Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) means going "above and beyond" at work or when an employee contributes beyond the formal job description or assigned duties. It is an action taken by an individual that is voluntary and not formally recognized or rewarded by an organization, but promotes the organization’s effective functioning and mission. Simply put, it is elective behavior that goes above and beyond the requirements of the job to help benefit the organization or the team, yet is not necessarily compensated by the traditional organizational reward system.
Examples of OCBs include helping a coworker with a work-related issue and promoting a positive, healthy work environment.
Types of OCB
Helping behavior. This involves voluntarily helping others with work-related problems or helping to prevent them.
Voice behavior. This involves expression of constructive challenge intended to improve a situation within an organization.
Organizational loyalty behavior. This involves the manifestation and evidence of employee commitment.
Advantages to OCB
A Sense of Purpose Workers feel a more significant sense of purpose and work meaningfulness. This means that employees feel their work is essential and useful to the company.
Feeling in Control. Organizational Citizenship Behavior allows employees to feel they have greater control over the work they do, and how they do it. Workers get the opportunity to decide what they want to put more time into and how they want to accomplish it.
A Renewed Sense of Vigor. When employees feel they are doing good for others or think that they are engaging in work that means something, it prevents feelings of burnout. Employees can become re-energized and have a new sense of purpose, so they can continue to do work that furthers company goals.
Clear Up Role Ambiguity. If a job has not been defined by superiors, leaders can use this as an opportunity to make the employee’s position fit with work goals and add in elements that encourage Organizational Citizenship Behavior. As time goes by, roles need to be redefined or changed to reflect a worker’s skill set better. If leaders are savvy they can work with employees to work in OCB elements.
Increased Job Performance. A 2014 study revealed that Organizational Citizenship Behavior led to more significant job performance which leads to high-quality work and increased productivity for employers. It also came with the bonus of higher interpersonal relationships, a reduction in conflict, and lower time costs.
Engage Early-Career Workers. The same study also showed that workers who did not have a lot of work experience (but had high amounts of intelligence) were open to jumping into Organizational Citizenship Behavior. They were not set in their ways and were looking for ways to become engaged in the organization. Encouraging them to get involved in other ways that promote OCB is a good idea.
“Candidates who display OCB during the selection process are less likely to voluntarily quit, are likely to be more productive, and are likely to be more efficient than their coworkers. ”
You Can Assess For OCB
Peak can either assess OCB on behalf of your organization, or work with HR or your hiring managers on how to properly assess candidate OCB during the selection process, thus tapping into each candidate’s potential for future success and contribution.
More on OCB
A number of reasons have been offered to support the underlying assumption that citizenship behaviors promote organizational effectiveness. OCB is believed to serve as an effective means of coordinating activities between team members and across work groups, increase coworker and managerial productivity, and enhance stability of organizational performance. Moreover, citizenship behaviors have implications for individual careers, as they have been found to have a positive influence on managers’ evaluations of performance. Research suggests that OCBs influence performance evaluations over and above objective measures. Supervisors perceive citizenship behaviors as contributing to the value of an employee’s performance and consider them when making reward allocation decisions. In addition, citizenship behaviors are positively related to employee retention.
“Researchers conducted a multi-part study over the course of a whole work week. They found that people who engaged in more OCB during the day had higher levels of work meaningfulness at the end of the day. Work meaningfulness is the extent to which employees feel that their job is useful or significant. The authors posited that engaging in OCB allows employees to feel more control over their activities, as well as feel good about helping others. Both of these components could lead people to experience work meaningfulness, more vigor, and more energized through engaging in OCB.
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