On the Trade-Off Between Task Performance and OCB: How Supervisors May Maintain the Social Fabric

Abstract

In a sample of 203 sales employees, the present study examines the relationship between two distinct types of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and task performance by means of a time-lagged research design. Results show that taking charge, a relatively more challenging type of OCB, was detrimental to sales performance, while this direct trade-off was not found for helping behavior, an affiliative type of OCB. In addition, in line with the study hypotheses, distinct leader expectations and behaviors moderated the relationship between each OCB type and sales performance. More specifically, perceived leader creativity expectations, signalling support for challenging OCBs, buffered the negative impact of taking charge on sales performance. Likewise, transformational leadership, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts, allowed for a positive impact of helping on sales performance. Overall, this study sheds light on the trade-off between OCB and task performance for different OCB types and elucidates how leader expectations and behaviors may buffer this trade-off .