Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Public and Private Sectors: A Multilevel Test of Public Service Motivation and Traditional Antecedents

• Author: Alex Ingrams
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X18800372
• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Date: 01 June 2020

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X18800372

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2020, Vol. 40(2) 222 –244

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X18800372

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Article

Organizational Citizenship

Behavior in the Public and

Private Sectors: A Multilevel

Test of Public Service

Motivation and Traditional

Antecedents

Alex Ingrams1

Abstract

Scholarly knowledge of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has developed

significantly in the private and public sectors. However, comparisons between

sectors have not been advanced. This article aims to address the gap with

hierarchical linear modeling of OCB antecedents across sectors, accounting for

individual- and sector-level differences. The results show a significant association

between public service motivation (PSM) and OCB, as well as several other central

correlates of OCB in the public sector: goal clarity, job satisfaction, and leader–

member exchange (LMX). In addition, although there are marginally higher levels of

OCB in the public sector, the interaction effect of sector and PSM is not significant.

This finding suggests the effect of PSM on OCB is important across sectors rather

than solely being a function of public sector employment.

Keywords

organizational citizenship behavior, public service motivation, public organizations,

sector differences, multilevel modeling

Introduction

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) refers to “behavior(s) of a discretionary

nature that are not part of the employee’s formal role requirements, but nevertheless

1Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Alex Ingrams, Institute of Governance, Tilburg University, Prof. Cobbenhagenlaan 125, 5037 DB Tilburg,

The Netherlands.

Email: a.ingrams@uvt.nl

800372ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X18800372Review of Public Personnel AdministrationIngrams

research-article2018

Ingrams 223

promote the effective functioning of the organization” (Organ, 1988, p. 4). The

importance of the OCB concept for scholars and managers is that incentive-based

management of employee self-interest is rarely sufficient for achieving what is in

an organization’s collective self-interest. Instead, organizations rely on everyday

occurrence of selfless (or, at least, self-interest deferring) acts that directly help

other members of the organization or that help the general needs and functioning of

the organization. Organ (1988) identified five core dimensions of OCB: conscien-

tiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, altruism, and civic virtue. Subsequent scholar-

ship has developed variations to the five-dimension approach (e.g., Williams &

Anderson’s [1991] organizational and individual-oriented OCB types), but Organ’s

dimensions continue to be at the core of measurement approaches in both the public

and private sector.

Public sector research on OCB is still far behind the private sector, but scholars

have observed high levels of OCB in public organizations (Christensen & Whiting,

2009; Kim, 2006). There are reasons to believe that OCB has special salience in public

organizations due to the relevance of generalized citizenship in government–citizen

relationships and the goals of public administration reforms to achieve greater organi-

zational responsiveness to citizens. OCB is a sociopolitical construct and has spillover

effects between the workplace and political institutions (Cohen & Vigoda, 2000).

According to Vigoda-Gadot and Cohen (2004), “citizenship behavior is vital for any

public system and administrative bureaucracy in quest of effectiveness, efficiency,

fairness, social justice and overall healthy growth and development” (p. 13). Managing

OCB in the public sector, thus, takes on a challenge of understanding the way OCB

works in its institutional setting.

A further finding in public sector research is that OCB has strong organizational

synergies with public service motivation (PSM); OCB complements PSM. The former

involves innovation and informal behavior, whereas the latter is more formally directed

to public organizations and can motivate many areas of work beyond innovation

(Vigoda-Gadot & Beeri, 2012). For example, research finds that PSM may substitute

for the relationship between transformative leadership and OCB because it provides

individuals with inner motivation to serve their organizations and fellow employees

rather than to rely on external influencers such as the role of leaders (Bottomley,

Mostafa, Gould-Williams, & Cázares, 2016). In Bottomley et al.’s (2016) study, as

with an increasing number of other studies, PSM was shown to directly increase levels

of OCB in organizations (e.g., Gould-Williams, Mostafa, & Bottomley, 2013; Kim,

2006). Thus, empirical studies provide robust evidence of an important role played by

OCB in public organizations, and suggest PSM and OCB are closely related con-

structs. However, the results of the studies beg two key puzzles: first, whether there are

different levels of OCB between sectors, and, second, whether there is a role for PSM

in understanding this possible difference. Knowledge of such public–private differ-

ences provides a means for making better, sector-specific, managerial and behavioral

interventions (Baarspul & Wilderom, 2011). As research on OCB in public organiza-

tions develops, it will be necessary to establish stronger empirical foundations of pub-

lic sector distinctiveness with conceptual sharpness and clarity.