Testing the Proposed Linkage between Organizational Citizenship Behaviours and an Innovative Organizational Climate

This study investigates the link between an innovative organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). OCB is discretionary individual behaviour that is not directly rewarded and that promotes organizational functioning. The genesis of OCB is Barnard's innovative and spontaneous behaviours instrumental for effective organizational functioning, yet innovation has not been part of the OCB construct development. Using employees of a financial services firm in the Midwest, we examine the relationship between an organizational climate conducive to innovation and OCB using the Climate for Innovation Questionnaire (CIQ) and Van Dyne etal.'s OCB scale, which assesses the dimensions of organizational Obedience, Loyalty and Participation. The CIQ was reduced to three dimensions (context, ideas and risk) via factor analysis. Our results indicate that OCB is not linked to an Innovative Organizational Context. The Participation dimension of citizenship behaviour was positively linked to Innovative Ideas. Loyalty OCB was negatively linked to Risk, and Obedience OCB was negatively linked to Ideas. Results suggest the need to re-examine the OCB construct. Pragmatic implications include examining the organizational characteristics when innovation is desired. Additionally, managers should be cautious with interventions designed to increase OCB, as the available evidence indicates a generally negative OCBinnovative climate relationship.