Organizational citizenship behaviour as performance in multiple network positions

This paper employs structural role theory to theorize why and how the performance of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) may be associated with an individual's occupation of social network positions. OCB is modelled as behaviour related to the occupation of position-role combinations in the informal structure of organizations. It is proposed that the performance of OCB occurs in conjunction with informal role enactment at a given network position because such performance is characteristic of position occupancy. A given actor may occupy multiple network positions, which profile the actor's links to the informal organization and place him or her in the position to perform OCB. An empirical study of employees in a telecommunications company showed that cohesiveness, centrality and network bridges predict two different types of OCB that characterize a 'good colleague' and a 'good employee' role.