Chinese Organizational Citizenship Scale

Description

This measure was developed by Farh, Earley, and Lin (1997). It uses 20 items to describe five dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior in the context of Chinese society. The dimensions are identification with the company, altruism to colleagues, conscientiousness, interpersonal harmony, and protecting company resources. Identification with the company describes an employee’s willingness to protect the reputation of the company and make suggestions for improving operations. Altruism toward col­ leagues describes employee willingness to help other employees solve prob­lems and cover work assignments. Conscientiousness includes employee willingness to go beyond organizational expectations in such areas as atten­ dance, obeying rules, and hard work. Interpersonal harmony describes employee willingness to avoid the pursuit of personal power and gain. Pro­tecting company resources covers employee willingness to avoid and dis­ courage negative behaviors such as abusing company policies and resources for personal use.

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values were .87 for identification with the company, .87 for altruism, .82 for conscientiousness, .86 for interpersonal harmony, and for protecting company resources (Farh et al., 1997).

Validity

Altruism, conscientiousness, interpersonal harmony, and protecting company resources correlated positively with one another. These dimensions also all correlated positively with interactive justice and organizationalcom­ mitment (Farh et al., 1997). In addition, identification with the company cor­ related positively with employee participation and the presence of appeal mechanisms. Altruism also correlated positively with pay satisfaction and employee education level. Conscientiousness also correlated positively with distributive justice. Interpersonal harmony and protecting company re­ sources also correlated positively with employee participation, distributive justice, presence of appeal mechanisms, and pay satisfaction. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the five dimensions were empirically distinct with the items loading as expected (Farh et al., 1997).

Source

Items

Responses are obtained using a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. This measure can be used to describe another focal employee or for self-reporting.

Identification with the company items:

1. Willing to stand up to protect the reputation of the company.
2. Eager to tell outsiders good news about the company and clarify their misunderstandings.
3. Makes constructive suggestions that can improve the operation of the company.
4. Actively attends company meetings.

Altruism items:

1. Willing to assist new colleagues to adjust to the work environment.
2. Willing to help colleagues solve work-related problems.
3. Willing to cover work assignments for colleagues when needed.
4. Willing to coordinate and communicate with colleagues.

Conscientiousness items:

1. Complies with company rules and procedures even when nobody watches and no evidence can be traced.
2. Takes one’s job seriously and rarely makes mistakes.
3. Does not mind taking on new or challenging assignments.
4. Tries to self-study to increase the quality of work outputs.
5. Often arrives early and starts to work immediately.

Interpersonal harmony items:

1. Uses illicit tactics to seek personal influence and gain with harmful effect on interpersonal harmony in the organization (R)
2. Uses position power to pursue selfish personal gain (R)
3. Takes credits, avoids blame, and fights fiercely for personal gain (R)
4. Often speaks ill of the supervisor or colleagues behind their backs (R)

Protecting company resources items:

1. Conducts personal business on company time (e.g., trading stocks, shopping, going to barber shops) (R)
2. Uses company resources to do personal business (e.g., company phones, copy machines, computers, and cars) (R)
3. Views sick leave as benefit and makes excuse for taking sick leave (R)

Items denoted with (R) are reverse scored.