Predicting Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Role of Work-Related Self

Abstract

The aim was to investigate the links between work-related identification, conceptualized, and operationalized as the work-related self (WS), and the “good soldier syndrome” (organizational citizenship behavior [OCB]). More precisely, we investigated the relationships between emotional and cognitive components of WS and OCB dimensions of altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy, civic virtue, and sportsmanship. A total of 147 subjects working within the Swedish public sector participated in this study. As hypothesized, WS significantly predicted OCB. A positive association was found between the emotional component of WS and OCB dimensions of altruism, conscientiousness, and civic virtue. This suggests that the “good soldier syndrome” might be, to some extent, accounted for by the psychological mechanisms of work bonding, especially, highlighting the importance of the emotional component of work-related identification.