Introduce the article title, authors, year published, and provide a brief description of the study
The article under review is entitled Organizational citizenship behavior: The role of value/identity-based motivation. It was written by Wang, Howell, Hinrichs, and Prieto, and published in the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies in 2011. It is a quantitative empirical study that examines the relationship between employees’ value/identity-based motivation (VIM) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Wang, Howell, Hinrichs & Prieto, 2011, p. 14).
What is the main purpose of this article?
The main purpose of this study is to test the link between employees’ value/identity-based motivation and organizational citizenship behavior’s five dimensions while examining the impact of employees’ individualistic/collectivistic orientation (ICO) on this link. The authors intend to discover whether VIM can serve as a theoretical explanation of certain organizational behaviors in “weak situations” (Wang et al., 2011, p. 14).
What are the key questions that the authors are addressing?
The authors are addressing two main questions in their research. First, what is the relationship between VIM and conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue, courtesy, and altruism – the five dimensions of OCB? Secondly, does ICO have a moderating effect on the link between VIM and OCB (Wang et al., 2011, p. 17)?
What is the most important information in this article?
The importance of this study is that it relies on primary data empirically collected from two sources: employees and their supervisors. The authors used organizational behavior theory-grounded survey design to collect the data from a large sample of workers and supervisors in small firms in the Southwestern United States (Wang et al., 2011, pp. 17-18).
What are the main conclusions of this article?
Having analyzed their data, the authors discovered a strong relationship between four components of OCB (altruism, courtesy, sportsmanship, and civic virtue) and VIM, but no significant link between VIM and conscientiousness. ICO was not found to produce any moderating effect on the link between VIM and OCB (Wang et al., 2011, pp. 19-20).
What are the key concepts the authors refer to in this article?
Value/identity-based motivation, organizational citizenship behavior, and individualistic/collectivistic orientation are the three most important concepts in this article. VIM means that workers are often motivated by their internalized values and norms, as opposed to tangible rewards (Wang et al., 2011, p. 15). OCB is defined as “neither formally requested nor directly rewarded” workplace behavior that is useful to the organization (Wang et al., 2011, p. 14). Finally, ICO refers to the individual’s prioritization of collective over personal needs (Wang et al., 2011, p. 17).
What are the main underlying assumptions of the authors?
The main assumption is that humans tend to express their identities and feelings and maintain their self-esteem, self-worth, and self-concept even if they do not expect to receive any returns and rewards for such behavior (Wang et al., 2011, p. 15).
What are the implications of such a line of reasoning?
The main implication of such assumption is that even in situations where no behavior expectations exist and where people do not expect particular rewards for their performance, employees’ values and identity will motivate employees to exhibit OCB qualities.
What new research has been conducted on this topic?
The same authors have continued to investigate OCB in their 2013 study where they researched the link between the OCB dimensions and the organization’s distributive justice and supervisor support. Stoner, Perrewe, and Munyon attempted to develop a conceptual model that explains how employees’ identities impact their extra-role behaviors. Lastly, Arthaud-Day, Rode, and Turnley examined the role of individual values on OCB in teams.
What did you learn from the article?
After reading this article, I have gained new knowledge in the field of organizational behavior by understanding how individual personalities, values, and behaviors contribute to the organization’s performance by motivating the employees to engage in OCB.
What are three specific examples from the article that demonstrate the newly acquired knowledge?
Firstly, VIM is a significant predictor of employees’ engagement in OCB. Consequently, organizations should change their hiring process to address not only traditional job qualifications but also the extent to which employees are motivated by their values. Finally, OCB is increasingly important in contemporary organizations as they undergo the process of dejobbing, whereby the scope of employees’ responsibilities is significantly broadened (Wang et al., 2011, p. 21).
References
Wang, L., Howell, J.P., Hinrichs, K.T., & Prieto, L. (2011). Organizational citizenship behavior: The role of value/identity-based motivation. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 18(1), 14-24.