Leaders often encourage – even expect – employees to engage in duties that go beyond formal job descriptions. Research has shown that when employees choose to engage in this beneficial extra-role behavior there can be positive impacts, such as increased commitment and job performance. However, researchers in this study (Chi et al., 2024) investigated whether these benefits happened when employees were required to engage in extra-role behaviors, or if the compulsory nature produced unintended negative consequences.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
In the study, 186 employees across various industries made diary entries over ten days. Results indicated that employees felt drained when forced into participating in extra-role behavior, even when these activities were designed to be helpful to the team or organization. Employees also engaged in more negative behavior toward others.
Interestingly, the researchers also found that if this compulsory behavior was leveraged to build up the employee’s self-esteem within the organization, the employees engaged in more proactive helping behavior the next day. Employees who were more extroverted and had higher quality relationships with their leader experienced the most benefits and the fewest drawbacks of participating in this compulsory extra-role behavior.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
The nature of forcing employees to participate in extra-role behavior is not cut-and-dried. For some employees, it can be used to build self-esteem and lead to more helping behavior in the future. But for others, it can be draining and lead to deviant behavior. Organizations who want to use the results of this study should do the following:
- Do not force employees to engage in extra-role behavior. Letting employees engage in helping behavior autonomously produces the most benefit.
- Provide organizational resources to help mitigate the draining effect of compulsory behavior.
- Help employees reframe compulsory behavior as self-esteem and autonomy-building opportunities.
- Encourage leaders to build strong relationships with their employees so they learn about individual needs or preferences regarding compulsory extra-role behavior.
Chi, N. W., Lin, C. Y., Bruning, P. F., & Hung, Y. (2024). Forced to be a good citizen: Exploring the bright- and dark-side effects of daily compulsory citizenship behaviors on subsequent proactive helping and interpersonal deviance. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 97, 647-671.
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