The other side of the story: Reexamining prevailing assumptions about organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

This paper discusses the underlying assumptions of research on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It is argued here that previous studies have emphasized the positive features of organizational citizenship while generally overlooking the potentially negative aspects of such behaviors. In contrast to prior research, this paper suggests that (1) citizenship behaviors may result from self-serving motives; (2) citizenship behaviors may be unrelated, or even negatively related, to organizational functioning; and (3) citizenship behaviors may have negative consequences for employees. The implications of this alternative view of citizenship behavior for future theoretical and empirical research are discussed as well.