Soldier or actor?

Abstract

Purpose Though widely studied, organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is yet to emerge as a thoroughly understood concept. For instance, citizenship behaviours emanating from self-serving motives remain largely unexplored. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of psychological ownership in differentiating individuals with genuine motives (“soldiers”) from those with self-serving motives (“actors”). Design/methodology/approach The study defines and operationalises genuineness of OCBs by comparing self-rated and others-rated citizenship behaviours. It is hypothesised that psychological ownership is positively associated with citizenship behaviour, and this relationship is positively moderated by degree of genuineness. All the hypothesised relationships are tested on the basis of empirical evidence produced by a two-wave study on a cross-hierarchical matched sample (n = 338) in a large Indian IT MNC. Findings A strong positive relationship between psychological ownership and citizenship behaviour was observed. A positive moderation by genuineness was also found suggesting that relationship between psychological ownership and citizenship behaviour became stronger with higher genuineness. In a nutshell, the results indicated that soldiers and actors could be differentiated on the basis of their relative scores on psychological ownership. Originality/value Apart from theoretical contributions, the present study offers a headway to managers in identifying employees who engage in citizenship behaviour out of genuine motives toward their organisation. As citizenship behaviours increasingly find prominence in employees’ self-appraisal, this differentiation assumes importance in promoting workplace fairness.