The Role of Gender Expectations and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors on Teaching Evaluations

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are a much-discussed and debated construct in the literature. When examining behaviors not explicitly detailed in job descriptions, ambiguity and subjective expectations about who and how these actions should be carried out naturally occur. Gender role expectations may also create a more complex situation in which workers are evaluated differentially due to gender stereotypes and expectations. This research examined the interplay of gender role expectations for the engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors in a university teaching setting. Two studies examined how gender stereotypes impact student evaluations. Study 1 was an experimental design, which used a university student sample to examine the affects of three factors (i.e., gender of evaluated professor, high vs. low levels of male-typed OCBs, and high vs. low levels of female-typed OCBs) on student evaluations of teaching. Study 2 employed a university faculty survey to examine levels of OCBs reported by male and female faculty, how much faculty believed these behaviors were related to student evaluations of their teaching, and the relationships between behaviors, beliefs and work-related attitudes. Overall results indicated that professor gender in either study had little affect, and the gender type of OCBs and workplace attitudes were important when examining the relationships between OCB performance and evaluations.