Managerial ratings of in-role behaviors, organizational citizenship behaviors, and overall performance: testing different models of their relationship

Abstract

Recent writings by Borman and Motowidlo [Borman WC, Motowidlo SJ. Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. In: Schmitt N, Borman WC, editors. Personnel Seclection in Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. pp. 71–98], Organ [Organ DW, Organizational citizenship behavior: it's construct clean-up time. Hum Perform 1997; 10: 85–97], and others have sought to clarify or reposition organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as an element of a broadened definition of employee performance. We utilized confirmatory factor analysis to test several of the assumptions behind this new direction for OCB research. First, in support of prior research, we found that in-role behaviors (IRBs) and two dimensions of OCB (altruism and conscientiousness) were empirically distinct. Next, we found that overall performance ratings were predicted by ratings given concerning IRB and altruism, though not by ratings of the OCB dimension of conscientiousness. Third, a second-order factor analysis that specified four first-order factors loading on one general factor of performance was found to be consistent with the data. This is presented as support for including OCB dimensions within current definitions of employee performance. Finally, to address possible halo in the data, a second causal model was evaluated, where overall performance was viewed as causally prior to the other three measures. Implications are discussed.