Abstract Public services worldwide have been subject to
externally imposed reforms utilizing tools such as financial
incentives and performance targets. The adverse impact of such
reforms on a public service ethos has been claimed, but rarely
demonstrated. Individuals within organizations work beyond
their formal contracts of employment, described as Organiza-
tional Citizenship Behavior (OCB), to further organizational
interests. Given New Public Management reform and the sub-
sequent contextual changes in the way in which public sector
organizations are managed and funded, the present study the-
orizes that OCB directed towards the organization may be
‘crowded-out’. This article tests the relationships between
public service ethos and OCB and it presents empirical evi-
dence from a study in England (n = 433) of the ability of each
dimension of this ethos to predict OCB.