Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

11-2023

Abstract

Under conditions of economic threat, such as during economic downturns, organizations can benefit from employees’ willingness to go beyond the call of duty and engage in organization-directed citizenship behavior (OCBO). Yet, such behavior is discretionary and competes for time with employees’ other interests and priorities. I integrate life history theory with the temporal dilemma perspective on organizational citizenship behavior to propose that childhood environments sensitize individuals to prioritize different goals in response to economic threat later in life. Consistent with strategies for responding to threat that are functional in their childhood environments, employees from wealthier backgrounds respond to economic threat by focusing on the future and allocating more time to OCBO, whereas employees from poorer backgrounds exhibit the opposite response. Two pre-registered multi-source field surveys found support for the theory and also showed that the effects of economic threat may lead to a reproduction of childhood inequalities by impacting employees’ promotion potential. A pre-registered experiment replicated the effects on future focus and OCBO and found that they can be attenuated through a future focus induction. I discuss implications for research on employee responses to economic threat, influences of early-life conditions on employee psychology and behavior later in life, and organizational dynamics as drivers of inequality.

Keywords

Economic threat, Organizational citizenship behavior, OCBO, Life history theory, Temporal dilemma

Discipline

Applied Behavior Analysis | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Volume

179

First Page

1

Last Page

16

ISSN

0749-5978

Identifier

10.1016/j.obhdp.2023.104292

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2023.104292

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