Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of self-efficacy and family supportive organizational perceptions (FSOP) on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among engineering college teachers. Design/methodology/approach – Teachers (n=183) from public and private engineering colleges in the southern part of India were selected using purposive sampling technique. Survey method was used to collect data using the following scales: new general self-efficacy scale, teacher OCB scale and FSOP scale. Hierarchical regression analyses was used to test the hypotheses. Findings – Regression analyses showed general self-efficacy having a significant positive effect on all the sub-dimensions of teacher OCB and as well as on the overall OCB score. On the other hand, FSOP had a significant positive impact only on teachers’ OCB towards the institution. In terms of moderation effect, FSOP moderated the relationship between self-efficacy and teachers’ OCB towards the institution. Research limitations/implications – One of the major limitations of this study is its relatively small and region-specific sample. The sample is also limited to engineering college teachers only. Practical implications – The findings from the study reiterate the need to nurture a positive organizational culture towards work-life balance issues in academic institutions. The study also shows that FSOP can be a powerful motivating factor to encourage teachers to participate in institute-level activities. Originality/value – Most of the earlier studies on teacher OCB are in the context of schools but the present study focuses on the role of internal attributes and organizational-level factors in teacher OCB. © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.