Core job characteristics and change oriented organization citizenship behavior: what can managers do on a day-to-day basis?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the dynamic relationship between daily job characteristics proposed by job characteristics theory (job autonomy, task variety, significance, identity, and feedback) and change oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB-CH). A daily diary survey study design was used, in which 61 employees working in different organizations in Greece, completed a structured questionnaire for five consecutive working days (N = 305 occasions). Results from multilevel regression analysis supported the role of daily job autonomy, daily task significance and daily job feedback as within-person positive correlates of OCB-CH. Our model explained 17.72% of the variance in OCB-CH ratings. The study highlights the importance of core job characteristics, for the execution of daily OCB-CH in organizations. However not all job characteristics are suitable for promoting the execution of daily OCB-CH. Managers can enhance their employees’ daily OCB-CH by interventions aiming at increasing daily task variety, and task significance along with the degree of daily job autonomy granted to employees.