International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 5, No. 5; April 2014 125 Dark Side of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB): Testing a Model between OCB, Social Loafing, and Organizational Commitment Harun ŞEŞEN Department of Management Turkish Military Academy Deaconship Ankara Turkey Semih SORAN Özyeğin University Professional Flight Program PO box 34794, Istanbul, Turkey Ebru CAYMAZ Marmara University Eğitim Mh., 34722 Kadıköy/İstanbul, Turkey Abstract The purpose of this study is to contribute to the organizational citizenship behaviour literature by testing a model that combines organizational citizenship, social loafing and organizational commitment. We used structural equation modelling and tested the model by collecting questionnaires from high school teachers and their supervisors. Our findings indicate that, as hypothesized, teachers’ organizational citizenship behaviour towards individuals causes more social loafing by their colleagues, and that the social loafing behaviour of these co- workers results in more social loafing by the teachers themselves. Also, social loafing by co-workers has a negative impact on teachers’ commitment to the school, and their commitment has a negative effect on their own social loafing. Keywords: Organizational citizenship, social loafing, organizational commitment. Introduction Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is employee behaviour that is not compulsory in job descriptions, and is neither rewarded nor punished by organizational management (Podsakoff et al ., 2000; Tang and Ibrahim, 1998). OCB was conceptualized by Organ and his colleagues (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Smith et al., 1983) and described as “individual behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization” (Organ, 1988). OCB has been a popular organizational factor in organizational literature over recent years (Podsakoff et al., 2000) and, perhaps because of that popularity, it has generally been presumed to be desirable employee behaviour in working life; it’s possible negative consequences have received very little attention. The previous research on OCB has proved that the construct is a contributory factor for organizational well-being, and many scholars have mentioned its value in organizational success and performance. Cohen and Vigoda-Gadot (2000), Podsakoff and Mackenzie (1994) and Podsakoff et al. (1997) have stated many positive outcomes of OCB: increasing the productivity of co-workers, helping managers to direct the organization, making it possible for managers to use their resources effectively, facilitating coordination between team members, etc. Rego and Cunha (2008) found that the branches of two insurance companies in which employees displayed more OCB were also the most effective branches. Thus, based on the previous studies, a link between OCB and positive outcomes can easily be established, but this favourable attitude towards OCB raises many interesting questions and leaves the possible “dark side” of OCB unexplored (Bolino et al., 2004). Although the dominant approach to the OCB construct is positive, some researchers have drawn attention to its negative aspects.