Committees are ubiquitous throughout institutions of higher education. Identifying conduct that is conducive to committee work is a precursor to exploring why some individuals engage in committees and others do not. Using qualitative methods, this study explores organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB) exhibited and observed by university professional staff in the context of university committees. University administrators identify exemplary behaviours in committees that conform to OCB criteria (i.e., voluntary, exceeding job expectations and without expectation of reward) which are differentiated from normative committee behaviours. Participants agree that 'active engagement', a form of civic virtue OCB, is an aggregation of eight second-order behaviours that collectively improve committee performance. Recommendations for future research directions are also discussed.