Study On Organizational Citizenship Behavior Management Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

"Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)plays very important role for the better functioning of any organization, defined… as behavior that (a) is something extra beyount the basic job description, (b) is without any compensation, and (c) is for the betterment to the organization" (Lambert, S.J., 2006, p. 503-525).  

Another writer explains Organizational Citizenship Behavior as follows:-

"organizational citizenship behavior is behavior that, although not a part of job of employee, but play a very important role for the functioning of organization" (Lee and Allen, 2002, p 132). 

Global competition highlights the importance of innovation, flexibility, responsiveness, and

Cooperativeness for long-term organizational success. Innovative and spontaneous behaviors

Vitality is revealed in protecting organization in an ever-chancing environment. As a necessity,

Organizations will become more dependent on employees who are willing to contribute effective

Organizational functioning, regardless of their formal role requirements. Employee behaviors'

Like citizenship behaviors' become more important and even crucial for organization's survival.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (organizational citizenship behavior) is something which is very different from the usual job performance .if some individual is not involved in this behavior he is not held responsible or liable by the organization but ultimately it is for the betterment of the organization.

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (organizational citizenship behavior s) are the personal choice of the employees he is not paid for this behavior. Organizational citizenship behaviors are having a very positive and clear impact on the functioning of organization. Organizational citizenship behaviors are often considered a subset of employees' conditions and their evaluation on their job

One of the most important thing is to consider is organization loyalty if an employee is loyal with his or her organization he will work beyond his responsibilities and without any reward so its is the responsibility of the employer to create this spirit among the employees . Ultimately it is for the betterment of the organization. Organizational citizenship behavior is discretionary behavior that is not part of an employee formal

Organizational Citizenship Behavior has a major impact on the effective functioning of organization. Therefore organizational citizenship behavior can be construed as the social lubricant of the organizational machinery. Organizational citizenship behavior to be an extra-role behavior i.e. it is any behavior not officially required by the organization, rather its practice depends solely on the consent of employee as a consequence of the organizational environment. organizational citizenship behavior makes the impact on organization effectiveness; organizational citizenship behavior should have a particular impact on the overall effectiveness of organizations by adding to the social framework of the work environment.

World is becoming a global village .things are getting advanced day by day. Today organizations are facing the fierce competition due to the flow of intense awareness and knowledge. In order to cosset the competitive advantage the organizations have to make pace with the increasing change and for this high commitment from employees are needed .so basically Organizational commitment is significantly associated with the organizational citizenship behavior as its construct. And Training and development plans of individuals can be supportive for the organizational objectives if there is a clear sense of direction

Review of selected literature related to Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Few studies have shown that organizational citizenship behavior have very strong link with individuals and organizational performance .there are number of variables associated with Organizational Citizenship Behavior .Like most behaviors, organizational citizenship behavior are probably multi-determined. That is, there is no one single cause of organizational citizenship behavior. Theoretical frameworks for all other classes of organizational behavior, from job performance to turnover to absenteeism, include multiple sources of causation. It makes sense to apply the same rationale to organizational citizenship behavior. Relaxing the "single cause" parameter will keep the search for determinants of organizational citizenship behavior from becoming narrow in focus and exclusionary in conceptualization.

Organ (1988)

Explains in his study that organizational citizenship behavior in employees s lead to a more efficient organization. It will bring new and positive changes in organization. In Organ's explanation, effective functioning of organization not only new employees are attracted but goodwill of company in the market also increases the most important thing is that the customer beliefs about the company product and service also changes..

Organ (1988) identified five categories of organizational citizenship behavior: (1) altruism - during job employees will help each other (2) courtesy -- guideline to other people about their work if thy are doing it wrong (3) conscientiousness -- Extra work done by employees not included in job description, (4) sportsmanship -- complain about different matters (5) civic virtue -- work for the welfare and betterment of organization

Organizational citizenship behavior offers a different rationale for many relationship. Helping coworkers (Altruism) makes the work system more productive because ultimately every worker is working for the betterment of organization .employees are giving many cost effective ideas which are increasing efficiency. So this is basically the organization who are providing opportunities' to their employees to create spirit in themselves and being a citizen of organization the are more loyal to the organization.

Smith (1983)

Conducted the first research on the antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior, finding job satisfaction to be the best predictor. After 17 years of research, job satisfaction is still the leading predictor of organizational citizenship behavior .This is problematic because, descriptively, job satisfaction is in and of itself a challenging outcome sought by organizational managers? The resulting implications are restricted to suffice that organizational citizenship behavior is likely when workers are satisfied. There are just as many questions regarding the antecedents of job satisfaction as there are questions about the antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviors

Organ & Ryan (1995)

Motivation is another observation for understating organizational citizenship behavior . Three motive paradigms are often researched. Viewing organizational citizenship behavior from these three motive paradigms, one can more easily account for the various approaches taken in prior organizational citizenship behavior research. The altruistic path is covered quite well with the affiliation motive and part of the achievement motive, but the darker side is more clearly understood from the power motive. It is easy to see why organizational citizenship behavior may correlate with ratings of performance and why.

This motive-based view also helps make sense of the disparate findings of research seeking personality correlates of organizational citizenship behavior. A wide variety of personality traits have been examined in research but results have been disappointing, as the only consistent correlation emerging is between the "big five" trait of conscientiousness and the organizational citizenship behavior dimension of the same name. By viewing organizational citizenship behavior as caused by multiple motives, one can see that different personality traits could predict organizational citizenship behavior depending on the citizen's motive. It is possible, however, that there are indirect outcomes of organizational citizenship behavior that are related to the employees' motives. For example, if organizational citizenship behaviors are exhibited for power motives, supervisors may reinforce such behaviors with extrinsic rewards, promotions, or more visible assignments. Supervisors may be oblivious to such motives, seeing only the observable behaviors. Coworkers, on the other hand, may see the behaviors from a different, more political viewpoint. As the power-oriented citizen gains support for such behaviors from above, other employees can become discouraged and disengaged, not wanting to "play politics" to get ahead. The resulting outcome may be a culture of distrust, gossip, complaints, or subtle conflict, eroding cohesion and team building in the unit. Finally, the affiliation-oriented citizen may perform organizational citizenship behavior to such a degree that the employee-employer relationship becomes dysfunctional. Similar to the concept of co-dependence in personal relationships, the dysfunctional relationship may cause more harm than good for the work environment. Motive-based theories of behavior suffer from lack of research methodologies that can validly measure the constructs. It may be necessary to approach research from an attribution point of view. That is, instead of asking subjects about their own motives, seek the opinions and perceptions of coworkers as to the motives of the target person. Such a research strategy may also begin to reveal the indirect effects of motive-based organizational citizenship behavior. Since organizational citizenship behavior has a strong role in effectiveness measures in organizations, their importance cannot be denied.

(Blau, 1964)

There are many social theories related to organizational citizenship behavior. This study bases their hypothesis on social exchange theory to test organizational support. According to Blau (1964), relationships can be defined in different ways it can be economic or social. In economic exchange the terms and conditions are clear; there is no clear rules and regulation. .the timing of return depends on that person who has major role in achieving it. There is no proper way or guarantee that you will be compensated so if there is no proper way parties must cooperate with each other. So that relation creates some value for both the parties. So it is social exchange which will create feeling between the parties.

When you are working somewhere you have both kinds of relationships economic and social. When you are involve in economic relationship employee will only get which is mentioned on the contract so it is basically contractual relationship .and when you are involved in social relationship employees will get not only contractual rights but so many other favors'.

Dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior

McClelland (1961) argued that organizational citizenship behavior can be best understood when organizational citizenship behavior is viewed as motive based Behaviors. McClelland's work suggested that all people have some degree of achievement, Affiliation and power motives. The achievement motive pushes people to perform in terms of a Standard of excellence, seeking the accomplishment of a task, challenge, or Competition. The affiliation motive pushes people toward establishing, maintaining, and restoring Relationships with others. The power motive pushes people toward status and situations in which they can control the work or actions of others. Organizational citizenship behavior was described

By Organ as having two basic dimensions-altruism and generalized compliance. Altruism is helping behavior directed at specific individuals. When individuals have specific problems, need assistance, or seek help, altruistic people go the extra mile in assisting them. The other class of citizenship behavior is generalized compliance, which is a more impersonal conscientiousness: doing things "right and proper" for their own sake rather than for any specific person.

Organizational participants' behavior far surpasses any enforceable minimum standards; workers willingly go far beyond stated expectations. In attempting to further define organizational citizenship behavior . A few researchers have been successful in identifying four categories of organizational citizenship behavior , but the weight of the factor analytic evidence suggests a two-factor structure.

Benefits to the organization in general, such as volunteering to serve on committees (organizational citizenship behavior ).

Benefits directed at individuals within the organization, such as altruism and interpersonal helping (organizational citizenship behavior).

More recently, Skarlicki and Latham (1995)examined organizational citizenship behavior in a university setting; their data also supported a two-factor structure, (organizational and interpersonal) could be referred as organizational citizenship behavior .In two separate factor analytic studies, DiPaola and Tschannen-Moran (2001)found that there are not five separate dimensions of the construct, or even two for that matter, but rather that one dimension captures all aspects of organizational citizenship behavior . In other words, both benefits to the organization (helping the organization) and benefits to the individual helping individuals) combine into a single, bipolar construct. Since Organ (1988) introduced the concept of organizational citizenship behavior into organizational research, it has tended to be conceptualized in terms of positive contributions to the colleagues and to the organization, which implies an active positive contribution. Yet the operationalization of organizational citizenship behavior reveals a different picture. There are two types of citizenship behaviors exist in the organizational citizenship behavior measures:

(1) Active positive contributions or commissions (e.g., helping others)

(2) Avoiding to engage in behaviors that are harmful to others or to one's organization (e.g., not abusing others' rights).

This latter behavior that tends to be labeled as omission is a passive behavior that is based on the moral rule "Do no harm," or more specifically "Do no harm through action" (Baron, 1998)[40]. Discussion on dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior is carried further for a through conceptualization of organizational citizenship behavior by investigating the various antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior . For this purpose the researchers attempted to examine various antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior pronounced by different scholars of this field. Finally, a revised set of antecedents triggering organizational citizenship behavior is presented

Antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior

A wide range of employee and organization variables are investigated to find organizational citizenship behavior in different positions (Podsakoff et. al, 2000). The search for a host of reliable predictors of organizational citizenship behavior has been increasing during the last two decades, during this time span the researchers tried to figure out various enabling factors of organizational citizenship behavior, with varying degrees of predictive merit:

Organ conducted the first research on the antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior, finding job satisfaction to be

The best predictor. After two decades of research, job satisfaction is still the leading predictor of organizational citizenship behavior

This is problematic because, descriptively, job satisfaction is in and of itself a

Challenging outcome sought by organizational managers. The resulting implications are restricted to suffice that organizational citizenship behavior is likely when worker are satisfied. Many scholars believe job satisfaction is too broad a construct for the accurate prediction of organizational citizenship behavior.

Variables considered by employees

This section considers the various individual and organization variables to be involved in organizational citizenship behavior.

Job satisfaction and organizational commitment

Job satisfaction has been found to have a positive Relationship with job performance and organizational citizenship behavior. This in turn has a significant influence on employees' absenteeism, turnover, and psychological distress. Peoples who are satcified with their jobs want to be involved in Organizational Citizenship Behavior .and further people who are satcified from their job deceased propensity to search for another job, and a decreasing propensity to leave. Along with job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment is frequently cited antecedent of organizational citizenship behavior. Affective commitment is conceptualized to maintain membership in the organization. Because affective commitment those behaviors (i.e. discretionary behaviors)

2. Role perceptions

Role perceptions are related to organizational citizenship behavior. And if er look at other side clearity in role is positively related to performance. However both things can effect employee behavior which in tern effect organization, which is related to organizational citizenship behavior , it is likely that organizational citizenship behavior is mediated by satisfaction.

3. Leader behaviors and Leader-member exchange

Leadership has very strong impact on employee's to engage in organizational citizenship behavior. However, to follow only specific rules many researchers found that that relationship between leader and employee , that counts . The leader member exchange is basically the relationship between higher management and employees. Another leadership variable positively related to organizational citizenship behavior is the leaders' contingent rewards behaviors, . Leadership behaviors may also influence organizational citizenship

4. Fairness perceptions

It is basically related to feeling of employees that weather employees are treated well in the organization or they have no rule in the betterment of organization. Either employees are involved in the decisions making process or not and they are assigning the major responsibilities or not so it is the responsibility of the organization to provide working environment to employees so that they cannot perceive all those things

5. Individual dispositions

Personality has many dimensions some peoples personality has a positive impact on organization and some has negative impact on Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Organizational citizenship behavior does not seem to depend on personality traits such. The fact that organizational citizenship behavior is conceptualized as a Set of behaviors' affected by the thinking of the peoples on the working area that's why personality variables are not used in the study of organizational citizenship behavior so personality of individuals have a clear impact on the organization.

6. Motivational theories

Recent research using motivation to measure an individual's disposition has renewed interest in examining Organ's model proposing that an individual's motives may relate to his or her organizational citizenship behaviors Penner, etal explored the impact of personality and motivation on organizational citizenship behavior . Since no previous research had used motivation to predict organizational citizenship behavior, they developed their propositions from the volunteerism research.

Recently a new typology of motivation sources was proposed by Leonard, Beauvais, and Scholl. The researchers proposed five sources of motivation measured include internal process, perception, own concept, and goal recognition. Barbuto et al. argued that though the motivational theories work as antecedents for organizational citizenship behavior, but the researchers cautioned that an individual's sources of motivation could have an impact on his or her level of organizational citizenship behavior. As individual progress upward in an organization, motivational theories tend to be less Applicable as antecedent.

7. Employee age

The proposition that younger and older worker may view work and self in fundamentally different ways is not new. Wagner and Rush (2000) pointed out that early years (20-34) are the years of establishment and settling down; later years (35-55) are strong sense of self and location vis-à-vis life and work. The authors argued that younger employees coordinate their needs with organizational needs more flexibly; by contrast, older employees tend to be more rigid in adjusting their needs with the organization. Therefore, younger and older workers may differ in their orientations toward self, others, and work. These differences may lead to different salient motives for organizational citizenship behavior among younger and older employ

Summary

Now we have discussed organizational citizenship from various dimensions and we came to know that it plays very important role for the success of an organization but most important thing to consider is that either this concept is that much practical that different organizations will provide opportunities and environment that employees can work beyond their roles and duties.

Organizations that have such employees outperform those that don't. As a result, some human subject studies are concerned with organizational citizenship behavior as a dependent variable.

Achievement, affiliation, and power are not new ideas, but the application of these motives to the study of OCB does provide a new lens through which to view OCB. Much research is still needed to validate the ideas expressed.

As defined by Organ (1988), OCB reflects a "good soldier syndrome" which is so necessary for the prosperity and good functioning of every organization. It means doing a better job, making an effort above and beyond formal requirements, and filling the gap between procedures and regulations on the one hand, and dynamic reality on the other. OCB is usually perceived as exerting exceptionally good behaviors for the sake of the organization and informally supporting its members. To date, and as far as we could find, no study has investigated the meaning. Obviously, such behaviors are important to private organizations since they affect their competitiveness and profitability must be committed to increasing OCB among their paid employees. Thus, OCB represent a powerful element of free-will conduct, most relevant in third-sector organizations, which highlight values of voluntary personal actions especially among paid employees. Consequently it is interesting to examine how OCB is manifested in interpersonal relationships within work units of the non-profit sector.

Organizational citizenship is not included in the job description of the employees (Robbins,1996). Successful organizations need employees who will do more than their usual job duties and provide performance that is beyond expectations. In short, in order to reach that goal, fill full employee's job satisfaction, understand they motivation and create suitable work environments are most important thing in management reality.

So organizations came to know the importance of this area of organizational behavior and taking steps to provide circumstances to their employees that they can work beyond their responsibilities. But still there are lots of areas where there is a need of research to be done and there is a need of practical implication of this concept

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR PROJECT

"ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR"

SUBMITTED BY

ATIQ-UR-REHMAN

1400027

ALI RAZA

14000

ATIF JAVID

14000

DATE

16-JUNE-2010