Employee Involvement and Organizational Citizenship : Implications for Labor Law Reform and 'Lean Production'

Using data from surveys of employees and their supervisors in eight companies in 1992, the authors examine how each of two forms of employee involvement affected an important dimension of individual performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), defined as individual discretionary behavior that promotes the organization and is not explicitly rewarded. Involvement in work organization increased OCB both indirectly, by changing the job characteristics of individual tasks, and directly, independent of such changes. In contrast, involvement in decisions governing employment practices had only small indirect effects on OCB and no direct effect. These results inform the contemporary debate in labor law concerning the appropriate scope for employee involvement plans as well as the debate about the mechanism through which new production systems affect employee performance