Analyzing organizational citizenship behavior in Mexico: A collectivist perspective

Abstract

To better understand the various dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in Mexico, a study of 200 professionals in the shopping center management industry considers the collectivistic cultural background of Mexican employees. Using a framework based on both etic (universal) and emic (culturally specific) dimensions of OCB, researchers found that OCB in Mexico embraces eight dimensions. Three of them—altruism, civic virtue, and sportsmanship—were found to be etic, or universal, dimensions, while three others—interpersonal harmony, protecting company resources, and professional development—were identified as emic, or culturally specific, dimensions for collectivistic cultures including that of Mexico. The remaining two dimensions of organizational camaraderie and organizational dedication were recognized as emic dimensions of OCB particular only to Mexico. These findings can help managers tailor their evaluation and incentive programs to attract and retain Mexican personnel and ensure a productive work environment.

Document Review: Journal Articles, Performance Evaluations, and Organizational Citizenship Terminology

“…Findings from this document analysis provided several ideas for continued research regarding OCB and for organizational leaders to consider updating terminology reflecting employee exhibition of specific behaviors in formal performance evaluation documents. First, since the use of only 11 terms in random, publicly accessible performance evaluations were investigated in this document analysis, the next step is for organizational leaders to identify and examine additional terms, possibly 30 or more, that might be more descriptive and define OCB exhibited in the workplace (Baeza et al, 2017;Jena & Goswami, 2013). Second, organizational leaders should consider updating formal employee performance evaluations to include identified terminology for OCBs and acknowledge and reward altruistic and individual contributions of employees.…”

“…Studies about intricacies of employee relationships, leaderfollower relationships, and recognition of altruistic behaviors revealed how important OCB is to organizational success. Some findings also linked succession planning, promotional opportunities, increased teamwork, and employee satisfaction and performance to recognition of OCBs (Baeza et al, 2017;Murtaza et al, 2016). Documents randomly selected from compilation of literature over a span of 30 years comprised the group of data for this study and are also part of the following literature review.…”

“…Performance appraisals are results-based; rating employees based on completing tasks and meeting strategic goals (Conzelmann, 2020). Results of performance reviews may stimulate an increase in employee performance and justify the need to change employee salaries (Baeza et al, 2017;He et al, 2019;Jahangir et al, 2004). Employees perceive performance appraisals as a segue to weed out strongest and weakest performers, and as a tool for leaders to promote or terminate employees (Conzelmann, 2020;Oh et al, 2015).…”

Collectivistic norms, beliefs and Mexican OCBs: gender and generation differences

“…Farh et al (2004) explored OCBs in China, uncovering five culturally related dimensions. Nonetheless, only a few studies have used an OCB scale applicable to Latin America (Baeza and Wang, 2015;Almenara-Diaz and Avolio-Alecchi, 2017;Baeza et al, 2017;Andrade et al, 2017;Ortiz, 2000). Paying attention to the idiosyncratic elements of national culture, this study relies on a categorization of OCB into etic (universal), emic (regional) and unique (indigenous) dimensions, the latter initially identified by Ortiz (2000), reidentified by Baeza and Wang (2015) and Baeza et al (2017): camaraderie, faithfulness/ dedication, personal development and protecting company resources.…”

“…Avoid abusing firm's policies and resources for personal benefit Baeza and Wang (2015), Baeza et al (2017), Farh et al (1997 culture shapes gender differences in OCB; for instance, a study of OCBs in Peru found that men display more conscientiousness than did women (El Badawy et al, 2017).…”