Topic: Job Performance, Citizenship Behavior
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology
Article: A Moderated Mediation Model of the Relationship Between Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Job Performance
Authors: Ozer, M.
Reviewed by: Neil Morelli
What do employers ultimately care about when considering employee behavior? Performance. Understanding organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) have been an important part of understanding job performance. OCBs are defined as actions employees take to go “above and beyond” their regular job to help meet the needs of coworkers and company.
In an effort to continue building the theoretical bridge between OCBs and performance, Ozer (2011) discovered that the quality of coworker relationships (called team member exchange; TMX) mediates the OCB to performance relationship, but only for OCBs directed toward individuals like providing encouragement, extra help, or advice. Because this relationship depends on the amount of leeway an employee has to engage in these relationships, Ozer also discovered that task autonomy moderated the OCB to TMX to performance relationships.
How do discovering mediators and moderators benefit organizations? A steady bridge to increased performance can be built when we use findings like these together. Understanding how individual differences, social interactions and environmental conditions form the planks in our theoretical bridge is the only way to cross the ravine of poor performance.
Ozer, M. (2011). A moderated mediation model of the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviors and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0023644