The costs and benefits of going beyond the call of duty

Purpose Past research has generally associated organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) with positive individual and organizational outcomes, paying little attention to its possible costs for individuals. Drawing from the conservation of resource theory (COR), the purpose of this paper is to address this gap by developing an integrative framework that simultaneously investigates the potential costs and benefits of OCB for individuals. In addition, the paper also investigates the down-streaming effects of OCB on workplace well-being (job satisfaction and affective commitment) favorably via psychological well-being and unfavorably via role overload. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 566 employees working in private sector banks in India was collected by using multi-stage random sampling approach. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships. Parallel mediation regression analysis was used for ascertaining the specific indirect effects of the two parallel mediators. Findings Results indicate that OCBs targeted toward co-workers (OCBI), organization (OCBO) and customers (OCBC) were positively associated with psychological well-being. Simultaneously, OCBO was found to be positively associated with higher role overload. Further, psychological well-being and role overload mediated the effect of various dimensions of OCB on employees’ workplace well-being. Originality/value The study contributes to the existing literature by investigating both the beneficial and detrimental effects of various dimensions of OCB into one theoretical framework. By doing so, the study attempts to bridge the gap in the literature by linking these two divergent streams of research, i.e. whether OCB is beneficial or costly for individuals.