Organizational Citizenship Behaviors as a Function of Empathy, Consideration of Future Consequences, and Employee Time Horizon: An Initial Exploration Using an In-Basket Simulation of OCBs1

doi:10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00103.x

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Wiley InterScience

Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Volume 36 Issue 9, Pages 2266 - 2292

Published Online: 9 Aug 2006

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Organizational Citizenship Behaviors as a Function of Empathy, Consideration of Future Consequences, and Employee Time Horizon: An Initial Exploration Using an In-Basket Simulation of OCBs¹

Jeff Joireman ^a ² , Denise Daniels ^b , Jane George-Falvy ^c and Dishan Kamdar ^d

^a Washington State University
^b School of Business and Economics, Seattle Pacific University
^c School of Business Administration, University of Washington
^d Department of Management, Indian School of Business

¹The authors thank Craig Parks for his helpful feedback on the analysis of the cost/benefit ratings; and Stephanie Matuschak, Kristopher Thompson, Rachael Schaller, and Kathryn Tyler for their help with data collection.

²Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeff Joireman, Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Box 644820, Pullman, WA 99164-4820. E-mail: joireman@wsu.edu

ABSTRACT

We hypothesized that organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) represent a social dilemma. Two studies supported this hypothesis. In Study 1, participants rated OCBs as costly to an employee in the short run, and beneficial to an organization in the long run. In Study 2, likelihood of engaging in OCBs was higher among those high in empathy and concern with future consequences; and less likely among those instructed to imagine they would be leaving the company in 3 months for another job. Empathy showed a stronger relationship with OCBs when respondents imagined they would soon leave an organization and that individuals high in concern with future consequences were less likely to engage in OCBs when faced with a short-term time horizon.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00103.x About DOI