Prosocial organizational behaviors

Reference paper:

Brief, A. P., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1986). Prosocial Organizational Behaviors. The Academy of Management Review, 11(4), 710–725. doi:10.2307/258391

Abstract:

(A 50-word quick summary from my understanding)

Theoretical and empirical literature is reviewed and a construct of prosocial organizational behavior is defined and 13 specific forms are described. Prosocial behaviors vary according to whether it is in-role or extra-role, directed to individual or organization, and whether it is organizational functional or dysfunctional.

Quick Notes/queries:

(For my further delving)

Defining elements

• As per the current study, prosocial organizational behaviors are performed with the intention of promoting the welfare of the individual, group or organization toward which it is directed. What do the authors imply by 'welfare' in this context? Is it happiness, well-being, health and/or fortune of the target?
• How does an individual arrive at the 'perceived effect of a behavior' on co-worker, group or organization towards which the behavior is directed? What individual and contextual factors affect this perception?
• Are prosocial behaviors necessarily deliberate actions?

Underlying motives

• Consider an employee helping his co-worker on a job related matter with the expectation of positive consequences for the co-worker. The behavior may seem organizationally functional if this helps achieve organizational objectives. But the underlying motive behind the behavior could be to leverage the resulting positive member exchange for future favors which may not be pro-organizational (such as to cover up for a workplace crime). As illustrated by this scenario, is it not essential to understand the underlying motives along with intended consequences of such prosocial behaviors? Does this understanding not become critical when the motivation and intention are particularly not congruent?

Additional scenarios

• Consider an employee A whose job is critically dependent on his co-worker B's job. On perceiving poor efficacy of his co-worker, he may take on his co-worker's job activities (with or without his consent). Employee A might use this opportunity to highlight poor efficacy of the co-worker, and extra-role and organizationally functional behavior exhibited by self. Alternatively, employee A might use the opportunity to highlight extra-role and organizationally functional behavior of self, but with no intended effect (harm/benefit) on the co-worker. How do we characterize such behaviors in which an individual takes on additional job-related matters of a co-worker with the intention to advance the interests of organization, group and/or self, but with either intentional effect (harm) or no intentional effects (harm/benefit) directed at the co-worker? Are such behaviors, which are organizationally functional, but possibly harms the co-worker, prosocial in nature?
• Consider a sales executive selling a product to a customer despite knowing the poor quality or that the product support by the company will be unplugged soon. How do we characterize such behaviors that provide services/products to consumer in an organizationally consistent ways, but with no concern for consumer's best interests? Is the behavior prosocial? Is it organizationally functional in the long run?
• Consider a sales executive, who is genuinely concerned with the best interests of the customer, discouraging the customer from buying a soon-to-be obsolete version of a product. How do we characterize such behaviors that seem organizationally dysfunctional at the outset (lost revenue to the company), but may eventually be organizationally functional (future transactions resulting from trust and customer loyalty)?
• Is silence in the wake of organizational crimes an organizationally dysfunctional, but prosocial behavior?

Pro-organizational behaviors

• How are prosocial behaviors related to pro-organizational, anti-organizational and nonaligned-organizational behaviors?
• How useful is it to study prosocial behaviors, whether in-role or extra-role, in the context of the behaviors' alignment with organizational interests (pro-, anti-, nonaligned-)?