Discovering The Characteristics Of Organizational Citizenship Behavior
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Organizations can be compared to a small community composed of individuals having different personalities and interests. Organizational citizenship behavior is an aspect of work behavior by individual members of the organization. It is unique to certain individuals and their practice is not covered by the usual rewards system within organization. We may also call it voluntary actions of individual members of organizations and it is generally beneficial to the organization.
Organizational citizenship behavior can be understood by studying the individual attitudes of members of organization. Organizational effectiveness can be greatly enhanced if managers can harness this positive attitude. They must then concentrate these unique individual actions into a unified effort thus benefiting the organization in general. There are no known literature that discusses in-depth the phenomenon of organizational citizenship behavior. But the term was coined probably as a comparison to social systems that have good standing citizens doing individual positive actions for the benefit of society.
Managers must be on the look out for these individual displaying signs of organizational citizenship behavior. They must reward the individual for the extra effort that they give to the organization. It is not clear however if this behavior can change if due recognition is given to these individuals. Organizational psychologist does not have complete study with regards to this phenomenon. Of late, there are discoveries that there are two types of organizational citizenship behavior. The first and the dominant practice is the one we discussed earlier. It is a manifestation of good individual behavior, unique only to certain individuals and their actions are generally beneficial to organizations.
The second and the most recent discovery on the type of organizational citizenship behavior is the passive variety. This kind of behavior avoids excessively any actions that may bring harm to the organization. This should be good but the resulting action of individuals displaying this kind of behavior is lack of initiative. Because these individuals are averse in committing mistake, they maintain their work at the minimum thereby avoiding innovation and possible mistakes. In a way this could be a harmless behavior. However, lack of initiative can also be harmful to organizations. The long term effect of this is low productivity and weak motivation to excel more in their work.
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More studies should be done in analyzing organizational citizenship behavior. Lack of literature on this behavior can lead to some misunderstanding and organizations will not fully comprehend the issue. It should be recommended that organizational behavior scientist conduct an in-depth study of this kind of behavior. Organizational citizenship behavior can be very useful for organizations only if managers can truly grasp its essence and characteristics. Some pitfalls can be averted if managers can effectively address this issue.
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