Altering the Way Job Information is Presented to Increase Citizenship Performance

Abstract

Presenting job information via competency models is an increasingly popular practice in organizations today. Campion et al. (2011) suggest that using competency models to describe the behaviors employees engage in at work can be tied to many positive organizational outcomes. One potential outcome is increased Citizenship Performance, or behavior that shapes the social context in which work occurs (Borman, 2004; Organ, 1997). Despite its potential advantages, the practice of competency modeling has far outpaced research (Stone, Webster & Schoonover, 2013). Building off of research by Fritsch (2014), this study empirically tested the notion that when presented with work samples, people will display higher amounts of Citizenship Performance when presented with competency-based job descriptions than when presented with traditional task-based job descriptions. Results indicated that type of job information does not affect Citizenship Performance while people are engaged in job-related tasks. However, in this study archival work sample data that was collected for another purpose (Fritsch, 2014) was successfully re-coded to study Citizenship Performance. This may be a useful application for practitioners, and implications are discussed.