Citizenship Behavior Utility and Group Performance : Task Interdependence as a Contingency Factor

Building on social interdependence theory, in a lagged field study we examined task interdependence as a contingency factor in the utility of group members' Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) for group performance. Members of 52 work groups in 6 organizations rated their groups' task interdependence and group leaders rated groups' OCB. After 6 months, customers rated groups' performance. Results indicated that task interdependence moderated the relationship of multiple OCB dimensions with subsequent group performance. OCB showed significant, positive utility in groups with interdependent tasks, but no utility in groups with independent tasks. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed