Analysis on Organisational Citizenship Behaviour and its Importance

Analys the organisational citizenship behaviour and its importance?

Dimensions and antecedents of organisational citizenship behaviour are critically analysed in this section of analysis. The literature review is aimed at analysing the most significant and relevant dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour so as to identify the ways in which these dimensions affect the organisation’s performance (Cummings and Worley, 2008). As a part of this literature review analysis, there would also be the analysis of the important antecedents of such concept so that by focusing on such antecedents, it could be possible to organisations in achieving incremental level of improvements in their performance. An analysis of these factors requires an understanding of the concept of organisational citizenship behaviour and this is performed as follows:

The concept of organisational citizenship behaviour is self explanatory, as it is analysed that this concept indicates the behaviour of individuals within organisation that allows for efficiently attaining organisational goals. However, an important point in this concept of organisational citizenship behaviour is that it is discretionary. This implies that there is no such specific indication of behaviour for employees in organisation, and they have to take it on their own in leading the organisation to higher success level. It is the voluntary contribution by individuals aimed at taking the organisation to greater level of success (Organ and Ryan, 1995). The motive has been to facilitate the efficient performance of organisational processes through achieving higher productivity levels, efficient resource utilisation, coordinating group activity, and supporting employees in their activities within organisation. Thus, the analysis implies that organisational citizenship behaviour is the self directive mechanism on the part of individuals of the organisation, and the main aim has been to achieve improved level of organisational performance (Mullerat, 2011).

As the main focus of this literature analysis is towards analysing the important dimensions and antecedents of organisational citizenship behaviour, the main area of analysis in this section is mainly towards evaluating the findings of the past studies on such dimensions and antecedents. As per a study as conducted by Hinrichs, Prieto andf Howell (2010), it has been identified that the dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour are mainly categorised into five major types and these include civic virtue, conscientiousness, courtesy, altruism and sportsmanship. These dimensions have their own implications in allowing individuals in leading organisation in a positive way. The individuals are required to follow the rules and policies of the organisation and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) aids management in achieving positive compliance among the individuals (Salas, Bowers and Edens, 2001)

As there are five important dimensions of OCB has been identified above, they have different level of implication in respect to individuals of an organisation. As for instance, the important dimension of altruism indicates that it is a type of discretionary behaviour that requires employees to remain highly helpful and supportive to others (Griffin and Moorhead, 2011). As per this specific dimension of OCB, the existing individuals supports others within the organisation, and this has been positively achieved by way of helping them in their work, or supporting them or performing their tasks when they are absent in the organisation (Daft and Noe, 2001). Apart from this altruism dimension of OCB, it has also been analysed that the dimension of conscientiousness is concerned with the discretionary behaviour within employees aimed at encouraging them to put extra level of efforts in performing their roles and responsibilities within organisation. This can be in the form of employees contributing more than 100% efforts, or they are working during lunch hours or so (Mullerat, 2011).

Dimensions and Antecedents of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour

Apart from these two important dimensions as discussed above, the third major dimension as identified is mainly that of sportsmanship and it requires discretionary behaviour on the part of individuals that ensures efficient performance of organisational activities without involving excessive level of complaints. The employees are therefore required to perform their roles and responsibilities in a manner that incur minimal or no complaints (Dealy and Thomas, 2006). The dimension of courtesy is also important from the point of view of encouraging positive level of organisational performance, and this particular dimension requires employees to prevent any kinds of work related problems. This is mainly because an inefficient working condition would affect the morale and performance of the others in the workgroups across the organisation. Finally, the dimension of civic virtue indicates that there should be higher level of responsibility that should be revealed by employees of an organisation. The responsible approach of employees allows them to contribute in a valuable way towards improved level of organisational performance (Organ and Ryan, 1995).

These are the important dimensions of the concept of OCB that has been identified in the existing literature, and they all are important in achieving improved level of organisational performance. Apart from the above dimensions, there are important antecedents that have also been identified in respect to such concept of OCB. A study as conducted by Suresh and Venkatammal (2010) has indicated about various important antecedents of OCB. The antecedents as noted in respect to OCB in the given study include job satisfaction. The reason behind adapting organisation’s citizenship behaviour is to achieve improved level of satisfaction within employees so that their positive level of contribution would ensure the attainment of organisational goals efficiently. In the finding of a study as conducted by Organ and Ryan (1995) there has been positive level of correlation being identified in respect to employee job satisfaction and citizenship behaviour of employees. Though employee job satisfaction is the sole criterion in following organisational citizenship behaviour, yet there are various other antecedents as identified which became the primary factor contributing towards practising such behaviour within organisation (Guilin, 2006). There are identified as attitudinal measures and they can be best categorised as organisational justice, task characteristics, organisational commitment and leadership behaviour. In a study as performed by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine and Bachrach (2000), there are certain major personality characteristics as well as task characteristics that became the primary contributing factors towards positively practising OCB. The personal characteristics that have been noted are mainly in terms of conscientiousness, agreeableness, etc whereas the task characteristics having positive level of relationships with OCB as suggested by Todd and Kent (2006) includes feedback mechanism, routine work and intrinsic satisfaction levels. These task characteristics have direct level of contribution to achieving organisational citizenship behaviour. The findings of the study also indicated the existence of correlation between the task characteristics and also the important dimensions of OCB that are identified above such as civic, courtesy, altruism, virtue and conscientiousness (Balogun and Hailey, 2008).

A critical analysis of the findings of the past research studies have indicated about the important dimensions and antecedents of organisational citizenship behaviour. These dimensions and antecedents as identified should be utilised in a positive manner in order to achieve citizenship behaviour in respect to each and every employees of the organisation.

A critical analysis as carried out in respect to the organisational citizen behaviour has indicated that this has been an important concept that requires its employees to adapt behaviour at their own discretion with a view to achieve improved level of organisational performance. On the basis of performance of analysis, it has been identified that there are important dimensions of OCB being identified in the existing literature. The findings revealed that the important antecedents include attainment of employee job satisfaction, leadership behaviour on the part of employees and also the organisational justice. These antecedents are crucial from the point of view of achieving positive level of support within individuals in achieving organisational citizenship behaviour. The analysis has also indicated about the dimensions of OCB and it is identified that the most significant dimensions are categorised into five major types including conscientiousness, civic virtue, sportsmanship, courtesy and altruism.

References

Balogun, J. and Hailey, V.H. (2008), ‘Organizational Behavior’, 3^rd ed. England: Prentice Hall Financial Times.

Cummings, T. G. and Worley, C. G. (2008), ‘Organization development & change’, 9^th ed. Cengage Learning.

Daft, R.L. and Noe, R.A. (2001), ‘Organizational Behavior’, USA: South-Western Publishing.

Dealy, M. D. and Thomas, A.R. (2006), ‘Change or die: how to transform your organization from the inside out’, Greenwood Publishing Group.

Griffin, R. W. and Moorhead, G. (2011), ‘Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations’, 10^th ed. Cengage Learning.

Guilin, K. (2006), ‘Knowledge science, engineering and management: first international conference proceedings’, Springer.

Mullerat, R. (2011), ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: The Corporate Governance of the 21st Century’, Kluwer Law International.

Organ, D.W., Podsakoff, P.M. and MacKenzie, S.B. (2005), ‘Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences’, SAGE Publications.

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Paine, J. B., and Bachrach, D. G. (2000), ‘Organizational citizenship behaviours: A critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. Journal of Management, Vol. 26 (3), 513-563.

Salas, E., Bowers, C.A. and Edens, E. (2001), ‘Improving Teamwork in Organizations: Applications of Resource Management Training’, CRC Press.

Suresh, S. and Venkatammal, P. (2010), ‘Antecedents of Organisational Citizenship Behavior’, Journal of Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, Vol. 36 (2), pp. 276-286.

Todd, S. Y., and Kent, A. (2006), ‘Direct and indirect effects of task characteristics on organizational citizenship behaviour’, North American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 8 (2), 253-268.