Research
The underlying theory of organizational citizenship behavior was sustained by the findings in all five studies reviewed. Overall, the results demonstrated that both perceived superior support and the organizational value
of collectivism promote teachers' OCB. The findings consistently demonstrated that four of the dimensions of OCB, namely altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, and civic virtue were positively related to perceived supervisor support, climate, and increased student achievement (DiPaola, Tarter, & Hoy, 2005; DiPaola & Tschannen-Moran, 2001; Oplatka, 2006; DiPaola & Hoy, 2005, Somech & Ron, 2007). In these studies, organizational citizenship positively and significantly related to collegial leadership of the principal (r =.23, p<.01 to r =.67, p<.01), teacher professionalism (r = .83, p<.01 to r = .92, p<.01), students passing proficiency tests for reading (r = .30, p<.01), and mathematics (r = .34, p<.01).
All but one study used questionnaires that were reformatted to meet the needs of the educational arena; these instruments were initially developed in the business sector by Smith, Organ, and Near. Once reformatted, the questionnaires underwent testing to ensure reliability and validity. These studies may have benefitted from follow up interviews with a subsample of the entire population to reinforce the construct and clarify certain understandings. The one qualitative study examined, though not considered a valid and reliable study, attempted to examine the same ideals as the quantitative studies. This study would have benefitted from an additional standardized instrument and more comprehensive notes for the readers to help ensure replication.
It is important to note that due to self reporting, there may be hidden biases present and principals/supervisors may show bias towards certain individuals as well as rating all categories too high or too low. Researchers should be aware that individuals tend to be affected by environment and the tests may be administered inconsistently. Conditions at the faculty meetings may not be conducive for research on the chosen day. Overall emotional condition of the respondents should be considered; responses may vary due to sickness or a bad day/week an individual might be experiencing. Information may vary due to the individual administering the instrument; questionnaires don't probe deeply into the construct of organizational citizenship to reach core beliefs, attitudes, and inner experiences; interviews are open ended but may be administered improperly leading to biases by the respondent. Though questionnaires allow for sampling a larger population at a low cost, many of the studies did not have an adequate sample size and therefore cannot be generalized to other populations.