligned-individual)?
• Is helping behavior a deliberate decision making process? If so, how do the individuals assess whether helping is likely to be effective (perceived efficacy) and how do they judge the risks or potential negative outcomes associated with helping (perceived cost)? For example - an employee who perceives that person offered help is likely to respond negatively or unlikely to act upon it, may refrain from offering help. Alternatively, an employee who perceives that observers might negatively attribute his helping behavior may refrain from such a behavior.
• How do individual and contextual factors influence the helping behavior and its extent?
• How do targets of helping behavior perceive help directed towards them? What individual and contextual factors influence the likelihood of an employee seeking help and likelihood of positive response towards the help offered?

Organizational loyalty

• How does organizational loyalty relate to workplace crimes and whistle-blowing?
• Has research provided empirical support to dimensional distinctiveness of organizational loyalty behavior? (Note that a study by Moorman et al in 1998 failed to confirm this distinctiveness)

Construct interplays

• Where does voice fit in the classification proposed in the current study? Does it fall under the 'individual initiative' construct (voluntary acts of creativity and innovation)?
• Does 'taking charge' fall under the 'individual initiative' construct? Could there be taking charge behaviors (such as fixing a safety issue at workplace) that involves no creativity or innovation?
• How do sportsmanship and voice behaviors interplay with each other? Is it likely that someone high on sportsmanship (does not take rejection of their ideas personally) engages more in voice behavior despite negative voice responses in the past?
• How is civic virtue behavior related to voice behavior? Is it likely that an individual high on civic virtue (monitors environments for threats and opportunities) engages more in speaking up?

Organizational performance and success

• How are various OCBs related to work-group or organizational-level criterion variables (such as productivity, optimal resource utilization, better coordination amongst work groups, attract and retain best employees, adapt effectively to environment)?
• How do OCBs relate to various dimensions of Balanced scorecard? Do some OCBs have stronger effects on some links in firm's value chain as compared to others?
• What are the mechanisms through which OCBs influence organizational performance? Do OCBs influence organizational performance directly or indirectly? Is the impact immediate or delayed?

Others

• How can perceived quality of suggestions/concerns/ideas/opinions voiced be measured? What individual and contextual factors influence perceived quality of voice message?
• What new task related antecedents (other than task feedback, task routinization and intrinsically satisfying tasks) can be conceptualized to be related to OCBs?
• How does organization explicitly stating certain characteristics (such as risk taking) or consequences of OCBs (such as innovation) as important through vision, mission and values statements influence employee OCBs? Can the importance of OCBs be reinforced through trainings?