A synthetical view of Western, Asian, and Latin American perspectives onorganizational citizenship behaviors: Matching etic, emic, and unique approaches with cultural dimensions

Abstract

This study proposes a three-practice approach for organizing, analyzing, and studying organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) taking into account the different views reflected across global, regional, and/or national studies. First, OCBs were reviewed and categorized into Western, Asian, and Latin American contexts. Second, the OCBs were grouped based on three practices: etic (global), emic (regional), and unique (national) perspectives. Finally, the cultural dimensions of individualism versus collectivism (IC) and power distance (PD) were examined from the etic, emic, and unique approaches to develop several practices to aid international managers by providing scholars with a more consistent framework for identifying relevant OCBs. This theoretical study proposes a decentralized approach to the predominant Western view of OCBs to guide more accurate research across cultures. A three-practice approach research perspective would ground OCB research cross-culturally with several modifications: (practice 1) the OCBs of altruism, civic virtue, conscientiousness and sportsmanship are generally recognized as etic; (practice 2) the categorization of the emic OCBs of interpersonal harmony, professional development, organizational sincerity, and protecting company resources as exclusive to Asian and Latin American countries; and (practice 3) the two unique OCBs of courtesy and organizational camaraderie were acknowledged only in Western countries and identified primarily in Latin American countries, respectively.