Topic: Citizenship Behavior, Work-Life Balance
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior (AUG 2010)
Article: Citizenship under pressure: What’s a good soldier to do?
Author: M. C. Bolino, W. H. Turnley, J. B. Gilstrap, & M. M. Sauzo
Reviewed by: Sarah Teague
Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are defined as voluntary behaviors that facilitate organizational functioning but are not formally rewarded by the organization. The presence of these behaviors has consistently been shown to benefit both individual and organizational outcomes. In recent years, however, the accuracy of this definition has come into question as the degree to which employees engage in OCBs (or don’t) may actually be impacting the way they are evaluated by the organization. In the midst of the field’s infatuation with the impact of good deeds, the potentially dark side of OCBs has been largely neglected – a state of affairs that Bolino and colleagues intended to correct.
The authors of the current study suggest that increased expectations for employee involvement with the organization outside of work, along with the impact it may have on performance evaluations, has led to what they call citizenship pressure. Citizenship pressure refers to “a specific job demand in which an employee feels pressured to perform OCBs, and it is conceptualized as distinct from related topics such as role overload and OCB norms. The authors suggested that citizenship pressure would be positively related to OCBs but also to work-family conflict (i.e. work demands interfering with family), work-leisure conflict (i.e. work demands interfering with general personal time away from work), job stress, and intentions to quit.
