In government organisations, some employees are extremely committed beyond expectations. They put in more than stipulated hours, do not utilise their legitimate leaves and work on holidays without claiming for extra monetary benefits.
What makes them perform this way is their different attitude towards work and certain personal quality. Such behaviour is called Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) that benefits organisations in various ways.
Importance of OCB
OCBs are vital for productivity because organisations cannot forecast through stated job descriptions the entire spectrum of subordinate behaviour needed for achieving goals. To understand how people contribute to organisations, we have to understand not just how they can do their tasks more effectively, but also what they contribute to the overall character of organisation, the value-added ‘surplus’ by which the whole exceeds the sum of its parts. Citizenship researchers argue that OCBs are critical to organisational functioning (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ, 1988).
Consequences of OCB
Research indicated that OCBs contribute to organisational success by enhancing co-worker and managerial productivity, helping to coordinate activities both within and across work groups; strengthening organisation’s ability to attract and retain the best employees; increasing the stability of the organisation’s performance etc.
OCBs are ‘individual behaviour’ that are discretionary not directly or explicitly recognised by the formal reward system, and in aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organisation which are extra-role behaviour. Such behaviour is vital for public sector, and non-profit organisations, since there is no mechanism for rewarding such behaviour.
Hence, in the interest of organisations, recruiters in PSUs and government firms should select candidates who have good individual characteristics. They should take help of personality tests to examine personality traits coupled with excercising utmost care at the time of selection for achieving the said cause.
Acknowledgements
Organ, Podsokoff, Ryan, Eisenberger, Fasola, Moorman, Kelly, McCullough, Emmons and others.
