Civic virtue is one of the five dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) identified in Dennis Organ's prominent 1988 definition of the construct.
Civic virtue is characterized by behaviors that indicate an employee's deep concerns and active interest in the life of the organization (Law, Wong, & Chen, 2005).
An employee displaying civic virtue behaviors embraces the responsibilities of being a ‘citizen’ of the organization (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000).
Since Smith et al.’s original 1983 definition of organizational citizenship behavior, there has been a lack of consensus regarding the dimensionality of OCB.
Examples of this citizenship responsibility dimension include attending non-required meetings, sharing opinions and new ideas with others in the organization, and a willingness to deliver bad news or support and unpopular view to combat groupthink (Graham, 1991).
Protecting the organization is defined by George and Jones as “voluntary acts organizational members engage in to protect or save life and property ranging from reporting hazards, securely locking doors, and reporting suspicious or dangerous activities, to taking the initiative to halt a production process when there is the potential for human injury” (George & Jones, 1997, p. 155).
On one side of the spectrum are mundane behaviors such as attending optional meetings, reading and answering work related emails, and participating in the traditions and rituals of the organization.
The other side of the spectrum includes more extraordinary and rare forms of the construct such as voicing critiques of or objections to policies to higher-level members of the organization.
This type of civic virtue can also be demonstrated on a larger scale by defending the organization's policies and practices when they are challenged by an outside source.
However, it has also been noted that this type of civic virtue might be less appreciated by managers, compared to other forms of OCB, as it causes disruption of the status quo (Organ et al., 2006).
The first, civic virtue-information, includes participating in meetings, reading documents containing information regarding the organization, and remaining on the lookout for incoming news.
Specifically, empirical research has found that satisfaction and organizational commitment have positive and significant relationships with civic virtue (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Bommer, 1996a).
In their 1996 meta-analysis, Podsakoff et al. found a positive and significant relationship between group cohesiveness and civic virtue.
Organ and colleagues (2006) reanalyzed data in the above meta-analysis and found a negative and significant relationship between organizational formalization and civic virtue.
Empirical evidence indicates positive and significant relationships between articulating a vision, providing an appropriate model, and encouraging the acceptance of group goals and civic virtue (Podsakoff et al., 2000).
Empirical evidence indicates a positive and significant relationship between supportive leader behaviors and civic virtue (Podsakoff et al., 2000).
These researchers also reported, in a summary of empirical evidence regarding both organizational performance and success in relationship to OCBs, that civic virtue was significantly related to quality of performance regarding sales samples and the reduction of customer complaints in a restaurant sample (Podsakoff et al., 2000).
In 1990, Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, and Fetter conducted an important study using the five dimensions of OCB: altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue.
This prevalent study was one of the first where civic virtue was analyzed independently of other OCBs and where the construct was given its own scale items.
Civic virtue was specifically defined as “behavior on the part of an individual that indicates that he/she responsibly participates in, is involved in, or is concerned about the life of the company” (Podsakoff et al., 1990, p. 115).
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