Organizational citizenship behavior as impression management

There has been a great deal of research interest in the antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) because OCB benefits the organization but, by definition, is not part of job requirements. Researchers have consistently identified job satisfaction and conscientiousness as predictors of OCB. Very little research, however, has investigated the role of impression management as an antecedent of OCB. The present study investigated OCB as a form of impression management. The objectives of the study were to: (1) determine whether university faculty who are concerned about making a good impression will engage in more OCB than faculty who are less concerned about making a good impression; (2) understand the roles certain attitudes (job satisfaction) and personality traits (conscientiousness and self-monitoring) play in the relationship between impression concerns and OCB; and (3) compare self-ratings of OCB with other-ratings of OCB. Questionnaires measuring OCB, job satisfaction, conscientiousness, concern with making a good impression, and self-monitoring were distributed to university faculty at different career stages. A colleague of each faculty member was also asked to complete the OCB scale using the faculty member as a referent. Results showed that retiring faculty engaged in more OCB than pre-tenure faculty. In addition, career level explained variance in OCB beyond that explained by job satisfaction and conscientiousness. Possible reasons for these results include differences in career stages and developmental stages between retiring faculty and pre-tenure faculty, and retiring faculty's greater knowledge of and familiarity with the university. These results contribute to the OCB literature by identifying career level as a significant predictor of OCB. Future research could further explore the role of career level in the performance of OCB and test the hypotheses of the present study in an organizational setting in which traditional performance evaluations are conducted.