Organizational citizenship behavior is defined as anything that is positive and constructive that is done by employees of their own choice, which thereby benefits the colleagues and the organization as a whole (Okwuagwu et al., 2017). In other words, it is a personal desire of the employees to „go extra mile‟ or perform such activities which are above and beyond the expectation without any inner desire for reward. Thus, an ideal employee is one who engages in organizational citizenship behavior, always ready to stand by the organization and shows the high level performance (Nielsen, Hrivnak & Shaw, 2009).
Thus, it is a voluntary behavior which is not connected with the formal reward system and thus enhances organizational functioning (Base, Pradhan & Tiwari, 2017). Employees perform such activities only when they feel themselves emotionally connected with the organization and as a result they want to contribute extra which will not affect their performance appraisal but still promotes the personal and organizational growth. When an organization encourages employees to get engaged in voluntary behavior, it gets benefitted in the form of enhancement of productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction, and improves the profitability by trimming down costs, rates of turnover and absenteeism (Jain & 8 Singh, 2017; Podsakoff et al., 2009).
It is not necessary that employees who display organisational citizenship behaviour in their workplace will be the top performers, however, they are the ones who go the extra mile by their personal choice and their exclusion is not generally punishable (Zhang, 2011). Thus, it is a spontaneous action that has been taken by the workers when they feel highly motivated and where there is an environment which provides them prospect to demonstrate OCB in the workplace (Chandrasekar, 2011). Hence, organisations should encourage such behaviours and should consider it while evaluating the performance so that most of employees persuade such behaviours in the organisational settings. Blau (1964) suggested that the link between employee and organization is based on exchange relationship and identified two types of exchange relationship: social and economic. The underlying basis of social exchange theory is that one party gets benefitted from others and offer some assistance in return. This reciprocal benefit in return boosts the social bonding among the exchanging parties. This theory also suggests that employees engaged themselves in organisational citizenship behaviour when they feel they are treated well by the organization (Paillé, 2013).
It is an exchange process where both organization and employees feel obligated to maintain and continue this social relationship with the intention that such relations are mutually beneficial. Employees reciprocate positively in terms of attitudes and behaviour when they feel the same from the other side. Thus, they will work harder and deliver high quality services to the customers with such discretionary behaviours. And when they feel the motives are negative, this will subsequently result in putting down of those voluntary contributions. According to Okumus and Öztürk (2015), individuals evaluate the justice they derived through these social interactions. Thus, a culture of openness, fair treatment, collaboration, trust, empowerment and supportive organisational atmosphere are important to foster citizenship behaviour among the employees for the achievement of organisational goals (Ortiz et al., 2015).
More than four decades ago, Katz (1964) identified two dimensions of individual performance: in-role and extra-role behaviours. In-role behaviours can be distinguished from extra-role behaviour, where the former includes those behaviours that are written and prescribed in one‟s job description while later comprises of those behaviours that are not given to employees but their deliberate effort serve the achievement of organisational goals. In other words, activities or behaviours which 9 employees are central to the formal job contract are regarded as in-role behaviour whereas behaviours apart from the job contract or discretionary actions are extra-role behaviour. It is vital to define detailed roles for each job in order to enhance the quality and quantity of performance and thereby reducing individual‟s inconsistency.
OCB comprises of these spontaneous and innovative behaviours that may help the organization to achieve goals and survive. Thus, OCB is regarded as an extra-role behaviour. These extra behaviours or discretionary behaviours smooth the progress of both individuals and organisations. Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCBs) or Extra-Role Behaviours (ERBs) are referred as those helping behaviours which are not formally stated, but are advantageous for the organization (Organ, Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 2006). It includes extending help to colleague in the most trying situations, talking favorable things about the banks, voluntarily doing more about the organization, obeying bank rules even when no one is watching etc. So, finding such type of people in the organization is very important because they are the ones who offer more benefits than any other human factor by contributing their time and energy.
Organisations should also try to identify and understand the underlying mechanism that makes them to go beyond the formal obligations. Perhaps, equally important is to influence and motivate others also to perform task besides their formal responsibilities. This concept of OCB is regarded as an ethical behaviour that is opted by one‟s own personal choice and thus laid the essence of employee performance. It is therefore required to study this concept for elucidating the effectiveness of promoting such behaviour in the organization, especially in banks where it has imperious implications. On an organisational level, the operation and functions depend entirely on human resource and on their voluntary participation. Accordingly, in the banking sector, the challenge is to outperform, provide excellent service and thus engaging in high levels of OCBs can be advantageous as it positively contributes toward the organisational performance (Benjamin, 2012).
Every organization desires to be successful in reaching its goal. This sense of achievement can be traced when there is increased performance, productivity, high morale of employees, augmented competitiveness and so on. The success of an organization increasingly depends upon behaviors which may develop the efficiency of individuals and organizations and thereby enhances the organization’s competitive 10 ability. The other key factor of success is the employee’s capacity to produce great work and to face competition with their positive behaviors.
However, for the smooth running of an organization, there is a need to encourage their workforce to practice OCB for long term success. In order to achieve this sense of accomplishment it is very essential that employees should understand their own behavior in the direction of their personal success, the success of other employees and of the organization. The quality of service delivered, the performance on the job and the reputation of the company are all influenced by the behaviors displayed by the employees in the organization. In a nutshell, it can be stated that OCB is the best way to achieve organizational efficacy because it involves lower cost, increase revenue, quality, customer satisfaction and lesser complaints (Waltz & Niehoff, 2000).
