Understanding and Promoting Teachers’ OCB During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Teaching has always been viewed as a humble and selfless profession. Teaching styles, pedagogies, boards and formats continue to change and evolve with time, but a teacher’s role remains pivotal in shaping the minds and lives of impressionable learners. When the pandemic struck, teachers stood tall as the supporting structures of the educational system. What helped many educational institutions remain steady through the pandemic was their teachers going beyond the responsibilities of their job and engaging in prosocial behaviours towards their students, co-teachers and their organisations as a whole. This act of selfless service is formally referred to as Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). The present chapter explores the factors that impact OCB among teachers, namely job crafting, job satisfaction, psychological capital and institutional leadership. It also probes into the impact that OCB has on the performance of teachers on the job. It provides research-based recommendations to institutions regarding ways to boost teacher citizenship behaviour that will in turn assist in the development of the institution.