Two Sides of the Same Coin: Harmful or Helpful? A Critical Review of the Consequences of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Published)
This paper critically examines the literature on the consequences of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). More specifically it explores and summarizes the helpful and harmful effect of OCB identified in the literature. Based on the theoretical and empirical literature review the author developed a framework for understanding consequences of OCB research. Framework identifies four areas of emphasis of OCB consequences; the organizational level positive consequences, organizational level negative consequences, individual level positive consequences, and individual level negative consequences. For each emphasis area the paper discusses the theoretical frameworks used, different arguments by various scholars and summarizes the empirical research results. Although the review has found few negative outcomes of OCB, positive outcome seems to be very significance. Therefore, negative outcomes seem to be offset by positive ones. Study suggests that reducing in engagement in OCBs is not advisable, future research should focus in findings ways to reduce the negative outcomes while increasing engagement of OCBs. HR practitioners also can bring their consideration to deal with the negative effects of OCBs at workplace. The paper concludes with a discussion of emerging issues, new research directions, and practical implications of OCB consequences research. This review highlighted that although there is a growing multidisciplinary literature on OCB, much remains to be studied.
Keywords: Consequences, Future Directions, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Review