Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Social valorization among pupils and the effect on teachers’ judgments

Abstract

In this article, the concept of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is transposed from a work context, in which it was developed, to secondary school. Two studies test the assumption of a social valorization of OCB declaration in a school context. In Study 1, 445 pupils (sixth-graders to ninth-graders) answered an OCB questionnaire, specifically designed for this population, according to the three instructions of the self-presentation paradigm. The ANOVAs indicated (1) a higher frequency of declared OCBs for girls than for boys, which decreases with school grade, and is higher for the dimension of Organizational Compliance, and (2) a significant OCB clearsightedness, more significant when presenting oneself to teachers than to parents and peers, and higher for Individual Development, Altruism and Organizational Compliance dimensions. In Study 2, 46 teachers examined the report of a fictitious pupil expressing a high or low frequency of OCB (judge paradigm). The ANOVAs indicated that the teachers’ judgement was more favorable towards the pupil expressing high rather than low frequency of OCB. The normative component of OCB, the social and institutional function which the OCB can fulfill, and the evaluation devices in secondary school are then discussed.