We recognize on the other hand that this research has limitations. One limitation
is related to the cross-sectional data in the survey study, which prevent us from
making causal inferences of our findings. For instance, while we found that cooperation
orientation was positively related to in-role and extra-role performance, the
direction of the cause and effect is not certain. It could be that engaging in more
OCB makes a person more cooperation-oriented. Studies with a longitudinal
design will be helpful to provide more direct evidence. Another limitation has to do
with the generalizability of our findings. Even though we tested the psychometric
properties of the two scales with both college students and organizational employees,
we were not able to test them in other samples from different work and cultural
contexts.