A prosocial self‐concept approach to understanding organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

Purpose Individual characteristics have been weaker correlates of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) than have attitudinal and contextual variables; however, few individual characteristics have been examined. This paper seeks to broaden the search for possible antecedents to include individuals' prosocial self‐concept. Design/methodology/approach A survey ( n =226) was conducted to examine the relationship between university students' prosocial self‐concept and their intentions to engage in campus‐related service and citizenship activities. Prosocial self‐concept was assessed with Crandall's 24‐item Social Interest Scale. Findings Prosocial self‐concept correlated modestly, but significantly, with OCB intentions toward fellow students ( r =0.16, p <0.05), and OCB intentions toward society ( r =0.18, p <0.05), but not with OCB intentions toward the university ( r =0.12). Identification with the university correlated significantly with OCB intentions toward the university ( r =0.29, p <0.001), but not with OCB intentions toward fellow students ( r =0.13) or society ( r =0.11). No significant interaction effects on OCBs were found between prosocial self‐concept and organizational identification. Research limitations/implications Observed correlations among prosocial self‐concept, university identification and the OCBs are very likely underestimated due to probable restrictions in the variance of the OCBs. Practical implications The findings suggest that prosocial self‐concept may be a unique correlate of OCB, contributing variance not accounted for by other variables. Originality/value Few empirical studies have examined the relationship between self‐concept and OCB.