Performance Perceptions of Organizational Citizenship Behaviours at Work: a Bi‐Level Study among Managers and Employees

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) are ‘extra‐role’, work‐directed actions theorized to contribute to organizational effectiveness. However, the link between OCB and performance is not firmly based on empirical study. First, we argue that managers and employees may have different perceptions of OCB. The level of OCB will be perceived to be higher by managers than by employees. Second, we suggest that ‘best’ performing employees will have higher levels of OCB, and a stronger OCB–performance linkage than ‘worst’ performers. Using a sample of unionized workers and their managers, we investigated perceptions of OCB and the magnitude of OCB performance relationships from two hierarchical levels: managers and employees. ‘Best’ performing employees scored higher on OCB, and had a stronger OCB–performance linkage than the ‘worst’ performing group for helping‐type OCBs. Managers scored employees lower on OCB than employees scored their peers. In addition, managers perceived a stronger OCB–performance link than employee respondents. The results provide new and pragmatic implications of the OCB construct, including managerial clarification of ‘extra’ versus expected behaviours, review of job descriptions, moving valuable OCBs from ‘extra‐role’ to expected, and enhancing OCB by providing rewards. We suggest further causal studies to determine the specific contributions of various OCBs, identification and management of workplace antecedents of OCB, and determination of the reasons for the bi‐level differences in perceptions.

Flexible Working, Professional Success and Being Female: Are They Incompatible?

“…In the context of research evidence that shows that managers are primarily rewarded for the results of their work, rather than for any concern shown to their employees, they argued that it was not surprising that managers tend to focus on their own short-term best interests when making decisions about the implementation of the organisation's flexible working policies. More recently, and in keeping with differences in attitudes between managers and employees, Turnipseed and Rassuli (2005) found that managers place more emphasis on measured performance whilst 'helping others in the workplace' is seen as a significant contributor to performance by employees.…”

Perceived Organizational Support, Psychological Empowerment, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Job Performance and Job Embeddedness: A Research on the Fast Food Industry in Istanbul, Turkey

“…Morrison (1996) asserted that PE motivates individuals and increases their OCBs. Studies indicate that one of the indicators of JP is OCB (Posdakoff & MacKenzie, 1994;Turnipseed & Rassuli, 2005). Many researchers studied POS and PE as anterior variables of OCB (Wayne et al, 1997(Wayne et al, , 2002Yen et al, 2004).…”

“…Many researchers studied POS and PE as anterior variables of OCB (Wayne et al, 1997(Wayne et al, , 2002Yen et al, 2004). Job performance can be increased by OCB (Turnipseed & Rassuli, 2005). POS, OCB, and PE are closely related with JP (Niehoff et al, 2001;Chow, Lo, Sha & Hong, 2006).…”

“…Many researchers have studied on psychological empowerment and perceived organizational support as the antecedent variables of organizational citizenship behaviors (Chiang & Hsieh, 2012;Eisenberger et al, 1990;Yen, Lin, & Thai, 2004). According to the results of many studies, organizational citizenship behavior is one attribute of job performance (Chiang & Hsieh, 2012;Turnipseed & Rassuli, 2005). Besides, many studies asserted that organizational citizenship behavior, perceived organizational support, psychological empowerment and job performance are related (Chiang & Hsieh, 2012;Chow, Lo, Sha & Hong, 2006;Kirkman & Rosen, 1999;Liden, Wayne & Sparrowe, 2000;Niehoff, Moorman, Blakely & Fuller, 2001;Peccei & Rosenthal, 2001;Spreitzer, Kizilos & Nason, 1997).…”

The structuration of managing for results : a practice perspective on middle managers in the Dutch central government

“…This out-of-role performance -behavior that is not captured in reward systems-is usually referred to as 'organizational citizenship behavior' (Bolino 1999;Organ 1988a;Turnipseed & Rassuli 2005). In the traditional bureaucracy template, people execute their assigned task and more-or-less blindly rely on rules and procedures for their organization to function properly.…”