Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale
Also known as: OCB Scale, Williams & Anderson Scale
The Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale (OCBS) is a 16-item instrument measuring discretionary employee contributions beyond formal job requirements. Developed by Organ in 1988 and operationalized by Williams and Anderson in 1991, the OCBS assesses two dimensions: helping behaviors toward coworkers and support for the organization.
Key highlights
- Captures valuable employee behaviors beyond formal job requirements, often predictive of actual performance and organizational success
- Two-dimensional framework distinguishes between interpersonal citizenship and organizational citizenship, enabling targeted intervention
- Strong empirical evidence of relationship between OCB and organizational outcomes including profitability, customer satisfaction, and retention
- Relatively brief (16 items) while capturing important behavioral construct
Intuition
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How it works
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When to use it
The OCBS is valuable in organizational culture assessment, team effectiveness evaluation, retention risk prediction, and change initiative impact measurement. Use it to identify team dynamics and collaboration quality, assess organizational commitment, predict voluntary turnover, benchmark organizational effectiveness, and track culture improvement during organizational development initiatives.
Strengths & limitations
- Captures valuable employee behaviors beyond formal job requirements, often predictive of actual performance and organizational success
- Two-dimensional framework distinguishes between interpersonal citizenship and organizational citizenship, enabling targeted intervention
- Strong empirical evidence of relationship between OCB and organizational outcomes including profitability, customer satisfaction, and retention
- Relatively brief (16 items) while capturing important behavioral construct
- Self-report method subject to social desirability bias; respondents may overstate citizenship behaviors if they perceive evaluation
- Observer-report versions exist but are less commonly used; single-source assessment may inflate relationships with other variables
- High citizenship can reflect intrinsic values, but also may reflect job insecurity or fear of negative evaluation in punitive environments
- Culture context influences OCB interpretation; some collectivist cultures show higher baseline OCB independent of actual organizational health
Common pitfalls
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Applications
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Frequently asked
Can organizations rely on OCB to compensate for poor job design?
Temporarily, but not sustainably. Citizenship behaviors initially compensate for structural gaps; however, sustained reliance on OCB creates burnout and eventually degrades motivation. Job design should provide clear role boundaries; OCB should enhance rather than substitute for required performance.
How does OCB relate to job satisfaction and organizational commitment?
Research shows strong positive relationships: satisfied, committed employees demonstrate higher OCB. However, the relationship is not perfectly linear; some highly committed employees have low citizenship if they perceive unfair treatment, and some satisfied employees show low commitment if advancement prospects are limited.
Should citizenship behaviors be formally evaluated or should they remain discretionary?
Best practice distinguishes: recognize and appreciate citizenship informally; do not formally evaluate or mandate it. Formalizing citizenship converts voluntary behavior into performance expectation, fundamentally changing motivation and reducing the discretionary nature that makes citizenship valuable.
Sources
- 1.Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington Books.ISBN 978-0-669-16934-9
- 2.Williams, L. J., & Anderson, S. E. (1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors. Journal of Management, 17(3), 601-617.
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Cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 3). Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/organizational-behavior/organizational-citizenship-behavior