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Write a 9 page essay on Antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviours.
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This description received criticism since it made OCB’s difficult to identify and measure. This was particularly so with jobs that did not have clearly defined tasks which made it difficult to identify behaviors that are associated with the job description and those that went beyond it. Thus, the definition was modified to describe OCB as behavior that “supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes place” (Organ, 1997, p. .95). OCB’s have been found to be associated with valuable consequences like increases in productivity, customer satisfaction, unit – level success and overall organization level success. As a result of this, the antecedents of OCB’s have been discussed in literature in detail in order to recommend ways in which individual employees may be encouraged to exhibit OCB’s. This paper shall discuss some of these factors in order to understand the mechanism by which they affect organizational success. Organizational Citizenship Behaviors The concept of organizational citizenship behaviors or OCB’s describes behaviors that may not be required on employees, but are exhibited by these employees in order to aid the overall success of the organization. While it was always conceptualized as a multidimensional construct, research indicates that there may be many types of OCB that are exhibited by employees, and that the kind of work, the conditions of the work and other such factors may moderate which OCB’s are effective in enhancing organizational success (Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Paine &. Bachrach, 2000). Initially, Organ and others postulated two dimensions – altruism and general compliance (Smith, Organ &. Near, 1983) while later research showed evidence for a number of other dimensions like Helping Behavior, Sportsmanship, Organizational Loyalty, Organizational Compliance, Individual Initiative, Civic Virtue and Self Development (Podsakoff et al., 2000). Helping behavior, which includes the initially postulated dimension of altruism among others, is described as representing behaviors that involve helping other employees, preventing problems and extending courtesy(Podsakoff et al., 2000). This dimension has been found to be important by almost all research and is possible the most easily understood of all. The second dimension of sportsmanship is the ability of an employee to tolerate inconveniences for the larger good, and has been found to be distinct from other dimensions (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, &. Rich, 1999). The third dimension of organizational loyalty involves defending the organization, promoting it and remaining committed to it even in adverse conditions (Podsakoff et al., 2000). The dimension of organizational compliance has also been researched in great detail, and shares similarities with the concept of generalized compliance. It involves the internalization and acceptance rules, regulations and procedures, as well as a self regulated and scrupulous adherence to the same (Podsakoff et al., 2000).
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