There is no single cause of OCB; Organizational citizenship behavior is the resu

lt of many antecedents. When the antecedents of OCB are better understood, ma

nagers would be more effective to cultivate the OCB among their emplo
yees. Knowing the antecedents managers could be better able to foster empl
oyees' OCB
The major antecdents of OCB are:
ROLE PERCEPTIONS:Role perceptions include perceptions such as role confli
ct and role
ambiguity, both of which have been found to be significantly negatively related
to OCB. On the
other hand, role clarity is positively related.
MOTIVATION: Individual's motives may relate to his or her organizational citizen
ship behaviors.
Researchers have proposed five sources of motivation including intrinsic
process,
instrumental,
selfconcept-external,
selfconcept-internal
,
and
goal
internalization.
Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction has a significant influence on decreasing emp
loyees ab
senteeism, turnover, and psychological distress. Furthermore, individuals wi
th higher levels of job satisfaction demonstrate deceased propensit
y to search for another job and a decreasing propensity to leave. Work
ers with high levels of job satisfaction are more likely to be engage in OCB.
Organizational Commitment: Along with job satisfaction, organizational
commitment
is
frequently
cited
antecedent
of
OCB.
Organizat
ional
commitment
is
conceptualized as a strong belief in, and ac
ceptance of, an organization s goals and a strong desire to maintain membe
rship in the organization .
Organizational commitment is an attitude about employee's loyalty to their
organization. It refers to the extent and degree to which employee aligns
him/her
with the organization. it is found that loyal employees engage more in ocb .
if an employee is loyal withhis or her organization he will work beyond his resp
onsibilities and without any reward so its isthe responsibility of the employer
to create this spirit among the employees . Ultimately it is for the betterment
of the organization
This implies an employee's acceptance of the organizationl agoal and value
s and willingness to higher
level efforts for achieving the goals and also remains a member of the orga
nization.
Organizational Justice: Fairness or justice perceptions refer to employee
s perception towards fairness to the means used to determine outcomes (procedu
ral justice), fairness of the outcomes employees receive (distributive justic
e) and fairness of the relationships between individuals within the orga
nization (interactional justice), tended to increase the level of OCB.
Organizational Culture: there are certain factors which are related to the Cul
ture practiced in a
Workplace and which have got lot to do with inculcating the Organizational
Citizenship
Behavior
amongst
the
employees. strengthening the cultural roots of an Organization can lead to obse
rvance of Citizenship Behavior across all sectors in a given
Organization.

Significance of OCB
Organizational citizenship behavior is necessary for the growth, success
, effectiveness and productivity of any organization. It helps the overall
organizational climate by
1.Increasing co-worker or managerial productivity;
2.Releasing resources so they can be used for more productive purposes;
3.Coordinating activities within and across work groups;
4.Reducing the need to devote scarce resources to purely maintenance functions;
5.Strengthening the organizations' ability to attract and retain the best employ
ees;
7. Enabling the organization to adapt more effectively to environmental changes.
6.Increasing the stability of the organization's performance