Beyond exchange and prosocial motives, is altruistic helping a valid motive for organizational citizenship behavior?

Purpose The argument in this study is that employees differ in their motives in helping their organizations when they know that they may not be paid back for their efforts. This paper aims to examine whether these motives will lead to greater extra-role contribution in an organization. Design/methodology/approach The data of 124 pairs of employee in China have been used to develop and test the measurement of an “altruistic helping of organization” (AHO) in a pilot sample. In addition, AHO had been then tested as a motive for organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) using data collected from 245 pairs of employees in China. Findings Data from 124 pairs of employees in China have been used to develop and test the measurement of “altruistic helping of organization” in a pilot sample. The authors have proposed and validated whether procedural justice and conscientiousness predict for a new OCB motive – AHO, which explains for an incremental predictive power over the existing motives of OCB, namely, instrumentality, social exchange with the organization, organizational concern, prosocial values and impression management, on a data collected from 245 pairs of employees in China. Research limitations/implications This is a cross-sectional study. In addition, the authors have only taken in samples in China, which may not be generalizable to other context. Practical implications Practitioners can devote resources to encourage employees to help without any consideration of returns. In addition, the fairness perception of organizational practices – procedural justice and individual characteristics – are necessary to induce AHO and other OCB motives. Social implications This research provides that the social implication of arousing the basic underpinning of driving OCB is altruistic motive and not egoistic. This finding helps to stimulate individuals to have more helping behaviors towards the organization. Originality/value This study provides solid evidence for the suggestion by the original proponents of OCB that the distinction between rewarded and unrewarded criterion is blurred in OCB literature. Our findings suggest that altruistic helping does exist and that this explains for a significant proportion of extra-role behavior.