Structural interdependence, personality, and organizational citizenship behavior : An examination of person‐environment interaction

Purpose – To experimentally determine how the interaction of an interdependent work environment and employee personality affect organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Design/methodology/approach – Structural interdependence, as defined by levels of task and goal interdependence, was manipulated in a laboratory setting to determine the effect on individual level OCB. Also, a regression analysis was utilized to determine whether interdependence could act as a moderator for the relationship between the personality variables agreeableness and OCB and conscientiousness and OCB. Findings – Person‐environment interaction would suggest that the independence and personality should interact to impact levels of OCB. The results indicate a strong main effect of task interdependence on OCB and also a main effect of goal interdependence on OCB. In addition, there was also an interaction effect of task and goal interdependence. The results failed to show, however, that interdependence could act as a moderator on the relationship between agreeableness and OCB and conscientiousness and OCB. Originality/value – Provides further research on structural characteristics of task and goal interdependence and their relationship to OCB.