Understanding Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Joshua Harris Althea Johns Organizational port October 21, 2012 Understanding Organizational Citizenship Behaviors Citizenship, most come int normally associate this term with an organization like a business. Many would think of the word citizenship in terms of the country that you whitethorn live in. Some whitethorn even think of it more(prenominal) in general then that. As in we argon all citizens of this planet. But what is the new(prenominal)? Are there smaller citizenship classifications, and atomic number 18 they as important? Particularly, what around citizenship at your place of employment? What does organisational citizenship fashion mean to a friendship?Can it affect things like commercial enterprise rejoicing, efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction? Research suggests that there is a moderately positive correlation betwixt job function and organizational citizenship behavior. (Kinicki) This paper will examine true(a) examples of OCB, explain how organizations fuck influence OCB, and which orchestra pits to watch out for. (Kinicki) Organ define organizational citizenship behaviors as, Individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the sound functioning of the organization.By discretionary, we mean that the behavior is not an enforceable requirement of the employment or the job description, that is, the clearly specifiable terms of the persons employment contract with the organization the behavior is rather a discipline of personal choice, such that its omission is not generally understood as punishable. (Organ) Literature in this subject has been almost non-existent prior the early 1980s, deflectely has increased in popularity ever since. Its these discretionary behaviors that according to Brooker, Our esprit de corps is the nucleus of our success. Thats the most difficult thing for a competitor to imitate.They thu nder mug barter for all the physical things. The thing you bungholet buy is dedication, devotion, and loyalty. (Brooker) Its this loyalty that convinced herbaceous plant Kelleher, from Bookers article cover Can anyone replace Herb? to argue that employee citizenship is the angiotensin converting enzyme biggest reason for the companys success. However this was hard to prove with hard evidence until recently 1990s. (Brooker) In Bolino and Turnleys 2003 article Going the Extra Mile Cultivating and managing Employee Citizenship Behavior which appeared in Academy of Management Executive, they describe factors that shag promote secure OCB.It is the authors opinion that the most important being job satisfaction. (Turnley) Bolino & Turnley answer from their analyst of several studies, that if an employee is happy, they will bequeath a positive organizational citizenship behavior. The article also covered other factors such as trust, job interest and involvement, organizationa l support, and Employee Characteristics. It is with these factors that researches use to try to come up with predictors. maybe one of the best predictors happens in what Bolino and Turnley calls the recruitment & selection process. Turnley)They provide three main instructions in which human resource managers can help achieve this. The first is to look for causes that applicants are committed to. For examples, college graduates that construct a lot of extra curricular activities or a passe-partout with volunteer services. Another predictor in determining positive OCB would be to provide situational questions to the interviewee. (Turnley)This is one ray of light that Smuckers uses to gage their employees. The last tool the article provides is personality trait questions.This is somewhat similar to situational interviews, but they are geared to the person and not a specific situation. The next inseparable step in influencing organizational citizenship behavior is during prep. It is during fosterage that an organization may have the best chance at eliciting citizenship behaviors. However, Bolino & Turnley, describe how this is commonly the opposite of what organizations do, due to their emphasis on individual achievements. One right smart an organization can help influence positive OCB is to sponsor training programs that focus on cooperation and taking initiative.But probably the best would be to pay back a training program that is used to improve relationships among coworkers and/or supervisors and subordinates. Bolinos article gave an example of this at Southwest Airlines when works were cross-trained on other positions. This allowed employees to gain experience in other area, but also measure and help out when they could. Also a study showed that supervisors that have had training in organizational justice principles also benefit from risqueer takes of OCB. In the last direct way organizations can influence OCB is in compensation.Bolinos ar ticle concluded that employees are more likely to engage in behaviors that are rewarded. An example of this is Asada, the British subsidiary of Wal-Mart, gives awards to employees who go to a higher place and beyond. CitiGroup does something similar. It is called Galaxy of Thanks. Employees can thank other employees for going above and beyond. If an employee reaches so many, that employee gets special recognition by the company and can upgrade rewards. (Young) Bolinos article also pointed to group or organizational level compensation fosters positive OCB. But, there can be many pitfalls for compensating for OCB.Some more informal shipway of promoting positive OCB would include developing a finishing in the organization that is conducive for positive OCB. Having managers and supervisors living by the similar standard and by having an organization act in a merit way. As you can tell there are many ways that organizations can influence their potential positive organizational citi zenship behavior. But, there are some pitfalls to be aware of. While there are potentially several pitfalls, all seem easily manageable. Bolino places pitfalls in three categories word-painting Management, Costs, and Escalating.Impression Management, is noted in another article by Bolino as, Several organizational behavior scholars have noted that individuals may engage in organizational citizenship behaviors not because they are concerned about the organizations welfare but because such activities may cause others (especially their supervisors) to look favorably upon them (Bolino) The pitfall here comes when rewarding this type of Impression Management behavior, which can regurgitate a strain on morale. (Turnley)Managers should watch for this type of motivation during citizenship assessments and be sure not to reward this type of behavior.If this behavior is rewarded the prices could sure outweigh any potential gains. Another potential downside to positive OCB happens when emp loyees depart lax on their main job functions. Many dont think helping another co-worker could potentially be a downfall, but that is exactly what Sprint, Xerox, and Ford found out in a bulwark Street Journal study. Employees would help co-workers with computer issues and it was estimated to have cost the companies upwards of $15,000 per computer. It is thought that hiring more support personal would have been importantly less expensive, and with better quality of support. Bulkeley)The last area of pitfalls is a plan of Escalating Citizenship. You can think of this concept like inflation. Today a vaulting horse will buy you much less than fifty or so years ago and escalating citizenship is something that manager must watch out for. If the bar for above and beyond is constantly moved higher and higher it can be catastrophic for an organization including high levels of job dissatisfaction, high turnover, and high stress. It is the authors opinion that the evidence is overwhelming that positive organizational behavior can greatly influence or be the single biggest reason for the companys success. Brooker)In this essay we have examined why organizational citizenship is important to an organization. We also took a look at what organizations can do to positively impact OCB. Finally we examined some downsides of OCB and provided some way managers can navigate around them. Organizational citizenship behavior can be a very good thing, when done correctly. Bibliography Bolino. Citizenship and impression managment Good soliders or good actors. Academy of Managment Review 24. 1 (n. d. ) 82-88. Brooker, K. Can anyone replace Herb? 2000. Fourtune. 19 Oct 2012 <http//money. nn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/04/17/278112/index. htm>. Bulkeley, W. M. Study finds hidden costs of computing. The Wall Street Journal (1992). Kinicki, Angelo. Managment a practical introduction 5E. New York McGraw-Hill, 2011. Organ, D. W. Organizatioal citizenship behavior The good soldier syndrome. Lexington Lexington Books, n. d. Turnley. Going The Extra Mile Cultivating and managing employee citizenship behavior. Academy of Managment Executives 17. 3 (2003) 60-71. Young, Joseph P. Interview. Joshua Harris. 19 October 2012.