Strategies for coping with citizenship pressure: development of a context-specific scale

Abstract

ABSTRACT Accumulating empirical evidence suggests that citizenship pressure (CP) in the workplace, the pressure to engage involuntarily in citizenship behaviour, has a detrimental effect on both the individual employee and the organisation. Personal coping strategies for dealing with CP can alleviate the negative effects. The purpose of this study was to develop a context-specific, reliable, and valid measure that could assess specific coping strategies individuals use to deal with CP in the workplace. We conducted a comprehensive inductive and deductive methods that included, firstly, a qualitative procedure of interviews, data analysis, and initial scale generation, and secondly, a quantitative process of construct validation of the measure. The factor structure yielded a 16-item measure, based on EFA and CFA, providing initial support for the utility of the measure as a self-report instrument of coping strategies to deal with CP. The analysis revealed a two-factor structure that describes conceptually meaningful patterns of coping: self-reliance vs. reliance on others. The former depicts nine strategies in which employees solely rely on themselves when coping with CP; and the latter depicts seven strategies in which employees rely on others’ advice, support, or empathy to deal with CP. Applications, limitations, and implications for future research are discussed.