When why matters: the effects of motive attributions for OCB on employee outcomes

Research has recently begun to consider what role motives may play in explaining how citizenship behavior is evaluated. Individuals who engage in OCB may have different motives for the same behavior, and the question of whether different motives can lead to different organizational outcomes has gone largely unstudied as of yet. The focus of this study is to investigate the effect of motive attributions on organizational outcomes. Participants were presented with four short vignettes of either organization-focused or individual-focused citizenship behavior, with each behavior motivated by one of five motives. No evidence was found to support the notion that theoretically positive motives were rated more favorably in overall evaluations than theoretically negative motives, however findings for reward ratings suggest that the motive of guilt is rated the lower than positive and negative motives. No differences were found between ratings provided for behaviors directed at the organization (OCBO) versus individuals (OCBI)