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Home CCSU Theses & Dissertations Mediation of the Prosocial Personality/Helping Behavior Relationship by Value Motives

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Identifier	Thesis 1991
Author	Hilario, Marcus R. (Marcus Raymond), 1974-
Title	Mediation of the Prosocial Personality/Helping Behavior Relationship by Value Motives
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date	2008
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Notes	Helping is a phenomenon that has been widely studied in psychology. Two types of helping that can occur within an organization are organizational citizenship behavior, or OCB, and volunteering. OCB is helping that occurs during the course of employment, for example, a veteran employee helping a newly hired employee with work he or she is not yet familiar with. Volunteering is unpaid helping that occurs within some organization outside employment, for example, a person who helps with youth sports leagues at the YMCA but does not work there. A major question that needs to be addressed is why people help. The purpose of this thesis study was to see if a certain personality type, the prosocial personality, would lead to both types of helping, OCB and volunteering. In addition, this paper investigated whether or not prosocial value motives, or motives that concern the welfare of others, mediated the relationships between the prosocial personality and OCB and volunteering. A survey study was used to investigate this question. Some participants completed paper surveys in classrooms and others completed on line surveys. Participants were recruited through undergraduate Psychology classrooms as well as LEARN, a private organization that provides education and clinical services for children with special needs. Baron and Kenney's (1986) steps to mediation were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Multiple regression analysis showed that motives mediated the relationship between other-oriented empathy, a part of the prosocial personality, and OCB. There was no evidence that motives mediated the relationship between helpfulness, also a part of the prosocial personality, and OCB. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that motives did not mediate the relationship between the prosocial personality and formal volunteering. Mediation of the Prosocial Personality/Helping Behavior Relationship by Value Motives Helping behavior is a phenomenon that has been studied in psychological research (e.g., Hartshorne & May, 1930). Helping may take place in various situations, but the present study will focus on helping within an organization. Two examples are (a) organizational citizenship behavior, or OCB, (Organ, 1988), and (b) volunteering. An example of OCB is when a worker helps a co-worker with job responsibilities. An example of volunteering might be helping troubled youth at a local YMCA. Previous research has studied both personality and motives as predictors of volunteering and OCB. The present study focuses on understanding why people choose to engage in helping in an organizational context. Specifically, it will focus on whether motives mediate the relationship between personality and the helping behaviors of volunteering and OCB. Helping in Organizations: OCB A vast literature exists on definitions of OCB. Smith, Organ and Near (1983) defined OCB as behaviors managers identified as helpful but that were not required of the individual by the employer. Some of the job behaviors reported by Smith et al. (1983) included helping other employees with their work when they have been absent and willingly attending functions not required by the organization but that help its overall image. Smith et al. (1983) described OCB as comprising two factors: the first factor, altruism, was used to describe behavior intended to help a specific person in face-to-face situations (e.g., volunteering for things that are not required); the second factor, called generalized compliance, was used to describe behavior that complied with the norms of being a good worker (e.g., being punctual). Organ (1988) expanded on the concept of OCB, defining it as 'individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization' (p. 4). Organ (1988) says his definition of OCB excludes behavior that is exceptional but fulfills contractual obligations like an efficient postal carrier or an excellent college professor. Organ (1988) expanded Smith et al.'s factors of OCB from two to five factors: (a) altruism, (b) conscientiousness, (c) sportsmanship, (d) courtesy, and (e) civic virtue. Organ (1988) explains that he preferred conscientiousness to generalized compliance because compliance denotes servile obedience to authority figures and fails to describe what may be inner-directed behavior. According to Organ (1988), people who demonstrate sportsmanship avoid complaining, petty grievances, railing against real or imagined slights, and making federal cases out of small potatoes. In addition, he defines courtesy as 'touching base' (Organ, 1998, p. 12) with those who would be affected by a decision or commitment made. Lastly, Organ (1988) defines civic virtue as 'individuals attending meetings, reading the intramural mail, discussing issues on personal time, voting, and ‘speaking up' appropriately' (p.13). Organ (1997) rethought his definition of OCB and defined it as 'contributions to the maintenance and enhancement of the social and psychological context that supports task performance' (p.91). According to Organ (1997), the discretionary, extra-role, and beyond-the-job requirements that is OCB are now considered elements that are part of the job. For instance, Organ (1997) reports that some forms of OCB might be just as likely, if not more likely, as in-role performance to lead to monetary recompense. Organ (1997) concludes that the changes that occur in the workplace may cause organizational psychologists to reexamine many of the existing constructs, including OCB. Podsakoff , MacKenzie, Paine, and Bachrach (2000) identify the dimensions of OCB to include helping behavior, i.e., altruism and interpersonal helping (helping a coworker when help was needed), sportsmanship, organizational loyalty (promotion of organizational image to outsiders), organizational compliance (indirectly help others involved in a system), individual initiative (communications to others in the workplace to improve individual and group performance), civic virtue, and self-development. Podsakoff et al. (2000) conclude by stating that OCB is now a difficult construct to define and that it overlaps with other concepts such as extra-role behavior. Theoretical and empirical work has shown that OCB is an important concept within the work environment. Smith et al. (1983) state that 'citizenship behaviors lubricate the social machinery of the organization, provide the flexibility needed to work through many unforeseen contingencies, and enable participants to cope with the otherwise awesome condition of interdependence on each other' (p.653). Organ (1988) notes that although OCB is not recognized by the formal reward system, it is possible that it may bring tangible returns. A steady stream of OCB may leave a lasting impression on a supervisor or management; this lasting impression could influence the recommendation by an individual's boss for a salary increase or promotion. Individuals who make decisions within an organization and evaluate performances of employees are beginning to recognize the value of OCB. Van Scotter, Motowidlo, and Cross (2000) found that contextual performance, a concept that is similar to OCB and is defined as interactions with coworkers, supervisors, or customers, predicted career related outcomes over a two-year period. These findings also support previous research that suggests contextual performance is likely to influence supervisors' evaluations over time, even if it has not been formally incorporated in job performance criteria. OCB appears to be an important behavior as it influences norms of reciprocity, fairness, and the ways that managers form their evaluations of employees (Podsakoff et al., 2000). Podsakoff and MacKenzie (1997) suggest that when more experienced employees voluntarily help new coworkers learn the job responsibilities, it helps the new employees become more efficient workers faster, thus helping the efficiency of the organization. They also report that employees who help each other with work-related problems allow the managers to spend more time doing other tasks like improving business processes and securing valuable sources. Podsakoff and MacKenzie (1997) state that conscientious employees free up managers' time because it allows the manager to delegate more responsibilities to the employees. In addition, Podsakoff and MacKenzie (1997) report that employees who exhibit sportsmanship help managers; managers do not have to waste time dealing with petty complaints. Podsakoff and MacKenzie (1997) explain that employees exhibiting courtesy within the organization diminishes the need for conflict management activities; that time can be spent enhancing the organization. Lastly, Podsakoff and MacKenzie (1997) say that OCBs reduce the organization's variability in its performance by employees volunteering to pick up the slack for others who are absent, coming in early or staying late to finish projects, and going above and beyond what is required of them.
Subject	Helping behavior
Department	Department of Psychology
Advisor	Conway, James
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	713733963
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