The Personal Costs of Citizenship Behavior: The Relationship Between Individual Initiative and Role Overload, Job Stress, and Work–Family Conflict Mark C. Bolino University of Oklahoma William H. Turnley Kansas State University By and large, prior research has focused on the positive aspects of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). D. W. Organ and K. Ryan (1995), though, suggest that individuals who engage in high levels of OCB may become overloaded. This research explores the relationship between a specific type of OCB—namely, individual initiative—and role overload, job stress, and work–family conflict. Results from a sample of 98 couples indicate that higher levels of individual initiative (as assessed by the spouse or significant other) are associated with higher levels of employee role overload, job stress, and work–family conflict. The findings also suggest that the relationship between individual initiative and work–family conflict is moderated by gender, such that the relationship is stronger among women than among men. Some implications of this work and directions for future research are discussed as well. Keywords: organizational citizenship behavior, job stress, role overload, work–family conflict Organ (1997) defined organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as “contributions to the maintenance and enhancement of the social and psychological context that supports task perfor- mance” (p. 91). Typically, then, employees who engage in OCBs are those who go the extra mile for their organizations and thereby contribute to its effective functioning. Prior research on OCB has generally focused on one of the following two areas. First, a number of studies have sought to identify the anteced- ents of citizenship behavior (LePine, Erez, & Johnson, 2002; Organ & Ryan, 1995). Research along these lines has suggested that employees who are satisfied with their jobs, are committed to their organizations, and feel they are treated fairly are likely to engage in OCBs (Organ & Ryan, 1995). In addition, other research has indicated that employees who are given satisfying tasks and work for transformational or supportive leaders are also likely to exhibit OCBs (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). Second, researchers have sought to understand the relationship between OCB and organizational-level indicators of performance (Podsakoff et al., 2000). Generally speaking, this research has suggested that OCBs contribute to the effective functioning of organizations by creating social capital, increasing efficiency, and enhancing productivity (Bolino, Turnley, & Bloodgood, 2002; Organ, 1988). Moreover, several empirical studies have indicated that OCBs are related to some indicators of organizational effec- tiveness (e.g., Koys, 2001; Podsakoff et al., 2000; Walz & Niehoff, 2000). Clearly, previous work in this area has broadened our under- standing of the antecedents of OCB and the implications of such behavior for the effective functioning of organizations. As noted by Organ and Ryan (1995), though, few studies have sought to understand the potential implications of OCB for employees. Moreover, whereas citizenship behavior may affect organizations in several positive ways, it is also possible that engaging in such behaviors could have negative consequences for the employees who do so. In particular, Organ and Ryan suggested that being a good organizational citizen could contribute to employee stress and overload. In addition, there may be other personal costs (such as work–family conflict) that accrue to individuals who engage in high levels of citizenship behavior. To date, however, the idea that OCBs could have a negative impact on the employees who per- form them has largely been ignored. This omission is particularly troubling because the findings of a number of recent studies have indicated that, increasingly, employ- ers are asking their employees to put forth more effort, work longer hours, and be more accessible (e.g., Bond, Galinsky, & Swanberg, 1997; Hochschild, 1997; Schor, 1991). Indeed, Williams (1999) described how contemporary organizations see the ideal worker as one who “works full time and overtime and takes little or no time off for childbearing and child rearing” (p. 1). That is, the ideal worker is an employee who not only demonstrates high levels of task performance but also engages in high levels of contextual performance or OCB as well. However, whereas being a “good soldier” is a reality for many employees today, there have been few studies investigating the ways in which the “good soldier syn- drome” (Organ, 1988) might affect those employees personally. This research, then, explores how a specific type of OCB— Mark C. Bolino, Division of Management, Michael F. Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma; William H. Turnley, Department of Management, College of Business Administration, Kansas State Univer- sity. Mark C. Bolino was at the Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, at the time of research. Support for this project was provided by the Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mark C. Bolino, Division of Management, Michael F. Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma, 307 West Brooks, Suite 206, Norman, OK 73019. E-mail: mbolino@ou.edu Journal of Applied Psychology Copyright 2005 by the American Psychological Association 2005, Vol. 90, No. 4, 740 –748 0021-9010/05/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.740 740