The relation of employee perceptions of support and dispositional traits to organizational citizenship behaviors: Do two dimensions of OCBS have different correlates?

Organizational citizenship behaviors have been studied as one of many antecedents of organizational effectiveness (Organ, 1988). A field study was conducted to explore the possibility that certain factors relate differently to organizational citizenship behaviors dependent on the beneficiary of the citizenship behaviors. It was expected that perceptions of organizational support and conscientiousness would be related to organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward the organization (OCBOs) and that perceptions of coworker support and empathy would be related to organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward specific individuals (OCBIs). Two parallel measures of exchange ideology, or the degree to which individuals believe putting forth effort toward a specific target should depend on the way they are treated by that target, were examined as moderators of the relationships between support and citizenship behavior. Two sites were used to test these hypotheses: a small, privately owned industrial plant, and a large government-run organization. Results supported the expectation that individuals direct their citizenship behaviors toward targets from which they perceive support. Results supported one of the hypothesized moderators. There was a significant, positive relationship between perceived organizational support and OCBOs for those with a strong organizational exchange ideology only. Individual exchange ideology did not moderate the relationship between perceived coworker support and OCBIs as expected. These findings indicate that the exchange relationships that exist among coworkers operate differently from that between the individual and the organization. This finding is important because this is the first study that explicitly looks at the relationship between employees and their coworkers and how this relates to helping behaviors. Empathy was not found to be related to organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward individuals, and conscientiousness was found to be related to both types of citizenship behaviors, regardless of the beneficiary