Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Review and Extension of its Nomological Network

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an updated, conceptually-based overview of the nomological network of the organizational citizenship behavior construct, with an emphasis on implications for future research. In doing so, we will use the OCB categorization framework based on the target of the behaviors, differentiating between citizenship targeted at the organization and citizenship targeted at the individual (McNeely and Meglino, 1994; Williams and Anderson, 1991). Previous literature reviews have mostly focused on 1) attitudinal and dis-positional factors as antecedents of citizenship and 2) individual and organizational performance as consequences of citizenship Podsakoff et al., 2000). We suggest that more recent research has widened the scope of the nomological network of citizenship behavior, and thus, an updated literature review can help structure this emerging research on OCB. Accordingly, we discuss motivational and contextual antecedents of OCB, in addition to dispositional and attitu-dinal antecedents. In a similar fashion, we consider consequences of OCB for individual well-being in addition to consequences of OCB for individual, group, and organization performance. There are at least four benefits of this broader perspective on citizenship behavior. First, with respect to the antecedents of OCB, we believe that a more dynamic understanding of the antecedents of citizenship behavior is needed to capture the complexities of the social environment in which OCB is embedded and to account for employee motivations to engage in OCB. Second, with respect to consequences of OCB, the managerial orientation of most prior research on citizenship (Organ, 1997) has ignored consequences of OCB which go beyond effectiveness and efficiency implications. Third, recent research in social and personality psychology demonstrates the positive implications which prosocial behavior can have for those who perform these behaviors. Incorporating this perspective into research on citizenship can help generate a more complete understanding of the consequences of OCB for individual well-being as well as factors that sustain high levels of citizenship over extended periods of time. Fourth, an updated literature review can help structure these emerging areas of OCB research and can add to the research agenda for citizenship behavior for the next decade. It is almost thirty years now since Organ (1977) revisited the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance by differentiating quantitative measures of output from more subtle, qualitative aspects of work. Up to that point, a long tradition of research had failed to reach consensus on the nature of the relationship between job satisfaction …