Title

The construct validity of conceptual and operational definitions of contextual performance and related constructs

Authors

Authors

E. F. Stone-Romero; K. Alvarez;L. F. Thompson

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Hum. Resour. Manage. Rev.

Keywords

Contextual performance; Construct validity; Organizational citizenship; behavior; Role-taking theory; Task performance; ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR; TASK-PERFORMANCE; IMPACT; TURNOVER; Management

Abstract

A number of theorists and researchers have distinguished between the constructs of task performance (i.e., non-discretionary work behaviors) and contextual performance (CP), as well as the related constructs of organizational citizenship behavior, prosocial behavior, and extra-role behavior. In addition, measures of CP have been used in a large number of studies that have attempted to show both their validity and utility. However, an analysis of the conceptual and operational definitions of the CP reveals a number of serious construct validity problems. For example, items in extant CP measures index what are typically regarded as required (non-discretionary) work behaviors. Thus, we describe several CP-related construct validity problems, and illustrate their nature using data from a sample of 98 job descriptions from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the online Occupational Information Network. The same data showed that behaviors that are generally viewed as representative of CP are frequently regarded as being exemplars of task performance. The important implications of the confounding of task performance and CP constructs are considered. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Human Resource Management Review

Volume

19

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

104

Last Page

116

WOS Identifier

WOS:000281648900005

ISSN

1053-4822

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