Are good soldiers good? Exploring the link between organization citizenship behavior and personal ethics

The "good soldier" syndrome, or organization citizenship behavior (OCB), is traditionally defined as extra-role behavior which serves to advance the purposes of the organization. However, these behaviors may be ethical or unethical. Implicit in the definition of OCB is some role of personal ethics: indeed, the various measures of OCB contain many items that are ethically based. This study examined the relationship between ethics and organization citizenship, and found high correlations, with "more ethical" individuals being rated higher on OCB. "More ethical" individuals were perceived to be more productive than "less ethical" workers. The differential contributions of individual citizenship behaviors to productivity among "more" and "less" ethical individuals were also identified. Results suggest that the phenomenon popularized as organizational citizenship behavior may be the manifestation of ethical behavior in the workplace. Identification of individual behaviors among those comprising the OCB phenomenon that contribute the greatest to individual productivity suggests a time difference in the results of good soldier behaviors. Some citizenship behaviors may have immediate results (e.g., obedience), while others (e.g., creativity) may require some period before benefits are realized. New areas for research are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.