Going the extra mile: Cultivating and managing employee citizenship behavior

Executive Overview An organization's ability to elicit employee behavior that goes above and beyond the call of duty can be a key asset and one that is difficult for competitors to imitate. Researchers have given a label to the superior efforts that employees make on behalf of their organizations--organizational citizenship behavior. Given the value of citizenship behavior, it is important to gain a better understanding of what organizations can do to cultivate a workforce of good organizational citizens. This article provides an overview of the factors that are responsible for producing citizenship behaviors. Based on these factors, we explain how organizations can develop practices that foster and sustain employee citizenship. Finally, the article describes how citizenship behaviors must be monitored and properly managed in order for such behaviors to have enhancing rather than deleterious effects on organizational and employee performance.