Gathering Information and Exercising Influence: Two Forms of Civic Virtue Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract

Political behavior at work often is disparaged as self-serving activity that undermines the efficient pursuit of organizational goals. Yet politics has a more benign meaning as well: responsible participation in decision-making processes, keeping informed, and promoting innovative ideas that serve long-term organizational interests. To date, the negative image of organizational politics among managers and scholars has limited research on the positive contributions of responsible political participation, a form of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) known as civic virtue.This paper draws on political philosophy and organizational research to consider two forms of civic virtue OCB: gathering information and exercising influence. Both are proactive and can have beneficial results for individuals, organizations, and society. Conceptually, the two forms of civic virtue are related. Yet they also are different. Results of a field study of 245 employees and their supervisors provide support for similarities and differences in the two forms of civic virtue. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our study, and the benefits of continued research on both aspects of civic virtue OCB.

Structural Model of the Relationship of Organizational Ethical Climate with Organizational Empathy and Civic Virtue: A Cognitive-Affective-Behavioral Approach to Ethics at Workplace

“…Beyond above mentioned agreements, at simple correlations level, findings of this study showed that it is logical to consider civic virtue and organizational empathy as variables with clear ethical foundations (Graham, 2000;Kidder and Parks, 2001;Graham and Van Dyne, 2006;Butarbutar et al, 2010). Despite the fact that previous theories and studies propose ideas that organizational citizenship behaviors are ethical (and more particularly about civic virtue) (Ackfeldt and Cotte, 2005;Chun, 2005;Leung, 2007;Podsakoff et al, 2009;Ramachandran et al, 2011;Stewart Wherry, 2012), yet few studies so far clearly attempted to investigate these ethical foundations .…”

“…In initial formulation, civic virtue has been introduced as responsible participation in political life of the organization (Graham, 2000;Graham and Van Dyne, 2006). In fact civic virtue are considered participation beyond the call of duty in organizational meetings and gatherings with the aim of better and more effective involvement in organizational goals and missions (Graham, 2000;Kidder and Parks, 2001).…”

“…In fact civic virtue are considered participation beyond the call of duty in organizational meetings and gatherings with the aim of better and more effective involvement in organizational goals and missions (Graham, 2000;Kidder and Parks, 2001). From a developmental perspective, civic virtue is considered prospective and proactive behaviors that promote and improve personal skills, abilities, and information and knowledge and provide the means for more favorable organizational and personal efficacy (Graham and Van Dyne, 2006). It is for these prominent roles of civic virtue that since past couple of decades, researchers have more seriously sought to identify and introduce factors that strengthen and institutionalize civic virtue in the workplace (Chun, 2005;Leung, 2007;Podsakoff et al, 2009;Ramachandran et al, 2011;Stewart Wherry, 2012).…”

Duties Owed to Organizational Citizens – Ethical Insights for Today’s Leader

“…OCB has been described as courtesy that incorporates ''(a)dvance notice, reminders, passing along information, consultation, (and) briefing'' others about potential problems that may affect organizational outcomes (Organ, 1988, p. 12). OCB is sometimes defined as civic virtue that incorporates participating responsibly in the various activities of an organization, speaking up in the proper forum and in the appropriate manner (Graham, 1986), and gathering information and exercising influence (Graham and Van Dyne, 2006). OCB has also been framed as sportsmanship, or the patience to maintain a positive attitude and to ''tolerate the inevitable inconveniences and impositions of work without complaining'' (Organ, 1990, p. 96).…”

Ethical Considerations in Organizational Politics: Expanding the Perspective

“…Graham and Van Dyne (2006), for example, discuss responsible political participation in organizations in terms of civic virtue, a form of organizational citizenship behavior. In turn, they consider two important prosocial and proactive forms of civic virtue, gathering information and exercising influence, which are supposed to exert beneficial results on both individuals and organizations.…”