Citizenship at Work

Citizenship matters; it can transform countries, states, and local communities.  It can also transform your company. 

Organizational behaviorists have been studying citizenship at work since the late 1970s. The evidence uncovered strongly suggests that when employees choose to be good citizens at work, it makes a difference in having a positive culture.

To determine if you have a culture of good citizenship at work, you might want to seek answers to what extent you think that your employees do these things?

·       Do your employees often ask “How can I help?” 

·       Are they willing to share expertise, knowledge, and information to help improve the effectiveness of others on my team?

·       Do they always try to lend a helping hand to those people on their team that need it?

·       Do they try to resolve unconstructive interpersonal conflicts with their coworkers?

·       Do they touch base with other team members before taking actions that might affect them?

In many respects, having good citizenship at work is about the same as following the principle of the golden rule…

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

When you have good citizenship at work it helps to create a sustainable competitive advantage. When aggregated over time and people, citizenship adds up and helps your organizations become more effective. Studies have shown that across a variety of indicators, organizational citizenship accounted for anywhere from 18 to 38 percent of the variance in performance outcomes.

It starts at the top.  When our leaders help us, they help themselves by encouraging a work environment where the “helping virus” can thrive.  When leadership treats us with courtesy, dignity, and respect, we feel positive at work, and good mood moves people of all personality types to be better citizens.

There’s been a lot written recently about “fairness” in companies.  Sometimes

the hardest thing to do as a citizen is to be fair to people that aren’t fair to you, care about people that don’t care about me, and help people that have thrown you under the bus.  But if you ever hope to have a truly successful company you first have to choose to be good citizens.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net