The Journal of Social Psychology

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Altruistic Organizational Citizenship Behavior:

Context, Disposition, and Age

Sharon L. Wagner & Michael C. Rush

To cite this article: Sharon L. Wagner & Michael C. Rush (2000) Altruistic Organizational
Citizenship Behavior: Context, Disposition, and Age, The Journal of Social Psychology, 140:3,
379-391, DOI: 10.1080/00224540009600478

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 The Journal of Social Psvcholopv, 2000. 140(3).379-391

Altruistic Organizational Citizenship

Behavior: Context, Disposition, and Age
SHARON L. WAGNER
Department of Psychology
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro
MICHAEL C. RUSH
Department of Management
The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

ABSTRACT. The authors proposed employee age as moderating the structural stability of
altruistic organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) with regard to the influence of context-
relevant attitudes and dispositional variables. Analyses of peer ratings of altruistic OCB in a
sample of 96 U.S. nurses showed that the contextual variables of job satisfaction, organiza-
tional commitment, and trust in management were germane for the younger participants.
The dispositional variable of moral judgment was a unique predictor of altruistic OCB
among the older participants.

ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR has been characterized as

constructive and cooperative extrarole gestures that are neither mandatory nor
directly compensated by a formal organizational reward system (Organ, 1988,
1990). In addition, such behaviors have been described as having an accumula-
tive positive effect on organizational functioning (Organ, 1988, 1990). In an era
when organizational survival depends on gaining every competitive edge, the
study of these beneficial extrarole contributions is particularly relevant. The
focus of the present study was on one well-accepted extrarole dimension of orga-
nizational citizenship behavior (OCB): altruism (Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983).
Previous research has identified both contextual and dispositional variables asso-
ciated with the expression of OCB in general and of altruistic OCB in particular.

Portions of this article were presented ar the 1992 annual meeting of the Academy of Man-
agement,August 9-12. Lm Vegas, Nevada.
Address correspondence to Sharon L. Wagner; Golden Gate University,Department
of Psychology, 536 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-2968; [email protected]
(e-mail).

319
380 The Journal uf Sucial Psychology

Antecedent Variables Associated With OCB

OCB researchers have investigated context-relevant attitudes such as job sat-

isfaction, pay satisfaction, trust in management and peers, and organizational
commitment as antecedents of OCB in U.S. populations (O’Reilly & Chatman,
1986; Organ, 1988, 1990; Puffer, 1987; Smith et al., 1983; Williams & Ander-
son, 1991). Of these attitudes, job satisfaction has, perhaps, been most consis-
tently associated with OCB. Organ (1988, 1990) has argued for and provided
empirical evidence (Organ & Konovsky, 1989) supporting a particular explana-
tion of the satisfaction-OCB relationship. According to this view, expressions of
satisfaction reflect cognitive appraisals of the fairness or equity of the social
exchange (treatment) that the employee enjoys with the organization. This con-
cept of social exchange has been extended to include employees’ perceptions of
interactional justice (Moorman, 1991) and procedural justice (Niehoff & Moor-
man, 1993). Also, Farh, Podsakoff, and Organ (1990) have provided evidence
that satisfaction, rather than mediating the link between leader fairness and OCB,
may be a by-product of leader fairness. The collective implication of these find-
ings is that the rendering or withholding of OCB represents a deliberate, con-
trolled, and instrumental act rather than a type of expressive and emotional act
(Organ, 1990; Organ & Konovsky, 1989).
In apparent contradiction to the perspective that antecedents of OCB lie in
cognitive appraisals of the fairness of one’s work situation, other evidence
points to dispositional correlates of OCB. Smith et al. (1983) found a relation-
ship between neuroticism and the altruism dimension of OCB mediated by sat-
isfaction. Puffer (1987) found that a combined variable of compliance and altru-
ism was related to need achievement, as well as to satisfaction with rewards and
to a perceived lack of peer competition. In addition, the results of one study sup-
port the notion that OCB is related to composites of personality traits (Westber-
ry, 1996).
Research in social psychology supports the idea that altruism may be pre-
dicted by personality or dispositional variables as well as by early learning expe-
riences and social considerations (Eisenberg, 199 l; Krebs, 1970; Rushton, 1980;
Vitz, 1990). There is substantial meta-analytic support for the position that altru-
istic behaviors are motivated by both the ability for perspective taking and the
influence of internalized moral principles (Eisenberg, 1991). Perspective taking
is a sociocognitive skill, similar to the characteristics of high self-monitors, con-
cerned with sensitivity to the expression and self-presentation of others in social
situations (Snyder, 1979). Furthermore, Staub (1978) has advanced the concept
of the prosocial moral orientation, or the predisposition to engage in altruistic
acts. This orientation is thought to be composed of a positive evaluation of
human beings, a concern for the welfare of others, and a feeling of personal
responsibility for others. The preceding three components have been associated
with higher levels of moral development (Rest, 1979).
 Wagner & Rush 381

At first glance, it may appear difficult to reconcile the seemingly contradic-

tory findings regarding the contextual and dispositional antecedents of OCB.
However, the findings may become more interpretable after an examination of
the structural stability of the relationships between these antecedent variables and
altruistic OCB. Structural stability, as defined in differential and developmental
psychology, refers to the persistence of correlational patterns among a set of vari-
ables across time (Caspi & Bem, 1990). Accordingly, structural instability may
suggest a manifest change or transformation within the system of variables gov-
erning the phenomenon of interest. Age-dependent relationships among mental-
test items in infancy and early childhood point to important qualitative changes
in the nature of intelligence and cognitive development (Caspi & Bem, 1990).
Similarly, age-dependent relationships for OCB may signify important changes
in the motivational bases or antecedent variables associated with OCB across the
productive life span of employees. In the present study, we advanced and tested
the notion that employee age is a potentially important variable moderating the
structural stability of altruistic OCB.

Age and Altruistic OCB

Although one of the most reliable predictors of OCB is job satisfaction

(Organ, 1988, 1990) and there is a reliable, positive age-satisfaction relationship
(Doering, Rhodes, & Schuster, 1983; Kacmar & Ferris, 1989), available evidence
among U.S. samples (Organ & Konovsky, 1989; Smith et al., 1983) shows age to
be completely unrelated to altruism. However, rather than expecting a main effect
for age, it may be more reasonable to view age as a moderator of the relation-
ships between altruistic OCB and its antecedents. This perspective would allow
for the possibility of little difference between younger and older employees in the
frequency of altruistic OCB but would imply that the bases for choosing to
engage in the behavior may be different for the two groups.
The proposition that younger and older workers may view work and self in
fundamentally different ways is not new. Life-career-stage models (Hall, 1976;
Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson, & McKee, 1978) suggest that the early years
(20-34) are years of establishment and settling down (e.g., establishing a niche
and “making it” so that progress can be monitored by self and others); later years
( 3 5 4 5 ) are associated with a stronger sense of self and location vis-h-vis life and
work. Kegan’s (1982) work with different stages of adult development suggest-
ed different interpersonal orientations for younger and older adults: Older adults
tend to operate in terms of internal standards of meeting mutual and moral oblig-
ations; by contrast, younger adults tend to coordinate their needs with those of
other individuals in a more transactional manner (Kanungo & Conger, 1993).
Empirical evidence also may suggest that older workers tend to have lower needs
for achievement and higher needs for affiliation than do younger workers (Doer-
ing et al., 1983).
382 The J o u m l of Sociul Psychology

Therefore, younger and older workers may differ in their orientations toward
self, others, and work. These differences may lead to different salient motives for
altruistic OCB among younger and older employees. We posited that younger
individuals may be influenced by a norm of reciprocity (Kanungo & Conger,
1993) that is transactional and requires a fair exchange in return for assistance.
Our expectation was consistent with Organ’s (1988, 1990) view of OCB as a
deliberate, instrumental act. That view does not rule out the possibility that dis-
positional variables may also be predictive for younger workers, but it maintains
that younger employees’ concerns about fairness would be preeminent. Accord-
ingly, context-relevant attitudes reflecting the impact of cognitive appraisals of
fairness would be most predictive of altruistic behavior for younger workers.
In contrast, because older adults have been characterized as less concerned
with reciprocal fairness than are younger adults (Kegan, 1982; Loevinger, 1976),
the work environment of the older employee may be viewed as a “weak situa-
tion” in which the influence of dispositional variables on altruistic OCB may be
more pronounced than in a “strong situation” in which there are constraints on
behavioral choice (Caspi & Bem, 1990). Altruistic OCB for older employees
may, thus, result from a socially responsible norm of benevolence (Kanungo &
Conger, 1993) that embodies a prosocial moral orientation and a belief in the
moral imperative of helping others without regard to future personal benefit.

Hypotheses

In the present study, we tested the proposition that age qualifies (moderates)
the structural stability of altruistic OCB with regard to the influence of attitudi-
nal and dispositional variables. Specifically, we expected that age would nega-
tively moderate the influence of context-relevant attitudes and positively moder-
ate the influence of dispositional variables on altruistic OCB. Hypothesis 1 is
based on the presumption that the choice to behave altruistically among younger
adults is governed by a norm of reciprocity and by a belief that satisfaction, com-
mitment, and trust reflect the influence of cognitive appraisals of fairness.
Hypothesis 2 follows From the presumption that, among older adults, disposi-
tional variables (i.e., moral development and self-monitoring) are strongly relat-
ed to the expression of altruistic OCB as a result of an influential norm of benev-
olence. In accordance with the research on life-career-stage models (Hall, 1976;
Levinson et al., 1978), we defined younger employees as those less than 35 years
and older employees as those 35 years or older.
Hypothesis I : The context-relevant attitudes of job satisfaction, pay satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and trust in peers and management are positively asso-
ciated with altruistic OCB for employees younger than 35 years of age.
Hypothesis 2: Altruistic OCB in older workers (35 years or older) is positively
associated with the dispositional variables of self-monitoring and moral judgment.
 Wagner & Rush 383

Method
Participants and Procedure

We drew the participants from the nursing staffs of two privately owned
hospitals in a metropolitan area of the southeastern United States. We sampled
a service-oriented profession to ensure that at least a minimum level of altruism
would be observed. At each hospital, one of the investigators met with nurse
supervisors to obtain support and explain the purpose and procedure for the
study. The supervisors were given surveys to be distributed to each of their sub-
ordinates. A cover letter explaining the purpose of the study and requesting vol-
untary participation accompanied each survey. Part 1 of the survey presented a
definition and an example of altruistic behavior paraphrased from Organ (1988),
followed by a request that the respondents identify three co-workers (excluding
supervisors and subordinates) whose work behavior they had ample opportuni-
ty to observe. They were then asked to rate the characteristic level of altruistic
behavior for each of the co-workers. In Part 2 of the survey, the participants
were asked first to focus on their own feelings and attitudes and then to com-
plete several self-report measures of disposition and context-relevant attitudes.
Completed, sealed surveys were returned directly to the investigators via the
inhouse mail systems.
We used this procedure to obtain behavioral peer ratings of the participants’
characteristic levels of altruistic behavior, independent of separate self-report
measures of dispositions and attitudes. The procedure involved risks, however, in
terms of collecting a comprehensive data set. In total, 185 surveys (25%) were
returned. From these, it was possible to identify and collate peer ratings with self-
report measures for 96 of the participants. The 96 participants, 89% of whom
were women, ranged in age from 21 to 64 years (M= 36.12, SD = 8.36), with an
average job tenure and organizational tenure of 3.98 (SD = 4.61) and 6.95 years
(SD = 6. lo), respectively.

Measures

Altruistic behavim The criterion measure contained 1 1 behavioral statements, 7

of which were taken from the empirical Altruism factor identified by Smith et al.
(1983). Inspection of the items constituting the empirical factor indicated that the
behaviors vary in the extent to which they benefit peers or supervisors. We
included 4 additional items to explore in more detail the various types of benefi-
ciaries, as has been done in other investigations of OCB (e.g., Williams &
Anderson, 1991). Of the additional items, 1 was oriented to behavior toward
peers (“shares tips for performing job more effectively”), 1 to behavior toward
the supervisor (“keeps supervisor informed of potential problems”), and 2 to
behavior toward individuals outside the immediate department (“courteous and
384 The Journul of Social Psychology

considerate to clients-customers-patients”). Each item was rated on a Likert-

type scale ranging from 1 (highly uncharacteristic) to 5 (highly characteristic).
The proportion of peer ratings matched with the participants’ disposition-attitude
data ranged from 63.5% of the participants for the rating 1 to 1% of the partici-
pants for the rating 5 . We derived an overall peer rating of altruistic behavior for
each participant by calculating an average of the mean peer item ratings. We esti-
mated the interrater (based on two raters) reliability of the peer ratings to be .64.
We estimated the internal consistency of the overall measure of altruistic behav-
ior by coefficient alpha as .92.

Dispositions. We used a two-story version (“Heinz” and “Newspaper”) of the

Defining Issues Test (DIT; Rest, 1979) to assess each participant’s level of
moral judgment. We used a measure developed by Lennox and Wolfe (1984) to
assess a disposition toward self-monitoring. The DIT is an objectively scored
measure based on Kohlberg’s (1958) theory of moral development. Participants
are asked to read a short story concerning a moral dilemma and then to indi-
cate the relative importance of 12 issue statements regarding resolution of the
dilemma. The statements include some that are prototypic of each of
Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development. We used the “D’ score, or prefer-
ence for principled reasoning (Rest, 1979), to index each participant’s level of
moral development.
The measures of self-monitoring in the present study were obtained by
having the participants rate themselves on items from Lennox and Wolfe’s
(1984) subscales, Ability to Modify and Sensitivity to Others, by Likert-type
scales ( 1 = strongly agree, 5 = strongly disagree). Self-monitoring refers to the
extent to which participants are sensitive to the cues of others and can adjust
their behavior accordingly. Coefficient alphas for the subscales were .91 and
.87, respectively.

Context-relevant attitudes. The context-relevant attitudes were trust in man-

agement and peers, organizational commitment, pay satisfaction, and overall
job satisfaction. All items were rated on Likert-type response scales ( 1 =
strongly agree, 5 = strongly disagree). We used items from the Interpersonal
Trust at Work Scale (Cook & Wall, 1980) to assess the participants’ trust in
peers and trust in management. We measured organizational commitment with
the short form of the questionnaire developed by Porter and Smith (1970), pay
satisfaction with the 2-item subscale from the Job Diagnostic Survey
(Hackman & Oldham, 1975), and overall job satisfaction with the average
response to the items “I love my job” and “Generally speaking, I am very sat-
isfied with my job.” Coefficient alphas for these measures ranged from a low
of .67 for trust in peers to a high of .87 for trust in management and organiza-
tional commitment.
 Wagner & Rush 385

Results

Preliminary analyses regarding mean levels and intercorrelations of the cri-

terion and predictors revealed low but significant (p< .OS) relationships between
peer ratings of altruistic behavior and the modifiable aspects of self-monitoring
( r = .22), overall job satisfaction ( r = .28), and organizational commitment ( r =
.22). Excluding the effect for self-monitoring, these findings are largely in accord
with previous findings (Smith et al., 1983). Also in accord with previous research
was the finding that age was unrelated to levels of altruism ( r = -.03). Trust in
management, trust in peers, pay satisfaction, moral development, and tenure
(rs = .17, .08, -.03, .01, .08, respectively) were also unrelated to peer assess-
ments of altruism. The analyses also revealed low, but consistent, significant dif-
ferences between hospitals in average level of altruistic behavior ( r = -.26), trust
in management ( r = -.38), and pay satisfaction ( r = -.21).
Although regression analyses with tests for the anticipated interactions are
appropriate for assessing the moderating effect of age, subgroup analyses are
also useful to identify and illustrate that effect (Stone & Hollenbeck, 1984).
Accordingly, as a first step, we conducted analyses separately for the participants
younger than 35 years (M = 29.01, SD = 2.70) and for those 35 years and older
( M = 42.35, SD = 7.15). We normalized all variables within the hospital before
computing correlations, to control for the potential confound (attributable to dif-
ferences between hospitals) on the criterion and a number of predictors. Also, for
exploratory purposes, we computed separate subscales for altruism toward peers,
toward the supervisor, and toward outsiders, to explore effects with regard to dif-
ferent beneficiaries (Williams & Anderson, 1991).
The results of the correlational analyses (Table I ) appear to support Hypoth-
esis I-that the antecedents of altruistic organizational behavior among younger
employees are different from the antecedents among older employees. Altruistic
behavior among the younger employees was significantly ( p < .05)related to
trust in management ( r = ,31), job satisfaction ( r = .47), and organizational
commitment ( r = .40). In addition, the results regarding specific beneficiaries of
altruism indicated that those variables were particularly relevant for altruism
toward the supervisor. Peer-oriented altruism was related primarily to job satis-
faction; altruism toward outsiders was positively related to job satisfaction and
organizational commitment and negatively related to moral judgment.
The results for older employees were considerably different. Among those
employees, altruistic behavior was significantly (I, < .OS) and positively related to
the modifiable dimension of self-monitoring ( r = .35) and to moral judgment ( r =
.32) and negatively related to pay satisfaction ( r = -.3 1). Again, these variables were
found to be particularly relevant for altruism toward the supervisor. Peer-oriented
altruism, by comparison, was significantly related to self-monitoring and marginal-
ly related to moral judgment. Among the older employees, altruism toward out-
siders was not related to any of the variables considered in the present study.
 W
m

TABLE 1
CorrelationsAmong Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Dispositional Variables, and Situational Variables Among Younger and
Older Employees

ScaldSubscale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. Altruism - .83** .82**

.78** .35** -.08 -.11 .03 .08 -.31* .02 .32*
2. Peer .89** - .60** .28*
.54** -. 02 -.19 -.06 .03 -.18 -.07 .27
3. Supervisor .84** .68** - .55** .32* -.I4 -.06 .01 .02 -.39** -.04 .29*
4. Others .85** .70** .59** - .16 -.a4 .06 .03 .19 -.I8 .05 .14
5. Ability to Modify .20 .24 .I2 .I4 - .a4 -.17 .ll -.14 -.20 .02 .05
6. Sensitivity to Others -.08 -.I I -.07 .02 .09 - -.05 .11 .01 .04 .15 .30*
7. Trust in Management .31* .20 .38* .27 .47** .a4 - .01 .53** .43** .62** .03
8. Trust in Peers .I3 .02 .03 .I3 .07 .05 -.03 - -.07 .04 .18 -.10
9. Job Satisfaction .47** .36** .32* .53** -.03 -.12 .16 .09 - .48** .69** .a4
10. Pay Satisfaction .09 .01 .I5 .15 -.02 -.09 .25 .I9 .27 - a**-.09
1 1. Commitment .40** .17 .44** .35* .27 .03 .53** .17 .41** .47** - .01
12. Moral Judgment -.23 -.20 -.29 -.35* .I0 -.I7 -.27 .02 -.a4 -.03 -.16 -
~~ ~

Note. Intercorrelations of normalized scores for younger ( n = 45) and older ( n = 51) employees are below and above the diagonal, respectively.
*p < .05. **p < .01.
 Wagner & Rush 387

TABLE 2
Hierarchical RegressionAnalyses for Variables Predicting Altruistic Organizational
Citizenship Behavior Among Older and Younger Employees (N = 96)

Variable Main effect Moderation by age

Hospital -.26*
Age .os
Tenure .08 -
Trust in management -.os -.96*
Trust in peers .02 .41
Pay satisfaction -.22 -.s7
Job satisfaction .36** - 1.24*
Commitment .02 -l.OS*
Ability to modify .20 .06
Sensitivity to others -.06 .24
Moral judgment -.01 2.27**

Nore. R' = .24 for Step I ; AR? = .I4for Step 2 (ps < .05).
*p < .05. **p < .Ol.

A formal test of the two hypotheses was accomplished with hierarchical

regression analysis (Table 2) of the moderating effect of employee age. We first
tested main effects for the contextual and dispositional variables, along with
effects for hospital, age, and tenure. There was a significant effect for hospital
and job satisfaction. Then, we entered the moderation effect of age with regard
to each contextual and dispositional variable into the analysis. This analysis indi-
cated a positive relationship between altruistic OCB and trust in management,
job satisfaction, and organizational commitment for younger employees and a
positive relationship between altruistic OCB and moral judgment for older
employees.

Discussion

Of late, there has been a growing appreciation of the theoretical and poten-
tially practical importance of individual extrarole contributions to organizational
functioning. This awareness has been accompanied by a concerted interest in
fully understanding the motivational bases for job-related prosocial behavior
(Organ, 1988). Although the literature is constantly changing, there is an implic-
it presumption in the extant organizational literature (Moorman, 1991; Organ &
Konovsky, 1989; Smith et al., 1983) that citizenship behavior is based on a norm
of reciprocity. Instances of OCB are thought to be deliberate reactions to feelings
of situational fairness rather than manifestations of individual dispositions; these
388 The Journal of Social Psychology

structural effects are considered to be stable across time or persons of varying

ages. In the present study, we advanced the notion, and provided some evidence
to support the overall hypothesis, that antecedents to altruistic citizenship behav-
ior may depend on the age of the organizational member. Our data call into ques-
tion the presumption of structural stability among correlates of OCB (i.e., trust,
satisfaction, commitment) in that we found these predictors to be germane only
for the younger employees in the present study.
An individual’s life course may be conceived as a sequence of culturally
defined, age-graded roles that are enacted over time (Caspi & Bem, 1990). Fur-
thermore, transition points in the life course are particularly significant in terms
of an individual’s self-interpretation and self-presentation (Levinson et al., 1978;
Nicholson, 1984). The data presented here suggest that a transition across age-
graded roles may have a significant bearing on the underlying motivational basis
for altruistic behavior in the work setting. Our data also indicate significant pos-
itive influences for job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and trust in
management among younger employees, consistent with Organ’s (1988) justice
motif; for younger employees, the decision to render or withhold altruism
appears to have been a conscious, deliberate choice predicated solely on issues
of fair treatment. However, the unique predictor of altruistic behavior among the
older employees was moral judgment. Our findings suggest that, among older
employees, the decision to render assistance may be an affective, emotional
response based on a norm of benevolence.
Why should the predictors or antecedents of altruistic OCB vary with age?
First, it is possible that the structural instability of the correlates indicates that the
older and younger employees in the present sample represented different cohort
groups. The cohort group of older employees may have been originally social-
ized to value altruism for its own sake, whereas the cohort group of younger
employees may have been socialized to value reciprocity. A second explanation
is that, because of greater organizational tenure and life experience, the older
employees perceived more behavioral choices in their work environment than did
their younger counterparts. This perception of choice in behavior may render
irrelevant situational variables such as fairness; consequently, dispositional ten-
dencies to behave i n an altruistic manner may have been better predictors of
behavior for the older employees. A third interpretation is that the older employ-
ees may have internalized the inherent value of helping behaviors to their orga-
nization. They may have acted somewhat instinctively when provided with an
opportunity to behave in an altruistic manner. Their younger counterparts may
have lacked the life experience necessary for internalizing the concept of per-
sonal sacrifice for the greater good. Instead, the younger employees may have
placed greater value on their individual perceptions of fair treatment by the orga-
nization, which, in turn, may have led to the expression of altruistic behavior.
The findings in the present study may be limited because we recruited the
participants from US.hospitals. Because of their inherent nature, hospitals are
 Wagner & Rush 389

generally considered to employ highly altruistic individuals. It is likely that hos-

pital norms encourage altruistic acts, particularly when such acts are directed
toward patients. Thus, any conclusions drawn from the present study may apply
only to service-oriented environments in which helping behavior is similarly val-
ued. In spite of this limitation, however, we believe that the issue addressed and
the nature of the supporting data warrant more than passing consideration.
The structural stability of OCB and its correlates, particularly as related to
employee age, holds potentially important theoretical and practical implications.
These implications involve understanding the motivational bases of altruism and
the avenues available to enhance and manage the discretionary citizenship behav-
ior of organizational members. In an attempt to explore the motives, we have pre-
sented three alternative explanations. Future researchers should address these and
other motive bases. When developmental theories are to be tested, it should be
noted that the cross-sectional approach used here yields only approximate conclu-
sions about intraindividual change. If resources permit, a full longitudinal design
would provide an excellent basis for examining developmental hypotheses.
In addition, the results of the present study provide some indications of how
extrarole behavior might be facilitated, at least for younger workers. Employers
may wish to promote altruistic OCB through sensitivity to the issues of job sat-
isfaction, trust, commitment, and a climate that promotes reciprocality. For
example, an atmosphere of reciprocality may be fostered by promoting team-
work and camaraderie within work groups and by recognizing and providing
organizational rewards to employees on the basis of group performance. It
appears that, at least in part, the applicability of OCB research to organizational
settings may lie in the attention given to such situational variables.

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Received January 26, 1998

Accepted June 24, 1998