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The purposes of this paper are to: help managers and other practitioners learn about voluntary, helpful employee behavior; provide examples of how such behavior is manifest in everyday work situations, and demonstrate how to assess the behavior for recruitment and selection. A brief study is presented that demonstrates how valid and reliable measures may be used to identify employee predisposition for voluntary, helpful behavior.

Two substantive components of this work are: a detailed literature review that describes and demonstrates the elements of voluntary, helpful behavior (v-hob); and a report of a brief correlational study that demonstrates how two short surveys may help in predicting employee voluntary, helpful behavior.

Literature review reveals that v-hob is related to many positive employee outcomes among which are better work performance, more positive relationships with co-workers and managers, and lower turnover, as contrasted with employees-in-general. The study undertaken reveals two measures: job dedication, and contextual performance are valuable in predicting employee v-hob.

In the survey portion of this paper the sample size is relatively small yet amenable for statistical analysis. Study participants are representative of a single academic discipline and are representative of the same university. The two survey tools used have repeatedly been shown to have validity and reliability.

This paper offers a detailed view of employee helpful behavior and it helps managers develop ways to assess one ' s proclivity for the behavior.

This paper helps managers, HR specialists and others attain knowledge on the expression of employee v-hob. Two survey tools are provided to help identify employees who may be predisposed to offer this desirable behavior.

This paper aims to present: the concept of voluntary, helpful organizational behavior (V‐HOB); research results regarding how one subset of future business employees, accounting students, may be predisposed to such behavior; and practical training and development approaches aimed at establishing a work environment supportive of V‐HOB.

This exploratory research involves surveying accounting majors to capture perceptions of predisposition toward V‐HOB. Survey results measure elements of V‐HOB and several task performances. The authors synthesize relevant research, providing pragmatic suggestions for management training and development.

Data analysis was inconclusive regarding individuals' predisposition toward V‐HOB. This exploratory research suggests that academic success may not indicate V‐HOB predisposition. Training and development may be more effective than attempting to recruit individuals predisposed toward V‐HOB.

Limitations to this exploratory research include a small sample size of a homogeneous group, as to major, class size, university attendance. Future research could focus on V‐HOB predisposition by gender, academic discipline, and country/culture. Broader aspects of task performance including participation and absenteeism could be studied. While more research is needed, these preliminary results may indicate that predisposition toward V‐HOB can be difficult to identify.

The authors provide managerial guidance regarding investment of effort into recruiting candidates having a predisposition toward V‐HOB, and for training toward nurturing an environment in which V‐HOB is more likely to thrive.

This paper defines and describes behaviors which support V‐HOB. A gap is bridged between academic study of such behaviors and pragmatic techniques for development of managers.

The purpose of the paper is to examine employee-helpful behavior that is voluntary and given freely without anticipation of reward or recognition. The authors have labeled this voluntary behavior in all its forms as v-hob, or voluntary helpful organizational behavior. They seek to define and explain the behavior and attempt to discern measures that will help to discover individual’s predispositions to offer v-hob.

The authors examine current theory/constructs and offer a detailed empirical study in identifying measures that may provide some means for assessing employee predisposition toward helpful, voluntary behavior on the job. The format of the work is reflective of a typical research study with hypotheses.

The authors learned that, within limits, it is possible and practical to identify direct measures to discover one’s predisposition toward v-hob. They also have identified regression equations that use several variables to help predict one’s predispositions toward this valued behavior.

This study brings to the manager and/or human resource (HR) practitioner the substance of contextual performance, that is, behavior that goes beyond task performance in the support of individual and organizational goal attainment. This research demonstrates several means by which trainers, managers and HR professionals may assess an employee’s or a recruit’s predisposition to offer voluntary, helpful behavior.

This research, unlike most of the empirical, academic research in the domain of contextual performance, speaks directly to practitioners. The authors' definitions, explanations and study clearly demonstrate the practical features of contextual performance.

This essay is practitioner-focused and aims to provide the manager or supervisor with a summary of critical information regarding voluntary, employee helpful behavior or organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The summary helps explain motivation and predispositions per OCB, as well as explicit advice regarding ways to encourage and, perhaps, recognize this desired behavior.

Methodology is grounded on two elements. First, a literature review of empirical and other research on OCB, pro-social behavior, extra-role behavior, and contextual performance. Second, based on review and brief analysis of features of the behavior to include: definitions, motivation/predispositions, and employee performance, explicit guidance is offered for managers.

Critical information is provided about OCB and voluntary helpful behavior. The objective is to identify important aspects of the behavior and place it in a format that is accessible to the typical manager or supervisor. This approach can assist the manager to create appropriate means to identify the desired behavior as well as to encourage it.

Virtually all of the empirical research on OCB and other forms of voluntary helpful behavior make the case that such behavior is most desirable for the organization, manager, and co-workers. The research also points out that not all employees who engage in the behavior have expectations of recognition or any form of reward for their actions. This essay gives the practitioner information regarding observation of the behavior and its motivation. In addition, advice is provided to assist in stimulating the desired behavior.

Currently, nearly all of the expressions of OCB and voluntary helpful employee behavior are found in academic journals and related literature. Typically, these sources of information are not readily available to practicing managers. This condition is what prompts an essay aimed at practitioners that captures the essential aspects of the voluntary, desirable employee behavior as well as practical advice.

There have been few attempts to identify valid and efficient self-assessment measures for use by human resource practitioners or line managers to help distinguish job applicants and/or employees who may have a predisposition to offer voluntary helpful behavior, or contextual performance, on the job. This paper (exploratory and correlational) aims to identify measures that are positively and highly related to this valuable work behavior. Findings set the stage for further study and research aimed at creating predictive measures that possess reliable statistical properties.

Study design has two components: first, identity and analysis of measures of performance that are broadly supported in research literature; and second, correlational analysis of contextual performance measures with critical self-assessments. No effort to discover cause and effect linkages is reported; only relationships are disclosed.

Of the self-assessments examined, two (core self-evaluation and self-efficacy) were found to be positively and significantly related to valid measures of voluntary, helpful organizational behavior, in this case, measures of contextual performance and job dedication.

The study made no attempt to establish statistically valid predictors of behavior. Sample size was relatively small and consisted of students preparing for a career in accounting.

Voluntary, helpful employee behavior is valuable in virtually all organizations. Isolated here are two brief and easy-to-administer self-assessments which may assist in the identification of individuals who possess an inclination to offer such behavior.

This paper presents: the concept of voluntary, helpful organizational behavior (hereafter, V‐HOB), and an introduction to practical training and development approaches aimed at establishing a work environment in which V‐HOB can flourish.

The authors synthesize relevant research to provide a practical view useful for training and development of managers and supervisors.

Training and development of existing staff may be a more effective approach than attempting to recruit individuals predisposed toward V‐HOB. Management training and development in the area of V‐HOB can be extremely effective in establishing an environment conducive to organizational success.

The authors provide guidance to managers useful for management training toward nurturing an environment in which V‐HOB is more likely to be manifested.

This paper defines and describes behaviors that support V‐HOB. A gap is bridged between academic study of such behaviors and pragmatic techniques for development of today's managers.

Consumers who share their suggestions with firms contribute valuable knowledge and both exhibit and reinforce positive customer engagement. Yet, the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm customer suggestion sharing remain understudied. This study aims to investigate how potential self, other customer and firm benefits motivate consumer suggestion sharing.

A critical incident pretest explores the domain and establishes ecological validity. Two scenario-based experimental studies test the proposed relationships in distinct service contexts.

Results support a prosocial (helpful) view of suggestion sharing – potential benefits to other customers motivate suggestion sharing. Potential benefits for the firm play two roles, namely, they indirectly motivate suggestion sharing by increasing consumers’ perceived outcome expectancy, illustrating a pragmatic mechanism, and they directly motivate suggestion sharing when service quality is high, illustrating a conditional, reciprocity-driven mechanism. When service quality is low, consumers are less likely to share firm-benefitting suggestions and more likely to share non-beneficial suggestions, highlighting a potential low service quality “trap” in which firms can become stuck.

Future research is needed to study the antecedents of attitude toward suggestion sharing and the effect of relationship strength on suggestion sharing.

Managerially, multiple paths are identified by which firms can motivate suggestion sharing. The low-service quality “trap” indicates that low-service quality firms should not rely on, and should perhaps even ignore, customer suggestions as a tool for improving their offerings.

By experimentally investigating the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing, this paper fills a gap in extant research and provides a foundation upon which future suggestion sharing research can build.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model that describes when helping is considered helping from the recipient’s point of view.

The theoretical model was conceptually developed by drawing upon attribution theory, self-consistency theory and social cognitive theory, as well as relevant literature.

The authors propose that receiving help encompasses three sequential stages: the pre-help-receiving stage, the help-receiving stage and the post-help-receiving stage. Additionally, the authors theorize that the more other-oriented helping motives are attributed by the recipient, the more likely the recipient views the helper’s help as helping, that the more self-esteem preserving behaviors along with helping actions the recipient receives from the helper, the more likely the recipient views the helper’s help as helping and that the more gaps between actual and desired level of task performance are closed by the helper’s help, the more likely the recipient views the helper’s help as helping.

From a theoretical standpoint, this paper offers a process approach that may guide future research on help receiving in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying structure of employees' justice perceptions in the context of their organizations' performance appraisal practices.

Ten multi‐item scales were designed to measure the perceived fairness of performance appraisal practices. A nested confirmatory factor analysis of employee responses (n=188) compared the four justice dimensions (i.e. procedural, distributive, interpersonal, informational) to five plausible alternatives. Construct validity was demonstrated through a structural equation model of matched employee and supervisor responses (n=117).

The confirmatory factor analysis showed evidence of four distinct but highly correlated justice constructs. Results supported hypothesized relationships between procedural justice and helpful behaviors toward the organization via appraisal system satisfaction; distributive justice with appraisal satisfaction; and interpersonal and informational justice and helpful behaviors toward the supervisor via supervisor satisfaction.

This study underscores the importance of fostering perceptions of justice in the context of performance appraisal. The scales developed in this study could be used to isolate potential problems with an organization's performance appraisal practices. Originality/value – The paper integrates prior research concerning the positive effects of procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational justice on affective and behavioral responses towards performance appraisals.

We link counterproductive work behavior (CWB) (particularly workplace bullying) and organizational citizenship behavior to individual narcissism and organizational culture. We link counterproductive work culture in turn to organizations' leader(s), enumerating multiple roles an executive may play: actor, target, ignorer, enabler, rewarder, or, ultimately, champion of change. Both positive (citizenship) and negative (counterproductive) behaviors are associated with narcissism, a complex, multifaceted set of personality characteristics, primarily based on the individual's cognitive interpretation of self and the world. Theoretical interpretations of reactive CWB (stressor-emotion-control theory) and instrumental CWB (theory of planned behavior) support the development of coaching and counseling interventions. Cognitive behavioral theory (CBT)-based prescriptive executive coaching is proposed as a promising mechanism for redirecting narcissistic organizational players from counterproductive to citizenship schemas and behaviors.