The potential paradox of organizational citizenship behavior: Good citizens at what cost?

Abstract

Using a resource allocation framework, I propose that the time individuals allocate to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) may come at the expense of task performance. Because most reward systems favor task performance, individuals may unintentionally hurt their careers by helping the organization. The question then becomes how individuals can engage in OCB and still have positive career outcomes. I explore a number of organizational, situational, and individual variables that may moderate this relationship and suggest implications and future research directions.