Impact Of Organizational Citizenship Behavior In An Organization Management Essay

In the modern era of intensive competition, it has become the basic need of each organization to gain and sustain competitive advantage. Now a days, it has become crucial for organizations to have any distinctive features which may be a strong cause of its successful survival in the market place. This goal of successful survival and growth however, cannot be achieved by mere good planning or executive’s efforts until and unless such goal is properly communicated and implemented at all levels of the organization. If we see from each level’s perspective, the role of “employees and personnel” is most prominent phenomenon. Because an organization is only:

“The combination or association of two or more persons for the achievement of some common goal or goals.”

Hence, according to this definition, employees or personnel (the people) are the most important factor for the “Survival, Growth and even success” of any organization in the market place.

The topic under consideration is an important phenomena related to the most important assets (people) of an organization which unfortunately could not be highlighted in past but since the last decades, this topic has become a point of consideration for many researchers. This research is also related to this rapidly growing concept of “Organizational Citizenship Behavior”

Generally, it is considered that, Dennis Organ is the father of OCB who gave the concept of OCB in 1988 in a way of proper definition. But we cannot understand the concept of OCB without considering the first researching work of Katz (1964), who firstly introduced and worked on the concept of OCB. Dennis Organ has enhanced and spread the concept of OCB on the basis of research work done by Katz.

Organ (1988), defines the concept f OCB as:

“Individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that is aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization” (P. 4)

Three significant aspects of Organ’s definition that construct the concept of OCB are:

Firstly, Discretionary Behavior are not a formal part of the job description, and they are performed as the result of their own choice.

Secondly, OCBs go above and beyond the enforceable requirement of the job description.

Finally, OCBs add to overall Organizational efficiency, effectiveness and performance.

Organ’s definition of OCB was greatly criticized because the very nature of the concept was difficult to define operationally or absolutely. The critics mainly questioned whether or not OCB’s were discretionary in nature, as defined by Organ.

In response of such criticism, in 1997 Organ argued that jobs have been gone beyond a clearly and specifically defined tasks and responsibilities and are merged into much more ambiguous and unclear roles and hence, without a properly defined role it becomes difficult to define what is outside or beyond that specific role.

Definitely, every productive act done by everyone on job or work place is not the part of a particular job or task performance. Hence, he said, if every beneficial or useful act performed by an employee at the woks place is the part of “job” then there is no existence of the concept of OCB.

As, we can observe that each and every fruitful and useful action done by employee at workplace is not the part of his job so, OCB exists and plays an crucial role in organizations overall performance. OCB is a complex concept because there is no specific boundary line for workplace behavior here we, explain some dimensions of OCB.

OCB Dimensions:

Basically there are five dimensions of OCB :

Civic Virtue: Virtue means the goodness, moral excellence, kindness and good qualities a person has. Civic virtue is the cultivation of habits of personal living that are claimed to be important for the success of the community.

Altruism: Always helpful behavior.

Thoughtfulness: Considers the effects of an action upon others.

Conscientiousness: Ability to work under pressure (e.g.) stay even over time to complete an assigned tasks.

Commitment to Community: Solid suggestions for useful and beneficial initiatives.

As we can see the that the concept of OCB is very much necessary for the success of any organization as well as it is an ambiguous and unclear concept due to its relationship with behaviors are social study which are always changing. It changes from time to time and place to place, from person to person and from organization to organization.

There are a number of factors which are involved in OCBs which are generally called:

Antecedents

Consequences of OCB

Antecedents of OCB are usually the causes that results or effects in anyways the concept of OCB and on the other hand there are some consequences which are the ultimate result of such causes.

In this research paper, for the sake of better understanding, we have categorized antecedents of OCB into three basic levels:

Individual level ( Trust, Self Monitoring)

Group level (Employee Cooperation, conflict)

Organizational Level (Culture, Structure)

These described antecedents in relation to OCB ultimately result into following consequences like Task Performance, Commitment, turnover, Job Satisfaction, Job stress, loyalty and life time employment etc.

At the individual level we have mainly focused on two variables:

Self Monitoring

Trust

Both of the variables are strongly related to OCB either positively or negatively.

Self monitoring is a tool of measuring one’s own performance or behavior. Usually high self monitoring is positively related to OCB which results in task performance, job satisfaction or commitment etc. Whereas, low self monitoring produces negative impact on OCB resulting in job stress, turnover etc. in the same way, the second variable trust also have strong influence on OCB both, in favorable and unfavorable.

If employees are trusted by their managers and top level management they will be more satisfied and more committed towards their jobs. Similarly if they are not trusted, their performance will decline and results in high turnover and job quit.

In the next step, we have considered the group level variables because in the modern world group and team work is more influential of organizational performance, so we have taken

Employee Conflicts

Employee Cooperation

Are two important variables which directly influence the OCBs in either favorable or unfavorable manner?

It is obvious that if there is more conflict among employees at workplace, their performance will decline and will affect the OCB in negative way resulting in job stress, job satisfaction and high turnover but if there are low employee conflicts are resolved in a very useful and proper way, coordination among employees will enhanced which ultimately results in job satisfaction and high commitment. Similarly, the cooperation among groups and teams positively influence the OCB and results in proper coordination which is a crucial requirement for organization’s success and lack of cooperative behavior results in employee conflicts which influence the OCB in negative sense.

Finally, this research paper is considering organizational level variables which are:

Organizational Structure

Organizational Culture

Organizational Structure is the basic element which affects the OCB in any organization. OCBs are workplace behaviors which are always influenced by organizational structure. Organizational structure is comprised of many components which include, job design, task assignment, chain of command and span of control centralization and decentralization etc. These all factors are strongly influential on OCB behaviors of any organization. In this respect, we have taken the variable “Formulization” which has both positive and negative aspects and impacts on OCB.

If the firm is highly formulized then, there will be low employee empowerment which results in job dissatisfaction and turn over. If organizational structure is less formulized and there is proper space of flexibility to adjust the rapid changes in environment then, employees will be more satisfied with the jobs and performance is improved. On the other hand we have taken the most important factor of any organization which is called “organizational culture”. Organizational culture also includes many factors like norms, values, participations in decision making, etc. all these elements have a strong impact on OCB but for the sake our convenience we have chosen only one variable “participation in decision making” in our research study.

It will help us to conclude that if the employees are properly empowered to take part in organizational decisions, they will be more satisfied and committed towards their jobs and OCBs will be favorably impacted but on the other hand, if there is no participation of employees in organizational decisions, then employees will feel ignorant and job dissatisfaction is resulted, which has strong negative impacts on OCB. Hence, in this research paper, it is attempted to cover major areas which impact the OCB in either positive or negative way. Organizational citizenship behaviors are a special type of work behavior that are explained as all acts of employees which are beneficial for the organization and are not a formal part of job or work performance.

Such extra roles play an important role towards the success of an organization and this study will explore the impact of antecedence and consequences of OCB on the performance of any organization. So, it will be very helpful to understand the importance of this emerging concept of OCB in the organizations’ success or failure.

1.1Problem statement

“What are the antecedents and consequences of OCB?

What are the antecedents and consequences of OCB? Will be the problem statement. How these antecedents Individual level Antecedents (Trust, Self Monitoring), Group level Antecedents (Employee Cooperation, employee conflict), Organizational Level Antecedents (Culture, Structure)” affect the task performance, satisfaction, turnover, lifetime employment, commitment, loyalty and job stress. How it (OCB) will increase task performance, satisfaction, lifetime employment, commitment, loyalty. And how it will decrease the turnover and job stress.

1.2 Objective of the research:

The main aim of this study research would be to identify the effects of self monitoring, trust, employee conflict, employee co-operation, participation in decision making and formulization on OCB . And how OCB will decrease the turnover and job stress, and increase task performance, loyalty, commitment etc.

The other objectives of this research include the following:

To understand how individual level antecedents affects task performance, satisfaction, lifetime employment, commitment, loyalty.

To understand how Group level antecedents affects task performance, satisfaction, lifetime employment, commitment, loyalty.

To understand how Organizational level antecedents affects task performance, satisfaction, lifetime employment, commitment, loyalty.

To understand how Individual level antecedents affects and decrease the turnover and job stress.

To understand how Group level antecedents affects and decrease the turnover and job stress.

To understand how Organizational level antecedents affects and decrease the turnover and job stress.

To understand the scope of the OCB.

To explore the importance of OCB in organization’s success or failure.

1.3 Significance of this research

2. Literature Review:

Self Monitoring and trust:

In 1991 Williams and Anderson’s research maintain for two extensive categories of OCB: behaviors, like altruism and courtesy (Organ, 1988), intended for exclusively toward individuals (OCBI) and behaviors, like generalized conformity (Organ, 1988) aimed at toward the organization in general (OCBO).

Distinctively, we believe that self-monitoring is more strongly related to the interpersonal magnitude of OCB. High self-monitors are more likely to be sensitive to others’ need for help, one of the proportions of OCB, and may be better able to adjust their own behavior to provide such help. Further research argued that high self-monitors may simply be more skilled communicators and own better interpersonal skills and more easily fit into place in OCBs when necessary.

In 2001 Rioux and Penner argued that prosaically values were more strongly related to OCBI than OCBO. Prosocial values include helping others, being concerned for others’ feelings, and being friendly and courteous.

Again in 2001 Turnley and Bolino recommended that high self monitors can use intuition management plans more effectively than low self-monitors. We believe that it might be easier for high self monitors to express prosocial values as well as manage imitation because of their ability to read and respond to social situations. Thus, it is likely that these individuals will be more suitable to execute OCB aimed at other individuals.

Banaji and Prentice in 1994 suggested that Tendency to trust is a relational build which place the self in relationship to other individuals and in relationship to organizations or collectivities.

In 1980 Rotter verified that trusting individuals respected the human rights of others and were liked by and were required as friends.

Enlarge this sense; we consider that trusting individuals would value relationships with others, would get involved in the supportive group of people, and, based on their trusting orientation, would have positive organizational experience. Positive relationships with others by trusting in the organization would make stronger to the organization and improve the individual’s sense of

self importance as a contributing organizational member. In contrast, individuals with a low tendency to trust would not get involved because they would be disturbed that others would avoid.

Jackson and Harkins in 1985 & Schnake in 1991 argued that not too little to be an `easy target that these individuals don’t develop strong relationships and are less likely to get positive feelings of self-worth as organizational members because they are not trusting and are not involved.

Blau in 1964 presented a theory which suggested that for those who are trusting, social exchange would predict positive relationships based on reciprocity (something done mutually or in return)

In 1960 Gouldner argued that these positive experiences based on in the organization should be self-reinforcing and lead, in ingredient to a positive sense of self-worth as an organizational member.

This is dependable with Worchel’s (1979) observation that trust leads to living an empowered life from others and in the organization.

Similarly Alcock and Mansell’s in 1977 outcome that trust leads to sustained cooperation because individuals believe that others will respond & trust. This leads to positive relationship with OCB.

Accordingly, those with a tendency to trust will have a positive sense of self-worth based on positive experiences as members of the cooperative community and this will lead to higher organization-based self-esteem.

Korman in 1970 present a theory which argued that we expected a positive relationship between organizational-based trust and organizational citizenship behavior and propose that tendency to trust will influence OCB, in part, because of its effects on OBSE. Those who characteristically trust others will get involved and build positive expectations about the relationships.

These interactions will generally be positive over time due to the norm of reciprocity and will provide the trusting individual with a sense of being a worthwhile and valuable member of the community. Based on the need to maintain consistency, the trusting individual will engage in OCB.

Employee Conflicts and employee co-operation:

As the global competition is continuously increasing, the more is being expected from the organization’s employees in the form of greater effort and productivity. the organizations having team-based structures need more cooperation among members as it contributes in creating opportunities for innovation, business success and social responsibilities. Another reason for the need of cooperation among employees is the increasing complexity of job to perform with greater demands for service orientations and escalating requirements for technological competence. It is becoming more difficult for business organizations to provide all work behaviors required in formal job descriptions.

Conflicts are a dynamic feature which has both positive and negative impact on workplace citizenship behavior. The negative impacts of conflict can reduce the effectiveness of organization’s efforts. But, if the conflicts among a group are properly managed than it will provide benefits by promoting close interaction and producing new, innovatine solutions and decisions. (Omoluabi 2001)

Cohen 2007b; Cohen & Keren 2008; Kirkman & Shapiro 2001; Pearson & Chong 1997; Wasti 2003 have done research on the relationship between employee conflicts, commitments and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and performance.

Fischer and Smith (2006) says that employees are belong to different social and cultural backgrounds which bring different career aspirations and value systems to their work and in consequence effect the organization citizenship behavior within the organization.

Jehn and Mannix had conducted a research which showed that conflicts among employees make decision making more effective. When members mutually discuss on problems it will results in understanding and commitment among employees will increase by the trust and harmony that is the outcome of conflict.

(Tjosvold 2003; Jehn & Mannix, 2001)

Employee conflicts make it easy to understand the overall goals of a group which increase the satisfaction and loyality among group members.This will ultimately enhance the communication among team members and skills of members. (Amason 1995)

If the conflicts among group members develop dispute amongst co-workers it could prohibit chances of success. The concequences of all this will be the loss of satisfaction among employees and inefficient performance of the firm. (Amason, Hochwater, Thompson, & Harrison, 1995).

OCB helps in making an organization most suitable place to perform optimally for a team.

Katz (1964) argued that worker’s intension to support and aid other co-workers is essential and he gave emphasis on the importance of ésprit de corps and loyalty as major factors to the success of the organization. This clearly shows the importance of OCB as a climate factor contributing towards the effective performance.

Contribution of Barnard and the Hawthorne Studies

In The Functions of the Executive, Chester Barnard claimed that economic Explanations of organizational functioning were overstated and social explanations were Neglected:

The relatively developed theories so effectively constructed by (Adam Smith) and his successors depressed the interest in the specific social processes within Which economic factors are merely one phase, and greatly overemphasized economic interests (Barnard, 1938/1968: introduction).

He discussed five social factors in his description and examination of cooperation within business organizations:

*Interactions between individuals.

*Interactions between an individual and a group.

*The individual as the object of cooperative behavior influences.

*Social purpose and effectiveness of cooperation.

*Individual motives and cooperative efficiency (Barnard 1938/1968: 40).

Four of these factors served as precursors to research perspectives concerning the modern concept of OCB, while the remaining factor (number three above) referred to issues of executive influences on individual cooperation.

Barnard emphasized that his theory of formal organizations

“Always an impersonal system of coordinated human efforts; always there is purpose as the

Coordinating and unifying principle” (1938/1968: 94-95).

Barnard’s description of the new idea of the informal organization was based on his view that “Group interaction creates a network of values, perceptions, and expectations that are transmitted to group members in the form of expected behaviors through roles” (Scott, 1992: 113).

Chen, Chen, & Meindl (1998) adopted a specific four-dimensional

Perspective on cooperation that utilized a behavioral pattern frame (Agyle, 1991;

Tjosvold, 1986) with the following individual behaviors:

Exchange and combine information, ideas, and other resources

Assist others

Engage in constructive discussion

Support and encourage others

Employees who have a tendency to support the welfare of the collective appear

more likely to perform the small, discretionary, yet helpful acts which in the

aggregate promote the effective functioning of the work group or organization.

(Moorman and Blakely, 1995: 139)

Organizational structure (formulization):

The organizational structure means clear and coherent job arrangements within an organization. The structure basically encompasses different elements which jointly form it. Organizational culture has deep impact in forming the organizational citizenship behavior. On the basis of structure elements, the organizations are classified into two broad categories “mechanistic organizations and organic organizations”. (Stephen P.Robbins & Marry coutler).

Organic organizational structure is more OCB oriented as compare to mechanistic organizational structure, because it is more cross functional team oriented, cross hieratical teams oriented, free flow of information, wide span of control, decentralized and low formalization is existing in such organizational setups.

Because of more flexible organizational structure the employees are more confident about their decisions, as they know that top authorities encourage them and they would be never punished for any wrong decision. (Stephen P.Robbins & Marry coutler).

Similarly the Van Yperen and colleagues suggested that perceived supervisor support gives the confidence to the employees to participation in decision-making which helps in shaping the best OCB.

As earlier mentioned the organizational structure play important role in developing OCB, on the other hand OCB also makes the impact on organizational structure effectiveness; as employees will be more willing to work in teams and taking corrective actions towards different problems.OCB should have a particular impact on the overall effectiveness of organizations by adding to the social framework of the work environment (Todd, 2003).

Now the Organizations have become more relying on interdependent social and departmental networks, which have changed the nature of core work activities within the individual work units which increases the interactions and coordination among workers (Ostroff, 1999).

Thus, it is more suitable to believe that the flexible organizational structure have also affected working efficiencies and interaction processes of individual employees, and also have greater impact on the workplace attitudes of employees . (Saavedra et al., 1993; Van der Vegt et al., 1999).

While the work setting can be a powerful determinant of employee behavior, employees’ personal characteristics can also impact the level of OCB demonstrated in an organization, some employees freedom to make decision and trust of supervisor to show best performance otherwise the cannot act in the best way . For example, one characteristic of the individual that has been examined is the affective state or disposition of the employee. Positive affect has been shown to be a correlate of OCB (Organ and Konovsky, 1989).

Basically the purpose of this paper is to determine how the interaction of an interdependent work environment and employee personality affects on OCB. First, it is intended to show that work¬‚ow in the form of structural interdependence (Wageman,2001) fundamentally in¬‚uences OCB in a positive direction.

It is argued that, as the tasks and goals of an individual work unit become more interdependent, civility, correlated and cooperation become more evident, and by de¬nition, the result is an

increase in OCB level in an organization. (Nielson et al., 2002)

so from all this discussion it is clear that Employees both in¬‚uence and are in¬‚uenced by their environment, culture and structure of the organization in which they are performing their duties, in order for personality traits to be expressed, trait-relevant situations may be required (Kenrick and Funder, 1988).

Organization Culture (participation in decision making):

Thibaut and Walker research about the criteria decision making, they observed it from the following two perspectives:

1) The ability to voice one’s views and arguments during a procedure (process control),

2) The ability to influence the actual outcome itself (decision control)

Both these points have helped in understanding the decision making ability of employees in any organization. (Thibaut and Walker)

In their studies, dulebohn & Ferris found that a positive association exists between participation in decision making and Organizational citizenship Behavior. In line with these findings, Zhou Hao got a chance to present the information about influence of decision making on OCB.

the study by Dulebohn. (Dulebohn& Ferris)

Studies by Lind and Barley suggested that relationship between participation in decision making and OCB can be explained as employees should be allowed to participate in organizational decisions so that they may be able to better understand their job and duties which will ultimately enhance their performance. (Lind and Barley)

Guangjin Zhang, Gabriel Lee, Xiehua Zou in his research found the relationship and influence of participation in decision making and OCB in any organization. He argued that employees should be allowed to take part in decision making processes to enhance their abilities and better understanding of their responsibilities. (Guangjin Zhang, Gabriel Lee, Xiehua Zou)

Somech and Drach-Zahavy, Both of them found that the organizational culture is the most important variable which can strongly influence the OCB in any organization and specialy towards the overall performance of the firm.( Somech and Drach-Zahavy, 2004)

Schein found in his studies that organizational culture is an important tool which co-rdinates the vlues, norms and share beliefs of the employees of an organization. (Schein 1990)

Senge found that the culture of an organization promotes the sense of commonality of purpose and strategic thinking and develops organizational system approach. He argued that an environment where all the employees are ready to help each other will be more effective than an atmosphere where employees do not cooperate with each other. (Senge 1993)

3. Theoretical and conceptual framework

Inventory of the variable:

Followings are most important variables.

Independent Variable

Antecedents

Trust

Self Monitoring

Employees Cooperation

Employee’s conflicts

Culture

Structure

Dependent Variable

Consequences

Task Performance

Satisfaction

Lifetime employment

Commitment

Loyalty

turnover

Job stress

Research Model

Task Performance

Commitment

Self Monitoring

INDIVIDUAL

LEVEL

Trust

Loyalty

Job satisfaction

OCB

Employee conflict

GROUP

LEVEL

Employee cooperation

Job stress

Participation in decision making

Employee turnover

ORGANIZATIONAL

LEVEL

Life time employment

Formulization

3.1. Description of Variables:

Trust (reliance on another person or entity)

Trust means being able to predict what other people will do and what situations will occur. If we can surround ourselves with people we trust, then we can create a safe present and an even better future.

Self Monitoring

the degree to which a person is aware of social demands on and expectations of their behaviour, and is able to modify it accordingly

Employees Cooperation

Cooperation is an essential component in an effective team-based environment, but it may be difficult to measure. One option to consider is asking the employee and the employee’s colleagues to document examples of the employee’s efforts to build and maintain relations in order to complete projects or address problems.

Employee’s conflicts

Workplace conflict includes any type of conflict which takes place within a workplace or among workers, potentially including conflict between employees out of work hours.

Culture(participation in decision making)

At the outset, it might be useful to agree on what we actually mean by the terms “participation” and “empowerment”, which are sometimes interchanged.

One would hardly seek a special definition of “participation” as the meaning of this term appears to be self evident. Participation is simply a process of taking part in different spheres of societal life: political, economic, social, cultural and others.

Structure(formulization)

The extent to which work roles are structured in an organization, and the activities of the employees are governed by rules and procedures.

4. Hypotheses

H1: Self monitoring among employees is positively correlated with organizational citizenship behavior.

H2: Trust among employees is positively correlated with organizational citizenship behavior.

H3: Employee’s conflict at group level is negatively correlated with organizational citizenship behavior.

H4: Employee’s cooperation at group is positively & significantly correlated with organizational citizenship behavior.

H5: Formalization at organizational level is negatively & significantly correlated with organizational citizenship behavior.

H6: Participation of employees in decision making is significantly and positively correlated with organizational citizenship behavior.

5. Research Design

5.1.1Purpose of the study:

The Research would apply the analytical approach to discover relationship of different factors with OCB. And we categorized these factors into two main categories. First one is the Antecedents of the OCB, which are Individual level, Group level and Organizational level. We will see how these factors at each level affect the OCB. And our focus will be on Self monitoring, Trust, Employee cooperation, Employee conflicts, organization structure and organization culture. Second one is Consequences of the OCB. And it will show that how OCB affect different factors like Task performance, Turn over, commitment, satisfaction, loyalty, life time employment, and job stress. The study will show that these factors have positive or negative relationship with OCB. So this study will give a comprehensive model for HR directors to focus on those factors which can lead to OCB and it will affect the overall performance of the organization.

5.1.2 Types of Investigation

This would be a Co-relational type of investigation as different factors in antecedents have a direct or indirect relationship with OCB and also the relationship between OCB and its consequences, which ultimately affect the performance of the employees.

5.1.3 Study Setting

The research will be conducted in the natural environment where employees are functioning in their organizations and since the study would be co-relational in its nature so the study setting would be non-contrived.

5.1.4 Unit of Analysis

The Unit of analysis in this research would be individuals because in this study the impact of OCB would be considered on employee’s performance so individuals will be targeted to get responses.

5.1.5 Researcher’s Interference

This research will be conducted in the non-contrived natural environment so the researcher’s interference will be constrained to some extent. Because we will support the respondent when they have any haziness regarding questionnaire so far the conclusion and deduction will base on the opinion of other people. So the interference of researcher would be set to minimum.

5.1.6 Time Horizon

This study would be cross-sectional in nature because data will be collected once over a period to fulfill the requirements of Course.

Data Collection Methods

For the purpose of this research, and in order to achieve the objectives will be collected and will be used both primary and secondary data. The secondary data will contribute toward the formation of background information, needed by both the researcher in order to build constructively the project and the reader to comprehend more thoroughly the survey outcome.

Primary data will be collected in two ways. Firstly, a questionnaire will be filled from employees working in the organization. Secondly, interviews will be also carried out with different Groups and also with the Top level management of organization to cover all aspects of the research.

Sample Design

5.3.1 Population

The population of Daska, Sialkot and Gujranwala regional areas of Pakistan would be target population of this study. 300 employees will be selected to get responses.

5.3.2 Sampling Unit

Individual would be sampling unit because this research will focus on OCB of an employee, which ultimately affect the performance of the organization.

5.3.3 Sampling Frame

Sampling frame of this research will consist of the organizations from these three different sectors:

Banks

Educational Institutions ( Public and Private)

Industries

Sampling technique

We will use random sampling method.