The Context Dulls the Shine of Individual Effort: Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and Its Visibility in the Group

Marcela Peterson

The way the environment influences how behaviors are perceived at work is striking. A gesture of help, a collaborative attitude, or an extra effort can take on different meanings depending on the group in which they occur. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), when practiced by many in the same team, loses its strength as an individual differentiator. In other words, what should be valued as “extra effort” often becomes just “more of the same.”

In teams where collaboration is intense and most go beyond expectations, maintaining the same pace can cause someone to go unnoticed. On the other hand, in groups where OCB is rare, a single proactive attitude is enough for an employee to stand out positively. This demonstrates how the collective context shapes the symbolic value of individual behavior.

Individual OCB impacts performance evaluations more strongly when it is uncommon within the group. This seems intuitive, but it is also unsettling. Imagine a highly committed employee working in a team with high levels of citizenship behavior. Their effort may seem ordinary, even though it is valuable. In a less engaged group, however, the same behavior would be perceived as excellence. Are we rewarding real effort, or only visible effort?

The tendency to normalize good behavior in environments where it is frequent can lead to unfairness: the most engaged people stop being recognized simply because they are surrounded by others who are equally engaged.

This finding reinforces a key point for those working in people management: performance evaluations need to consider the group context, not just individual performance. An employee who maintains high levels of OCB, even in highly engaged teams, deserves as much recognition as someone who stands out in less engaged groups. The absence of this contextual sensitivity can result in the frustration of top talents.

Finally, this is an invitation to rethink how we observe, evaluate, and reward organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It reminds us that the value of behavior lies not only in the act itself but also in the scenario in which it occurs. Recognizing this is essential to building workplaces that are fairer, more motivating, and more aligned with the values we uphold.

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