Content area
Full Text
Contents
- Abstract
- The OCB Construct
- Dimensionality of OCB
- Questions About the Definition and Dimensionality of OCB
- Research Questions
- Summary and a Caveat
- Method
- Literature Search
- Meta-Analysis
- Results
- Relationships Among Dimensions
- Relationships With Predictors
- An Alternative Framework
- Contrasting Overall OCB With Dimensional Measures
- Discussion
- OCB as a Latent Construct
- Correlated method variance
- Inadequate domain of predictors or OCB criteria
- Low statistical power
- OCB as an Aggregate Construct
- Other Issues
- Summary and Conclusion
Figures and Tables
Abstract
This article reviews the literature on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and its dimensions as proposed by D. W. Organ (1988) and other scholars. Although it is assumed that the behavioral dimensions of OCB are distinct from one another, past research has not assessed this assumption beyond factor analysis. Using meta-analysis, the authors demonstrate that there are strong relationships among most of the dimensions and that the dimensions have equivalent relationships with the predictors (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, fairness, trait conscientiousness, and leader support) most often considered by OCB scholars. Implications of these results are discussed with respect to how the OCB construct should be conceptualized and measured in the future.
Organizations have shifted away from the use of strict hierarchical structures and individualized jobs. Instead, somewhat autonomous team-based work structures have been implemented, and this implementation has increased the importance of individual initiative and cooperation (Ilgen & Pulakos, 1999). As a result of this trend, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), or behavior that contributes indirectly to the organization through the maintenance of the organization's social system (Organ, 1997), has been of increasing interest to both scholars and managers (Howard, 1995; LePine, Hanson, Borman, & Motowidlo, 2000; Motowidlo, Borman, & Schmit, 1997; Motowidlo & Schmit, 1999; Organ & Ryan, 1995).
Most of the research on OCB has been focused on identifying its predictors (Van Dyne & LePine, 1998). In conducting this research, scholars generally link predictors to an overall measure of OCB, or they link predictors to the dimensions of OCB suggested by Organ (1988). These dimensions are most often measured by using scales such as those developed by Podsakoff and his colleagues (e.g., Podsakoff,...