Disentangling Role Perceptions How Perceived Role Breadth, Discretion, Instrumentality, and Efficacy Relate to Helping and Taking Charge

• Published in: Journal of applied psychology Vol. 92; no. 5; pp. 1200 - 1211
• Main Authors: McAllister, Daniel J, Kamdar, Dishan, Morrison, Elizabeth Wolfe, Turban, Daniel B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-09-2007
• Subjects: Adult; Assistance (Social Behavior); Behavioural psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Citizenship; Correlation analysis; Employees; Female; Forecasts; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Helping Behavior; Helping behaviour; Human; Humans; India; Leadership; Male; Management; Miscellaneous; Occupational psychology; Organization; Organizational Behavior; Organizational citizenship behaviour; Perception; Perceptions; Procedural Justice; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Role; Role concept; Role Perception; Roles; Self Efficacy; Social Perception; Social roles; Studies; Asia; India; taking charge; OCB role definitions; helping; Human; Engineer; Social perception; Occupational role; Organizational citizenship behavior
• ISSN: 0021-9010; 1939-1854
• DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.92.5.1200

The objective of this study was to empirically disentangle role perceptions related to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) that have been confounded in past research, investigate their unique relationships with both an affiliative (helping) and a challenging (taking charge) form of OCB, and determine their relative importance in explaining these 2 forms of OCB. The authors also examined whether role discretion and role breadth independently moderate the procedural justice-to-OCB relationship. The authors surveyed 225 engineers in India and their direct supervisors. The results showed that 3 of the 4 facets of OCB role perception explain unique variance in either helping or taking charge, and that role breadth moderates the relationships between procedural justice and both helping and taking charge. The authors discuss implications of these findings for OCB theory and research, as well as for managerial practice.