Effects of organizational citizenship behaviour on group performance

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) on organizational effectiveness. Specifically, it investigates the impact of helping behaviour on a group where members withhold the effort on job.Design/methodology/approachResults are drawn from an agent‐based simulation model of a workgroup that has to accomplish some tasks for a specific duration.FindingsWhen there are group members withholding effort, OCB decreases organizational effectiveness; on the contrary, when individuals provide much effort in the job, OCB enhances group performance. High performance is reached by the group who are able to learn when OCB is appropriate and fitting.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this paper are strictly linked to the absence of empirical analysis. The simulation model provides a logical and consistent theory that needs an empirical validation.Practical implicationsThis paper helps workers and supervisors since it warns them on the OCB gap and suggests that in the place of a blind OCB, the groups need to share a smart OCB to cultivate altruism with people who work hard, and to exclude the others.Originality/valueIn the study of OCBs determinants and consequences, the academy has almost exclusively assembled on positive factors. This paper shows the OCB dark side and it asserts that citizenship effects on organization performance are not predetermined as a conceptual assumption. Effectiveness is assured by a dynamic and selective OCB only toward good workers.

Academic citizenship and wellbeing: An exploratory cross-cultural study of South African and Swedish academic perceptions

“…Thus, in the context of the current article, conscientiousness refers to individuals' painstaking diligence in their organisational duties and in their personal support of co-workers. Sevi's (2010) model also considers OCB as helping behaviour, in line with Borman's (2004) notion of 'personal support', and his concept of 'work effort' is similar to Borman's (2004) concept of 'organisational support'. Closely allied concepts of OCB, such as organisational misbehaviour (OMB) (Vardi and Weitz 2003) and organisational deviance (Heckert and Heckert 2004), are considered outside the focus of the current article because they constitute non-conscientious type behaviour.…”

Transformational Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Kenya

“…"Reference [24] explains on how OCB affects group performance found that OCB improves group performance". High performance is achieved when OCB is appreciated.…”

Specific Organizational Citizenship Behaviours and Organizational Effectiveness: The Development of a Conceptual Heuristic Device

“…Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has generally been associated with organizational effectiveness through the attainment of formal organizational goals. However, recent studies have shown that this may not always be the case and that excessive organizational citizenship behaviour of “personal support” (Borman, ) and “organizational support” (Vigoda‐Gadot, ; Sevi, ) types in particular may be inimical to organizational goal attainment. Extreme personally supportive OCB may become detrimental to the accomplishment of organizationally proscribed tasks through, for example, spending large amounts of time helping coworkers in the workplace that, in the context of superior/subordinate interpersonal relations in particular, may be regarded as fraternization and negatively affect worker morale and productivity (Paul & Seeberger, ; Sevi, ).…”

“…Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has generally been associated with organizational effectiveness. However, recent research (Borman, ; Vigoda‐Gadot, ; Sevi, ) has shown that this may not always be the case and that certain types of organizational citizenship behaviour may be inimical to organizational effectiveness by thwarting the fulfillment of specific formal goals. The paper maintains, using military historical and business organizational secondary data, that variance in either organizational (task) or personal (social psychological) support‐type OCB disrupts the attainment of formal organizational goals and, in extreme cases can generate Entropic Citizenship Behaviour (ECB)and the complete derailment of formal organizational goals and thus organizational effectiveness.…”