Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

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Foundations

OCBs are behaviors, largely discretionary, and seldom indluded in formal job description, that supports task performance by enhancing a social and psychological work environment (pp. 388)

A positive association between transformational leadership and OCB is expected and has been supported empirically (pp. 388)

A positive association between LMX and OCB is expected because OCB helps fulfill the reciprocity obligations of followers, and represents an exchange currency that is diffuse, unspecified, and weakly time-bound (pp. 389)

Hypotheses:

  1. Transformational leadership is positively related to the task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors of followers (pp. 390)
  2. Leader-member exchange relates positively to the task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors of followers (pp. 391)
  3. Leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ taks performance and organizational citizenship behavior (pp. 391)

Results (pp. 392):

  1. Transformational leadership behaviors are social currency, nourishing high-quality LMX
  2. Transformational leadership is associated positively with task performance and OCB
  3. Transformational leaders enhance follower recetivity to role-expanding offers anad extrarole behaviors through processes of personal and/or social identification
  4. LMX makes transformational leadership more personally meaningful

Employee job satisfaction is an important determinant of extra-role behavrios (OCB). (pp. 380)

When OCBs is combined with models of the effects of transformational leadership, satisfaction emerges as a potential mediator of the impact of transformational leader behavior on the extra-role performance of followers (pp. 380)

Transformational leader behaviors directly influence OCBs, much in the same way that transactional leader behaviors have been shown to influence in-role performance (pp. 380)

Transformational leader behaviors influence OCBs only indirectly, through their effects on mediators like followers’ trust in their leaders and satisfaction (pp. 380)

Six key beehaviors associated with transformational leaders (pp. 381):

  1. identifying and articulating a vision:  behavior on the part of the leader aimed at identifying new opportunities for his or her unit/division/company, and developing, articulating, and inspiring others with his or her vision of the future
  2. providing an appropriate model: behavior on the part of the leader that sets an example for employees to follow that is consistent with thevalues the leader epouses
  3. high performance expectations: behavior that demonstrates the leader’s expectations for excellence, quality, and/or high performance on that part of followers
  4. providing individualized support: behavior on the part of the leader that indicates that he/she respects followers and is concerned about their personal feelings and needs
  5. intellectual stimulation: behavior on the part o the leaer that challenges followers to reexamine some of their assumptions about their work and rethink how it can be performed

Aggregate effects of leader behaviors on OCBs (pp. 382)

  • effects of these leader behaviors on OCBs are INDIRECT, rather than direct, and are mediated by followers, trust in their leaders
  • transformational leader beaviors has no direct effects on OBCs
  • transformational leader behaviors influenced both emplyee trust and satisfaction
  • trust influenced OCBs but employee satisfaction did not
  • transactional leader behavior influenced OCBs DIRECTLY

Individual effects of leader behaviors on ONBs (pp. 382)

  • If the increased task demands produced by a leader’s intellectual stimulation behavior increase stress, ambiguity, and conflict, we might expect tht followers will express less trust in the leader and engage in fewer OCBs
  • High performance expectations reduced emplyee trust
  • the leader must communicate those expectations to his/her subordinates
  • the leader must let them know that he/she is confident they can meet these expectations

 

Scholars

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R.; Wang, H., Law, K. S., Hackett, R. D., Wang, D., & Chen, Z. X.; Organ

Research

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects of followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Leadership Quarterly. 1(2), 107-142.

Wang, H., Law, K. S., Hackett, R. D., Wang, D., & Chen, Z. X. (2005). Leader-member exchange as a mediator of the relationship between transformational eladership and followers’ performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Academy of Management Journal. 48(3), 420-432.

Notes

Related Theories

LMX; Transformational Leadership; Collective Efficacy; Charismatic Leadership

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