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Explaining Organizational Citizenship Behavior:
A Critical Review of the Social Exchange Perspective
by
Tiffany Schroeder
WP-10-03
CopyrightDepartment of Organizational BehaviorWeatherhead School of Management
Case Western Reserve UniversityCleveland OH 44106-7235
e-mail: [email protected]
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OCB and Social Exchange 2
Explaining Organizational Citizenship Behavior:
A Critical Review of the Social Exchange Perspective
Tiffany Schroeder
Case Western Reserve University
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Abstract
Social Exchange has been widely cited as an explanation for why employees might act as good
organizational citizens, proposing that individuals perform OCB as part of a desire to maintain
equitable and favorable workplace relationships that extend beyond the benefits of the more
impersonal contractual agreements. Although this perspective has been given much credit in the
study of OCB, I argue that a lack of clarity around the underlying assumptions and connection to
motives for OCB, in combination with a dearth of attention to alternative explanations for
findings around justice, have thwarted a critical examination of this explanation to employee
citizenship. In this paper I attempt to clarify the social exchange explanation by outlining several
additional assumptions underlying this approach to OCB, and then use these assumptions to
highlight empirical and conceptual gaps. Finally, I consider the value of the social exchange
perspective for future research on OCB.
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Researchers have been studying organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) for over 30
years now, with insights into antecedents and motives guided primarily through the lens of social
exchange theory (Blau, 1964). Although other researchers have also explored OCB from intra-
individual perspectives (e.g., Grant & Mayer, 2009; Motowidlo et al., 1997) and through an
impression management framework (Bolino, 1999), this paper is limited to the OCB research
based on social exchange theory. A reliance on social exchange as an explanatory mechanism
has led us to discovery of several important antecedents of citizenship: relationships between
perceptions of justice, equity, relationship quality, as well as several important consequences
including enhanced productivity, lower turnover, and higher customer satisfaction (Podsakoff,
MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). But despite its apparent popularity and role in guiding
the study of organizational citizenship to date, some scholars have begun to question reliance on
social exchange as the dominant explanatory framework of citizenship behavior (Bolino,
Turnley, & Niehoff, 2004; Rioux & Penner, 2001; Snape & Redman, 2010; Zellars & Tepper,
2003).
In this review I start by giving a brief history as to how and why scholars became
interested in applying social exchange to OCB. I then provide a more in-depth look at the major
tenets of the perspective, and the findings attributed to it. Building on previous accounts of social
exchange, I propose several key unexamined assumptions, discuss areas where more work is
needed, and give examples of alternative explanations for extant findings. In the last section I
revisit the perspective in terms of its proposed significance and provide suggestions for future
research.
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The concept of OCB originally grew out of Dennis Organs musings into explanations for
the apparent non-relationship between job satisfaction and job performance (Organ, 1988).
Organizational citizenship behavior was eventually proposed as an alternative form of
performance, differentiated from traditional performance on the basis of its relative freedom
from situational and ability constraints (p.70). Essentially, the upper boundary of task
performance is largely limited by a persons knowledge, skills, and ability, and the lower
boundary is limited by the fear of losing ones job. This means the individual performing the job
does not have a great deal of room to vary in performance based on their satisfaction with the
context. In contrast, helping a coworker does not necessarily depend on expertise in helping, and
because doing so is not typically tied to a persons job description that person may decide not to
perform the behavior at all. In this sense, citizenship has more freedom to vary than task
performance, and should be comparatively more likely to vary with a persons cognitive or
affective appraisal(i.e., job satisfaction) of the workplace (Organ, 1988).
Researchers started out exploring the role between job satisfaction and OCB, but the
focus soon shifted to fairness. The reasoning here was that satisfaction and its close relative,
commitment, were reflections of the employees attitudestowardthe organization, rather than
direct insights on how they perceive the organization to be acting toward them (Moorman,
Niehoff, & Organ, 1993). While satisfaction and commitment might be influenced by both
cognitions and mood, fairness- thought to be a component of satisfaction- represented a
conscious calculation of the environment. The calculative nature of the cognitive judgment was
thought to be less influenced by stable dispositional factors and less prone to situational
fluctuation than other types of attitudes. Therefore, fairness perceptions represented a potentially
more useful target of study than other attitudinal forms, in terms of both providing a window of
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insight into employees cognitions and in foreshadowing potential receptivity to managerial
interventions (Organ, 1988; Organ & Konovsky, 1989). This cognitive approach fit in line nicely
with the emerging social exchange explanation.
Social exchange provided a mechanism for the intuitive link between attitudes and
performance. The idea was that many acts in the workplace are not strictly regulated by
contractual obligations, but through a more implicit and discretionary exchange of resources,
including those more social in nature (Blau, 1964). According to this perspective employees
might perform OCBs out of a sense of obligation to return any number of perceived material or
social benefits they have gained from the organization (Organ, Podsakoff. & MacKenzie, 2006).
Social exchange has received a great deal of credit during the last three decades for linking
employee attitudes and OCB performance, yet as Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005) point out,
many ambiguities remain. The precise motive prompting employees to perform OCBs and
logistics of the process are not always clear, as detailed in the following section.
The Social Exchange Perspective
As Cropanzano & Michell (2005) point out, social exchange can refer to a type of
transaction, but has typically been conceptualized as a type of relationshipby OCB theorists
(e.g., Organ, 1988). In this view, organizations function partially through mutually desirable
relationships in which parties give and receive a variety of benefits- including socio-emotional
benefits. When trust has been developed to a critical level, employees can engage in behaviors
beyond the minimum requirement, trusting that they will not be taken advantage of, but rather
their needs will be met through this ongoing relationship. In this light, social exchange does not
explicitly specify motives beyond the desire to maintain the exchange relationship.
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But researchers have given a few possible motives for engaging in OCB from this
perspective, or for sustaining the relationship. Indeed, without an explanation as to why
employees might be motivated to engage in such an exchange, the perspective would not offer
much in the way of explanation or prediction of behavior. Concerning motives on the
employees parts, there have generally been two similar, yet distinct, lines of reasoning within
the social exchange perspective for why people might perform OCBs. First, when people
perceive that they are treated fairly, the norm of reciprocity says that they should reciprocate
(Blau, 1964). So people perform OCBs in order to give back to the organization, or
organizational leader. This explanation is typically linked to group-value literature, placing
heavy emphasis on the quality of the relationship, such that employees are guided to return
benefits in order to maintain the social exchange relationship (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005;
Cropanzano et al., 2001). The second line of reasoning is similar but slightly more proactive:
Because Im treated fairly, I can act now, trusting that my contributions will be fairly rewarded
over the long-term. Typically these explanations imply a trade-off such that the employee is
sacrificing something in the short-term with the expectation that in the long-run they will be
fairly compensated for their efforts (e.g., Organ & Moorman, 1991).
Again, OCB researchers have typically not focused on disentangling motives when
discussing social exchange. They have typically provided arguments similar to one of the above,
or a combination of these, to explain why employees might partake in social exchange, but
focused most attention on linking perceptions of justice to citizenship behavior. Whether or not
OCBs are performed proactively or reactively, with or without motivation beyond sustaining the
social exchange relationship, there are three core features defining social exchange according to
Organ and colleagues (2006, p. 72):
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1. Voluntary actions of individuals that are motivated by the returnsthey areexpected to bring and typically in fact do bring from others (Blau, 1964, p. 91)
2. The obligation by a party to reciprocate a benefit voluntarily rendered by someother party. However, the obligation is unspecified as to form degree, or time of
reciprocation
3. It depends on trust- that is, confidence that the other party will, in good time andin some appropriate manner and situation, reciprocate benefits, contributions, or
favors; reciprocation cannot be enforced by appeal to third parties.
These statements primarily encompass the motives of individual actions rather than the
relationship itself. In the end, it seems, we cannot fully understand the relationship without
understanding individual motives, and likewise cannot fully understand individual motives
without appreciating the complex nature of benefits accrued through dynamic relationships. In
reality, there are likely multiple benefits and motives underlying each action in social exchange
(Fassina, Jones, & Uggerslev, 2008a), making it difficult to identify where and when the social
exchange label may be applied to a set of transactions. In an effort to clarify this, I have
identified some additional assumptions that seem necessary, but not sufficient, components of
social exchange, starting with assumptions regarding the nature of exchanges:
1. Dyadic: Both parties are actively involved as giver and receiver in the exchangeof non-contractual benefits.
2. Non-contracted/non-explicit: Further, both similarly view benefits as (mostly)discretionary in order to qualify as, and maintain, social exchange (Cropanzano
& Mitchell, 2005). It is the perceived discretion over form and timing that
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primarily otherwise would be economic exchange from social exchange (Organ et
al., 2006)
3. Frequent: Social exchanges should be ongoing and frequent in order to maintaina generalized sense of obligation toward one another, and trust in reciprocity.
4. Observable: Both sides should be able to see something in order to feel anobligation to reciprocate
5. Long-Term Stablility:Roughly equivalent exchange will occur over the long-term, but not necessarily in the short-term
6.
Benefits are Beneficial: In order to maintain social exchange, receiving parties
must actually perceive that the discretionary acts are desirable.
Although implied above, there are also a number of assumptions that pertain to the cognitions of
the actor:
1. Action is Desirable: Discretionary behavior is assumed to be received by theother graciously, and perceived as a benefit.
2. Trust in Reciprocity: An actor must trust the other party to return the benefits.3. Discretionary Benefits: To sustain the social exchange relationship, the actor
must believe beyond those they would expect from the contractual relationship.
To summarize, social exchange entails an inherently long-term set of transactions in
which parties exchange benefits on the basis of trusting organizational relationships. This has
been used as a generalized explanation for why employees might engage in citizenship
behaviors, although the exact motive may depend on the individual employee, as well as the
degree to which the social exchange relationship represents a substantial benefit in its own right
(Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). Regardless of what the employee perceives to be getting out of
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the relationship, the belief in just returns over the long-term should be enough to promote action
that is not otherwise guaranteed a reward, namely, citizenship behavior. Social exchange, then,
does not specify the exact benefit or motivation for employees engaging in this type of exchange
aside from including socio-emotional benefits, as opposed to purely economic benefits. When
viewed at the more general level the perspective presents no major problems, yet it seems that
researchers are inconsistently inferring motivation. The assumptions I have listed above are not
consistent with alldescriptions of social exchange (e.g., Fassina, Jones, & Uggerslev, 2008b, on
p. 179, propose a social exchange mechanism not requiring perceptions of justice), but they
provide a greater degree of precision and predictive power than that which has been previously
afforded, and they should help researchers to be more mindful when inferring underlying
motivation.
Social Exchanges Impact on the Literature and Key Findings
As I mentioned earlier, the social exchange explanation for OCB was developed
alongside the view that cognitions about treatment by the organization would provide a cleaner
and more efficient entrance into the link between employee attitudes and performance.
Specifically, early scholars theorized that it was the belief in the organization as a microcosm of
a just world (Organ & Moorman, 1993, p.8) that would be most important to subsequent
OCBs, proposing that the belief frees the rational person from the hold of immediate returns to
self and justifies contributions in the form of OCB (Organ & Moorman, p. 9). Interestingly,
these scholars compared the development of organizational cognitions in the workers to the
cognitive development of a child, explaining in the end that where they differ is that adults are
more likely to place emphasis on the processes underlying reward distribution, because, unlike
children, they understand the human intervention in the process. Before contributing in the form
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of OCB, then, adult workers should trust the people and processes in the system to consistently
meet their needs.
Much of the research from the social exchange perspective has thus focused not on the
outcomes afforded through the exchange, but on indications of systemic, consistent fairness from
the actors perspective. More specifically, this has led researchers to examine perceptions of
fairness in terms of procedural justice- justice in terms of the people or systems determining how
resources should be allocated. Other forms of justice have also been examined, and more
recently have been distinguished according to the intended source of OCB (Fassina et al.,
2008a). Findings centered on perceptions of justice, and to a lesser extent attitudes formed
towardthe organization, have been the primary sources of data gathered to support social
exchange as an explanation for OCB. It is outside the scope of this paper to present all of the
research findings used to support the perspective, but here I present some of the key findings.
Key Findings
Perceptions of fair treatment appear to contribute to OCB performance beyond what can
be accounted for by attitudes reflecting how the employee feels towardthe organization.
Moorman (1991), for example, found that job fairness (procedural justice) accounted for
variance in explaining OCB performance beyond what was accounted for by job satisfaction,
implying that employees feelings toward the organization might be secondary to judgments of
fair treatment in determining behaviors. Similarly, Moorman and colleagues (1993) found that
when controlling for commitment and satisfaction, procedural justice carried additional variance
in predicting three of the five OCB dimensions tested: courtesy, sportsmanship, and
conscientiousness (but not altruism or civic virtue). On the other hand, Fassina and colleagues
(2008b) found in a recent meta-analysis that job satisfaction also influences the performance of
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OCB beyond the effects of justice, suggesting that both perceptions of justice and feelings of
satisfaction contribute to performance of OCB in slightly different ways. These findings suggest
that social exchange is appropriate to the extent that employee cognitions of treatment by the
employer, organization, or workgroup are related to their own behaviors are linked to an
exchange for their own contributions to the relationship in the form of OCB.
Konovsky and Pugh (1994) also contributed to our understanding of how social exchange
works by their finding that feelings of trust mediate the relationship between procedural justice
and OCB, but not between distributive justice and OCB. This, they explained, supports the social
exchange perspective because perceptions of procedural fairness promote trust for reciprocation
in future interactions, which is required in order for social exchange to occur. Distributive
justice, on the other hand, is more likely indicative of economic exchange, where explicit
agreements reduce ambiguities and the need to rely on judgments of trust. This and similar
findings have been taken as indication that procedural fairness provides security over concerns
about future treatment, allowing employees to engage in social exchange.1Overall, perceptions
of justice appear to have a small effect on OCB, with global perceptions of justice (shared
variance between distributive, procedural, and interactional) accounting for 2-3% of the variance
in OCB (Fassina, Jones & Uggerslev, 2008a).
Although not originally proposed as a part of the social exchange perspective, OCBs
also appear to vary according to perceptions of justice specific to the target (i.e., the intended
beneficiary of the OCB), such that interactional justice matters more for OCBs directed toward
individuals, and procedural justice carries more weight for OCBs directed toward the
organization (Lavalle et al., 2009; LePine, Erez & Johnson, 2002; Yoon & Suh, 2003). To the
extent that perceptions of justice are important to the performance of OCB because they
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represent trust that OCBs will be reciprocated, target-specific effects are generally supportive of
an underlying social exchange mechanism (Fassina et al., 2008a).
To summarize, justice, satisfaction, trust, and commitment appear to play similar, yet
slightly different roles as predictors of OCB (e.g., Fassina et al., 2008b; Moorman, 1991;
Williams & Anderson, 1991; Yoon & Suh, 2003). Researchers have primarily taken relationships
between procedural justice and OCB as support for the social exchange perspective. This line of
thinking has led to some important insights in terms of identifying different types of justice,
distinguishing between types of OCB and their targets, and positing explanations for these
effects. One study even shows that OCB can be increased with a justice intervention (Skarlicki &
Latham, 1997). Yet the research conducted from this perspective tends to explain little variance
in terms of OCB performed, and appears to be capturing only part of the story. Below, I revisit
assumptions of the social exchange perspective and use these to show where further investigation
is needed.
Revisiting the Notion of Social Exchange as an Explanation for Employee Citizenship: An
Incomplete Story
In terms of the assumptions listed earlier, many features of the social exchange relationship
have been left unexamined by the extant research. In this section I discuss missing pieces of the
puzzle that currently undermine support for the social exchange mechanism. I start by revisiting
the assumptions underlying the exchange and actor cognitions, then I discuss where the evidence
attained so far may be unreliable as a pure indication of social exchange.
Evidence around Process Assumptions
The first assumption underlying the exchange process was that it is dyadic in nature, with
both parties actively involved as giver and receiver in the exchange of non-contractual benefits.
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Research thus far has typically been conducted from the employee side only, and even here only
examining what the employee judges as the likelihood of reciprocation (implied from justice),
and their contributions to the exchange. In order to truly determine whether or not the exchange
is dyadic, we would need to be able to see how changes on either side would affect behavior on
the other.
The second assumption is that reciprocation is non-contracted or non-explicit, that is, the
timing and form of reciprocation is left to discretion. Research indicates that many employees
view OCBs as a part of the job (Morrison, 1994; Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2004), and early on
scholars noted the importance of careful distinction between in-role effects and extra-role effects
(Williams & Anderson, 1991), yet researchers in this sphere have typically not restricted analysis
to OCBs that were indeed considered discretionary. We also do not know what, if any,
benefits from the employers side are considered by either party to be discretionary.
Social exchanges and accompanying interactions should also be frequent enough to
maintain the generalized sense of obligation toward one another and trust in reciprocity. Because
researchers have not typically inquired into the nature of the benefits perceived to have been
given and received in the interaction, it makes it difficult to question the frequency at which they
are exchanged. Further, it become harder to test the assumption that the benefits being exchanged
are actually observable enough to provoke reciprocation in the form of continued social
exchange.
Social exchange relationships are more personal and reliant on trust for continuation over
the long-term, yet researchers have failed to test whether these relationships are actually stable
over long periods of time. Instead, the majority have relied on cross-sectional studies (Organ et
al., 2006), which clearly falls short in capturing an explanation reliant on long-term relationships.
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Given the difficulty and resources involved in longitudinal studies a complementary alternative
might be inquiry into how these relationships are built in the first place.
To declare an exchange a social exchange, parties must believe that the resources being
exchanged are discretionary, but also desirable or beneficial. Cropanzano & Mitchell (2005)
propose that the key is a match in perceptions of the relationship or the exchange from the two
sides. That is, in order for social exchange to take place successfully both parties must indeed
believe that the exchange is a social one and feel they are somehow benefitting from this more
personal relationship- but some employees or employers might prefer reciprocity in the form of
economic exchange, or the agreed-upon transactions. As the research currently stands, it is
difficult to distinguish whether the parties involved actually prefer social to economic exchange,
or categorize these in the same way. Bergeron (2007) notes that there is likely a trade-off to
OCBs, and they may take away from important task behavior. OCBs directed toward the
organization or supervisor then might not always be kindly received. If no desire exists for
exchanges beyond those made explicit, or if actions are performed out of perceived necessity
rather than discretion, we cannot confidently label this as a social exchange. In short, this
assumption must be tested if we are to label an exchange as social.
Evidence around Cognitions of the Actor
The first assumption here was that the actors contribution is primarily beneficial or
desirable to the other party, and will be received graciously. We are currently lacking evidence
that employees performing social exchange behaviors such as OCBs actually believe they are
primarily benefitting the other party. That is, we might wish to confirm that people perform
OCBs primarily because they are deemed valuable to some other person or entity, rather than
because they are directly rewarding to the party performing the action. This distinction becomes
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especially key considering recent evidence by Bolino, Grant, and Harvey (in press)
demonstrating that OCB directed toward the organization can actually directly benefit the
individual by strengthening feelings of self-worth. Interestingly, this was true only for
individuals motivated by prosocial values, or concern for the organization, while those who
performed OCBs for impression management reasons (including the desire to build up future
returns) made a trade-off such that feelings of self-worth were actually lowered by the
performance of OCBs. The point here we can no longer assume that the other as the
immediate beneficiary if individuals can gain direct reward with or without accompanied
benefits from the other.
Trust in reciprocity is another assumed cognition of the actor. This is the assumption that
has received the most attention and support, but without controlling for other motives we cannot
assume that this should represent social exchange. I will return to this point in the next section.
The final assumption around actor cognition in the social exchange perspective is that the
actor must believe the benefits they receive are in fact discretionary, rather than something they
are entitled to as a part of the contracted exchange (behaviors expected in exchange for the
paycheck). We need to determine what behaviors employees might consider discretionary on
the part of employers and/or supervisors. Without this we cannot truly say that a perceived
obligation to reciprocate in the form of OCB exists. For example, is fair and respectful treatment
between human beings a right, or aprivilege? If a privilege, then employees might see this as a
discretionary behavior which they ought to return in some fashion. This can easily be considered
within the framework of social exchange. But if respectful treatment is a right then we are still
left wondering what employees perceive to be getting out of the exchange relationship. On a
related note we might ask: When employees do things like take time away from their regular
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work to help on an unexpected project, or intentionally portray the organization in a positive
light during their off-hours- are these things that are considered a rightof the employer, or a
privilege? Research has found that perceptions of role breadth vary between individuals and
across job levels, and employees performance of OCB partially depends on whether or not they
perceive it to be a part of their job (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2004; Morrison, 1994). If employees
perceive these behaviors to be a part of their job, this might be better considered under the
economic exchange framework- especially because researchers typically infer social exchange
from the perspective of the employee only. Alternatively, we might choose to measure perceived
relationship. The trouble here is that not all are in agreement that some specific type of
relationship underlies social exchange. On the other hand, one of the few explicit assumptions
stated by theorists is that the relationship provokes a sense of obligation. To test this assumption,
then, researchers should attempt to determine whether that obligation, if unfulfilled, leads to a
reduction of discretionary behavior.
Social exchange is based on the premise that perceptions of fairness or justice strengthen
relationships and trust over time, and the norm of reciprocity present in these relationships holds
that people will feel obligated to return any good deeds. In order to go above and beyond their
level of required work, then, people should perceive that the organization or leader is meeting or
exceeding that which is owed to them as an employee. Strictly speaking, some might say that
which is owed to an employee is a paycheck. Others might say that employees are deserving of
respect, and a lack of respect indicates a lack of justice or fairness. Still others might say that
employees should be given the tools they need to adequately do the work theyve been hired to
do, and that fairness is achieved when they are given access to these tools. The point here is that
just as understanding of an employers expectations will vary from employee to employee, so
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will employee expectations for what is owed to them as a part of the contractual relationship,
therefore researchers should exercise caution in labeling types of exchange without
understanding employee expectations.
Justice as an Indicator of Social Exchange
Researchers of OCB have often relied on justice-especially procedural justice- as a proxy
for social exchange. Despite some inconsistencies in effect sizes and covariances, perceptions of
justice have emerged consistently as a predictor of employee OCB. Again, the thought here is
that perceptions of fairness in interactions and procedures now reassures employees that they can
trust they will be taken care of in the future, allowing them to contribute as they see fit, without
needing to see immediate rewards. Given the evidence accumulated, we might infer that as far as
these types of justice go, social exchange is occurring. In this section I aim to show why even
this inference may be premature.
As I pointed out earlier there are multiple motivations that might be inferred from the
social exchange literature. Likewise, there are several reasons employees might rely on a sense
of justice or trust in the relationship before deciding to contribute in the form of OCB. The sense
of psychological safety underlying judgments of trust or justice frees employees from the
restriction of fear, but is not a motivation in its own right because it must be accompanied by
some other motive in order to lead to action. Building on Organ and colleagues (2006) emphasis
around feelings of obligation as a key to the exchange process, psychological safety would not be
sufficient because it would simply allow OCB to occur without the fear that one might be taken
advantage of, not imply a sense of obligation to initiate the behavior. Nor would it necessarily
ensure the belief that actions in the form of OCB will produce some personally desirable
outcome. Despite some scholars beliefs that OCB research has tended to assume self-serving
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motives (e.g., Bolino, Turnley, & Niehoff, 2004), a closer examination of the social exchange
explanation reveals that, according to this perspective, employees ultimately act in order to
receive some sort of benefit in return. Justice is key to this perspective then because it ensures
that benefits will in fact be reciprocated.
Looking at the various operationalizations of justice, though, one might get the sense that
there are additional reasons this might be important for an employees discretionary action.
Perhaps more importantly than representing the likelihood of reciprocation, justice holds its
importance as an indicator that an employees effort will not be needlessly wasted. That is,
respectful treatment and fair procedures might symbolize the employers desires to
systematically make sound judgments in all areas. Therefore to the extent an employee believes
the leaders are headed in the right direction, making the extra effort to help a colleague, put in
extra effort, or speak up on the companys behalf can be viewed as worthwhile- these efforts are
contributing to an organzation that is sure to use resources effectively.
In both of these views, justice serves to reduce uncertainty around outcomes (Lind & van
den Bos, 2002) - the difference is that in one case outcomes hold their importance in ensuring
that personal needs will be met (the social exchange view), whereas in the other case employees
are concerned more with the connection of their work to organizational outcomes. In the latter,
an employees perception of expected reciprocity, or expected personal benefit, appears to be
overshadowed by the direct benefits associated with perceived influence (e.g., Grant, 2007;
Snape & Redman, 2010).
Problems in Measuring Justice
There also appear to be several problems with the way justice is currently measured, as
well as the inferences based on this measurement. Many of the arguments for using justice
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measures come from Allan Linds early work (e.g., Lind & Taylor, 1988), but more recently he
and a colleague have presented a compelling case that fairness may not be of fundamental
importance in determining behavior, and in fact may only matter when the ability to trust is
unclear (Lind & van den Bos, 2002) . This theory of uncertainty management is based on
evidence that relationships between fairness and subsequent actions are stronger in cases when
outcomes are unclear or when trust in an authority figure is not certain. They also proposed that
if information from one type of justice is missing perceptions from another type of justice may
be used to fill in the blanks (e.g., distributive justice for procedural justice). This is important for
a number of reasons. First, it signals that using measurements of justice might not be appropriate
in cases where trustworthiness is already well-established, and likewise, where trustworthiness is
uncertain, justice may serve as a more sensitive measurement. Second, if fairness heuristics are
used to inform ratings on the basis of whatever data is available, shared variance between the
different types of justice are likely to be inflated. Recent meta-analytic findings have indeed
suggested that shared variance between procedural, distributive, and interactional justice was
greater than isolated justice effects (Fassina et al., 2008a).
If justice measurements have problems independently, these only multiply when used in
combination with similarly complex constructs. Skarlicki & Latham (1997) performed a quasi-
experiment in which they tested an intervention designed to increase perceptions of justice. The
intervention consisted of training one set of union leaders in how to increase their
communication, respect, and openness toward union members. They then compared their
members perceptions of justice and subsequent OCBs with members from control groups,
finding that the intervention did positively impact both perceptions of justice and OCB
performance in the training group. As noted earlier, this has been regarded as a key point of
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support in the social exchange OCB literature. This seems convincing on the surface, but looking
deeper indicates other possible mechanisms acting on OCB. Much of the intervention was
centered on teaching leaders how to give employees a chance to make their voices be heard, and
the procedural justice questionnaire also asked employees questions about their ability to voice
concerns. Further, the OCB measure tapped into members active participation in the union,
which might be might also be thought of in terms of expressing ones voice. Rather than
inferring social exchange, then, it seems more parsimonious to assume that the intervention
aimed at increasing opportunities for union members to have their voices heard simply increased
their perceived ability to voice concerns, which subsequently increased their active use of that
voice. Greater attention to competing explanations such as this one are needed to guide us in
identifying the mechanisms of social exchange and the performance of OCB.
The Link between Justice and OCB
Adding to the problems stemming from the measurements themselves, using supervisor
ratings of employee behavior might be inflating the correlation between justice and OCB.
According to the social exchange perspective employees contribute in the form of OCBs
because they expect to receive some sort of reciprocation. Again, this relies on the assumption
that the employer will notice and appreciate the behavior. Yet OCBs are by definition less
likely to be enforceable job requirements than task behaviors (Organ, 1997), with the implicit
reasoning being that they are more dependent on situation than are task behaviors, and therefore
more challenging for a manager to observe and regulate in any systematic fashion.
Bergeron (2007) proposed that individuals may differ in how visible their OCB is to
supervisors and that through the performance appraisal process this visibility could moderate the
relationship between OCB and individual career outcomes. If supervisors assessments of OCB
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are skewed in the performance appraisal process, they are probably also biased in research
surveys asking for reports of subordinates citizenship behaviors. Just because a supervisor does
not notice an employees OCB behaviors, it does not necessarily follow that the employee has
not performed these behaviors. Because OCBs can be performed by any member of the
organization and can be directed toward multiple targets, they are less likely to appear in some
systematic fashion. Helping a fellow employee, for example, is only helpful if the fellow
employee actually needs the help. It is unlikely that the fellow employee needs help on some
regularly occurring basis- in fact, when individuals judge coworkers to be consistently needy
they are actually less likely to help (Van der Vegt, Bunderson, & Oosterhof, 2006). In effect,
OCBs are more likely than task behaviors to be performed on an as-needed basis, which may or
may not catch the attention of the supervisor.
The extent to which OCB is visible to a supervisor for a given employee may then
depend on the frequency of interaction he or she has with that employee. Common sense tells us
that the more two individuals interact, the better the chance one will have an opportunity to
observe anothers behaviors, including those that are infrequent and situational. On the other
hand, as two individuals interact less frequently, the chances for accurate observation of non-
routine behaviors will decline exponentially. Thus a supervisors rating of OCB is more likely to
be determined, at least in part, by the extent to which he or she interacts with a given employee.
Researchers have used supervisors as the source in an effort to eliminate concern over
common-method bias (Organ et al., 2006). The concern is that employees rating their perceived
level of justice may similarly rate their levels of citizenship in order to reduce cognitive
dissonance. It has been noted that supervisor ratings of OCB may not be as reliable (e.g., Organ
et al., 2006), yet this may be a bigger issue than it appears on the surface. It is easy to see that
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supervisor ratings will not capture the full extent of an employees citizenship behaviors, but the
hidden bias is that they may be picking up some employees behaviors more than others, and this
may be systematically related to employees perceptions of justice. Aside from introducing error
into the outcome of interest, though (OCB ratings), differences in interaction frequency might
also influence employees perceptions of justice.
Over time, fairness has been operationalized in a variety of ways, but these have
typically contained some combination of two elements: the extent to which a person feels
respected as a valuable member of the group, and the extent to which a person is kept in the loop
and given a chance to speak up in procedural matters (Colquitt, 2001). An employee who
interacts more frequently with the supervisor may be more likely to hear explanations for the
supervisors decisions and be given a chance to respond. Further, this employee may feel more
respected and valued as a group member as a result of this increased interaction, assuming the
supervisor is not simply attempting to monitor or control the employees behavior. Frequency of
interaction, it seems, could be biasing both employees justice ratings and supervisors ratings
employees citizenship behaviors in the same direction. If this is the case, we have little reason to
trust the extant data supporting the social exchange perspective.
Rewards through Reciprocation vs. Rewards through Involvement
Skewed measurements of justice might also be leading OCB researchers to erroneously
attribute the mechanism of influence based on a flawed understanding of why justice really
matters. As Moorman, Niehoff, & Organ (1993) point out, procedural justice taps into
procedures that allow employees to exercise voice, which might intuitively be labeled under the
self-interest model rather than the relational or group value model (Lind & Taylor, 1988).
Yet a later finding by Lind and colleagues (1990) indicated that it was the procedure itself that
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invoked the fairness perceptions, not control over the outcome, leading to the conclusion that
procedural justice holds its primary value in indicating a persons worth within the group. That
is, according to these scholars procedural justice is important to people primarily because it
ensures they will not be taken advantage of, or because they value involvement in the group as
an end in itslf, rather than because they associate it with specific future rewards (Moorman et al.,
1993).
Cropanzano, Byrne, & Bobocel (2001) perhaps provide the most comprehensive discussion as to
why justice matters, outlining three key perspectives: instrumental, relational/group value, and
moral virtues. The instrumental approach, they explain, is a type of economic exchange, and is
based on the idea that people have a need for control, and fair situations offer greater control
over the long-term. This sense of control is not limited to outcomes, but can pertain to a sense of
control over theprocessin the form of voice. The relational approach, on the other hand, is based
on the idea that people need to feel a part of the group, and so to the extent that they are allowed
to do so, they will perceive that they are being treated fairly. The difference between the
instrumental and relational views, they explain, is the distinction between economic concerns
(instrumental) and social concerns (relational). Finally, the moral virtues approach is
conceptualized as a more general concern for the well-being of all people.
On the surface it would seem that the instrumental view captures economic exchange,
while the relational view captures social exchange, and therefore only the relational view would
be pertinent in the application of social exchange. A person who values justice primarily for the
sake of involvement in the process, or the satisfaction of the need for control might then tend to
develop greater trust and grow closer to leaders or organizations that allow them to become more
involved in the process. But then why would this person perform OCB? It is possible that the
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higher quality relationship developed then sparks a felt need to reciprocate in the form of
additional contributions to the organization or leader, and the trust that future contributions will
be recognized.
On the other hand, it seems possible that the person who desires involvement and even
perceives the opportunity for involvement as fair might also wish to be involved in activities
beyond those that are restricted specifically to his or her job. OCBs can offer a form of process
control because they offer greater discretion than do task behaviors (Organ et al., 2006). The
point here is that when process control serves as the major determinant or motivator of justice
perceptions, it could also provide the impetus for performing OCB. Research on OCB from the
social exchange perspective has typically not attempted to distinguish between participants
reasons for valuing fairness, and the motivation for performing OCB has typically been inferred
from theoretical arguments. If process control serves to both shape perceptions of fairness and
motivate discretionary behavior, then is the social exchange relationship (with a focus on the
perceived obligation to reciprocate) really explaining citizenship behavior?
While both the instrumental and group-value cases might be argued to fit within the realm of
social exchange (Organ et al., 2006), it is worth considering other possible benefits of this form
of justice such as the possibility that this sense of voice may be beneficial in its own right.
Research in Self-Determination Theory attests to the fact that it is not the perception of control
overoutcomesthat is what drives human behavior so much as it is the perception of choice in
initiatingbehavior (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Therefore in addition to securing future fair treatment,
having the freedom to speak out when needed might be rewarding to the extent that it satisfies
the basic need for autonomy, or ones perceived control over initiating behavior.
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OCB and Social Exchange 26
I point this out for two reasons. First, if the freedom to get involved in procedures can be
satisfying in its own right, then the freedom to perform OCBs might also be satisfying in its own
right. Second, if people care about this type of fairness because they see it as a basic human need
rather than a group benefit, they may be more likely to view it as part of the employers
obligation, rather than a benefit to be reciprocated or an indicator of status within the
organization.
Social Exchange vs. Economic Exchange
The value of contributing through OCB in the social exchange relationship is not
explicitly specified according to the perspective. This makes sense, as each employee will tend to
differ in the value he or she attaches to various outcomes. Social exchange does tell us there
should be some instrumental value attached to the action, at least to the extent that employees
engage in the exchange in the hopes of receiving benefits from the other party. But
instrumentality seems to carry different connotations for different researchers, with some
distinguishing between OCBs performed as a part of social exchange and OCBs performed for
instrumental reasons (e.g., Hui, Lam and Law, 2000). Expectations of reciprocation are
important to both social exchange and economic exchange (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005), it
seems that this reciprocation is just harder to pinpoint in social exchange: the obligation is
unspecified as to form, degree, or time of reciprocation (Organ et al., 2006, p. 72). In this
respect OCB is also instrumental from the social exchange perspective, but the expectations
around return are typically not made explicit. Indeed if an employee wishes to repay some
generosity from the supervisor, he or she might wait for the optimal time to do so, when help is
actually needed, rather than attempting to return the favor immediately. If the supervisor had
specified in advance the conditions for repayment, he or she may have been without help at the
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OCB and Social Exchange 27
crucial time. In the same way, the return employees reap from their citizenship behaviors may
take a variety of forms, but trust in the supervisor provides some confidence that the return will
be appropriate.
Does this mean that employees cannot have any image of the desired outcome? Hui and
colleagues (2000) found that some employees performed instrumentally in order to gain a
promotion. On the one hand, this might be considered social exchange, as benefits (OCBs) are
being given in the hopes of some future, technically unspecified (no guaranteed link between
OCB and promotion) return. But others might argue that this should not be considered social
exchange, as employees tended to attach a specific return value to the OCBs (promotion), and
discontinued the exchange once this value was received (they performed fewer OCBs after
promotion). A return in the form of promotion was not made explicit by the employer or the
employee at the time of helping- and the degree to which it was expected, as opposed to some
other reward form, is unclear.
It should be fairly obvious that returns are generally expected for good deeds that are
performed, but the link between actions and specific outcomes might be better described as
degrees along a continuum of expectation around contingency, rather than a presence of a
contingent reward versus an ambiguous exchange of rewards. As other scholars have pointed
out, this line can also become blurred by differing perspectives on what is considered part of the
job (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2004). This surfaces an important question that is not explicitly
addressed by the social exchange perspective: The nature of the exchange (social or economic) is
often difficult to distinguish, without knowledge of the underlying intents, values, and history
between the two sides. Further, the perspective of one side relies on the reactions of the other,
therefore exchange is unlikely to be accurately assessed at a single point in time.
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Re-evaluating the Reasons for the Social Exchange Framework
I have reviewed empirical evidence in terms of social exchange and discussed areas
where more research is needed. In this section I revisit the value of the social exchange
perspective at a higher level by examining the framework in terms of its original purpose (Organ,
1988; Organ et al., 2006): explaining the relationship between satisfaction (attitudes) and
performance beyond that caused by constraints such as the relative lack of flexibility around
changing the level of task behavior.
We now know that OCBs are often rewarded as a part of performance evaluations, and
linked to other individual career outcomes (Bergeron, 2007; Podsakoff et al., 2009). Even in the
absence of explicit linkages between OCB and tangible outcomes, role breadth can make
cognitive distinction between OCB and task behavior disappear. Given that the line between
OCBs and task behavior is becoming increasingly blurry (Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2004), we must
wonder whether there is truly any added flexibility around the performance of OCBs. Further,
the unspoken pressures around discretionary behavior might be more binding than overtly
imposed codes of conduct like formal descriptions of task behavior (Barker, 1993). One recent
study indicated that about 75% of the participants felt strong pressure to engage in OCB (Vigoda,
2007) and others have demonstrated the powerful role of workplace norms around OCB (Ehrhart
& Naumann, 2004). If the variance around timing and form of OCB performance comes from
real-time situational demands rather than an employees discretion, the social exchange
perspective is not applicable.
In addition to concerns about the volition involved in citizenship behavior, it is not clear
that the link between attitudes and performance in the form of OCB is any stronger than the link
between attitudes and task performance (Edwards, Bell, Arthur, Winfred, & Decuir, 2008). This
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OCB and Social Exchange 29
might tell us that social exchange is a less viable explanation for OCB performance, it might
reflect the problems associated with measurement of complex phenomena, or it might be
indicative of an separate set of constraints around changing performance of OCB according to
ones attitude. The first alternative creates serious doubts over the validity of the social exchange
perspective, the second creates doubts over extant findings, and the third tells us that social
exchange might not be important for the reasons originally proposed, but does not completely
rule out its validity.
Conclusion
In this paper I have tried to highlight some of the ways we can begin to examine the assumptions
underlying the social exchange approach. The purpose here is to both clarify research from the
social exchange perspective, and to spark inquiry into other possibilities. At the core of social
exchange is the understanding that in the absence of explicit rewards, humans give to others
because they expect some benefit in return. This explanation is somewhat vague, and in this way
it mirrors the perspective itself. The lack of clarity afforded by previous accounts makes it
difficult to compare results, answer questions, and refine theory, which is needed in order to
move forward in this area (Podsakoff et al., 2000). In order to determine more precise
measurements, strong, explicit theoretical guidance will need to be at the forefront. This is
fundamental to provide a common language and consensus for researchers to systematically
examine the constructs of interest and build upon each others work (Pfeffer, 1993).
In terms of application to OCB, researchers generally assume that it is not the specific
benefit employees are receiving that is critical nor the primary motive driving their action, but
rather it is the trust that reciprocation will prevail that is key. Yet without careful attention to the
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nature of expectations and motivations, we cannot rule out other explanations for the results we
find. Are humans acting selfishly, selflessly, or are they exponentially benefitting both the self
and the organization? Depending on the answer, we might intervene in slightly different ways
(e.g., decrease barriers rather than trying to change employee perceptions).
In conclusion, if we wish continue down the social exchange path, I would urge
researchers to carefully consider and systematically test the assumptions and alternatives raised
in this paper. On the other hand, given the small effect sizes and alternative explanations,
perhaps his time might be better spent pursuing other, more promising, alternatives.
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OCB and Social Exchange 31
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