The role of organizational citizenship behavior in turnover: Conceptualization and preliminary tests of key hypotheses

Abstract

The authors conceptualized levels of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) performance as a behavioral predictor of employee turnover and empirically examined the strength of this relationship. Data were collected from 205 supervisor-subordinate dyads across 11 companies in the People's Republic of China. The results provided considerable support for the hypothesis that supervisor-rated OCB was a predictor of subordinates' actual turnover. In particular, subordinates who were rated as exhibiting low levels of OCB were found to be more likely to leave an organization than those who were rated as exhibiting high levels of OCB. The authors also found that the self-report turnover intention was a predictor of turnover, but this relationship did not hold for 2 companies. The explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.