Organisational citizenship behaviour: Sensitization to an organisational phenomenon

The purpose of this article is to sensitize managers to the phenomenon of organisational citizenship behaviours-extra-role behaviours in which employees participate without expecting rewards and that bring forth positive impacts for the organisation.

In a context of recurring budget cuts, health care organisations are expected to provide quality and safe care. Organisational citizenship behaviour is one of the measures that organisations can use to meet this mandate.

A literature review of English scholarly articles available on the ABI Inform platform, and PubMed was undertaken.

Individual and organisational factors influence the presence of organisational citizenship behaviour. Such behaviour can have positive and negative impacts.

Managers can influence the presence of organisational citizenship behaviour in their organisation through their leadership style and the organisational culture.

A better knowledge of organisational citizenship behaviour, and its antecedents allows managers to identify organisational citizenship behaviour and implement measures to facilitate and encourage it in their organisation.