Examination of the Effects of Perceived Accountability and Behavioral Norms on Performance Elements: What Would Make People Choose to Help Others or Themselves?

Since contextual performance (CP) was incorporated into the performance domain, the literature on performance elements has consistently shown that CP contributes to the overall organizational effectiveness as much as task performance (TP) yet in a different way. Although the literature suggests that in a prescriptive sense both CP and TP should be pursued because of their unique contributions, it is unlikely in a descriptive sense that a job incumbent can actually carry out both performance elements at the same time to the same level because of situational constraints, such as limited resources. This study proposes that a job incumbent is likely to adjust the portions of these performance elements in the total overall performance package by considering various factors, such as the perceived interrelationship among performance elements, his/her official job contract, and what other people think about his/her job. With a conceptual model that identifies three performance elements (i.e., job dedication, interpersonal facilitation, and task performance) and relates them to perceived accountability and behavioral norms, it was hypothesized that both interpersonal facilitation and task performance are affected by job dedication. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that a particular performance element (e.g., task performance) is affected not only by perceived accountability and/or behavioral norms for the element (e.g., task performance) in a positive way but also by those for an alternative element (e.g., interpersonal facilitation) in a negative way. The result of a series of covariance structure analyses on a 364 supervisor-subordinate dyadic sample generally supported the premise. Some implications of this finding both for future research and for managers are discussed.