Organizational Citizenship in Social Service Agencies

In an era of “doing more with less,” social service organizations expect workers to engage in “organizational citizenship” behaviors-extra-role activities that are not formally required by the job-that benefit both the organization and clients. Organizational citizenship is considered critical in for-profit organizations because it is related to organizational effectiveness and quality service, but it has not been examined in social service organizations. This pilot study explored organizational citizenship behavior by surveying 120 randomly selected child and family service employees. Results showed that workers' reports of organizational support, developmental experiences, quality work performance and professional education were positively related to workers' citizenship behavior. More research is needed, including examining the link between organizational citizenship and service quality in social service agencies.