Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Other Side of the Coin

Abstract

The study aims to discover the probable roles of cultural characteristics in the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and workplace ostracism which is a critical phenomenon among employees. It was designed in a causal model claiming that there are moderating effects of collectivism and belief in collective emotions in the relationship between OCB and workplace ostracism. 309 employees were included randomly in Turkey, and correlation and regression analyses were conducted to test the hypothesis. Unlike similar studies and the expected relationship in our hypotheses, OCB and workplace ostracism were found negatively correlated. Moreover, neither organizational collectivism nor employees’ belief in collective emotions had a moderating role in this relationship. The study showed that the dark side of the OCB does not work for the Turkish culture, although its collectivist features. It is evident that globalization makes the collectivist organizations’ strict norms and rules more flexible and loosens the employees’ collectivist beliefs. Regardless of the cultural characteristics, the study also underlines that workplace ostracism should be prevented with appropriate management strategies like encouraging employees to be engaged in citizenship behaviors.