Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Career Development Strategy

The goals of the present study were to 1.) develop a model of career related factors that could be related to organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB); and 2.) determine if the proposed relationships between the career focused variables and OCB differed across rating source. A total of 262 volunteers from a Corporation and University completed a survey in either online or by paper and pencil that included demographics and measures of: job involvement, career motivation, occupational commitment, perceptions of career plateau, career stage, and OCB. Ratings of OCB were obtained from approximately 195 participant supervisors and/or coworkers. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed that, as hypothesized, career motivation and job content plateau were related to self-ratings of OCB, explaining unique variance beyond that accounted for by the organization and select demographics. Coworker ratings of OCB were explained only by the organization, levels of education and, gender. A series of regression analyses showed that the majority of the relationships between the career variables and ratings of OCB were not moderated by perceptions of career plateau or career stage. The relationship between job involvement and coworker ratings of OCB, however, was moderated by the participants career stage. Participants in the primary career stages received higher ratings than those in the boundary stages on all three forms of OCB. Simple slope analyses showed that, in general, those in the primary and boundary stages who were more job involved received higher ratings of OCB. Coworkers may have attributed extra-role behaviors to participants job involvement, the most visible career factor. Finally, the relationship between career identity and participant ratings of OCBO was stronger than between identity and coworker ratings of OCBO. These findings provide practical and theoretical implications. Practically, the results suggest that organizations may influence the performance of OCB by recognizing and working with those who are career motivated and by ensuring that all employees are challenged by their jobs. Theoretically, this research provides evidence that OCB may be an alternative and viable career strategy employed by career motivated employees