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The Development Of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

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Katz (1964) proposed that for an organization to operate successfully, employees must be willing to do more than the minimal performance and specific technical aspects of their job (Rioux & Penner, 2001). Out of this comes the development of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). OCB represents “individual behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognised by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization” (Organ 1988, p. 4). The study of OCB has become increasingly important as the prevalence, importance, and costs of counterproductive, or deviant, behaviour in the workplace have been increasingly recognised (Lee & Allen, 2002). Theoretically, OCBs are of interest because they cannot be explained by the same mechanisms as those motivations that encourage people to perform within formal role requirements (Smith, Organ & Near, 1983). OCB’s are not easy enforced by the possibility of punishment, as they are discretionary behaviours that are beyond in-role requirements (Smith et al. 1983). The recognition of the costs of deviant workplace behaviour, and the intrigue behind determining what motivates OCB warrant the ever-increasing studies in this field. Research has shown there are multiple determinants of OCB, not all of which will be discussed here. This paper attempts to synthesize the research on OCB only in relation to the predictor of job satisfaction, looking at whether job

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