Question:
Discuss about the Organizational Citizenship Behavior.
Organizational citizenship behavior is one of the most important aspects of any and every organization. It basically refers to a kind of commitment that the employees have towards their respective organizations outside their contracts. Organizational citizenship behavior can very easily be associated with the concept of the responsibilities that the citizen have towards their nation. In that case, the employees are like the citizens of the nation (Jawahar, 2017). The nation is of course the company. The main concept or the purpose of this kind organizational citizenship behavior is to imply that the employees feel a deeper and a greater connection with the company. Owing to this feeling or the sensation of a deeper feeling the employees try to expand their helping hands and their sense of responsibility towards the company even beyond their obligations of the contract. This in turn helps in the overall increase in the total productivity of the organization.
Transformational leadership on the other hand is also a very key and important issue in case of any and every business framework. Particularly in the present business scenario it is very much important for the proper functioning of all the activities. Leadership in general and transformational leadership in particular is of utmost importance for the proper management and maintenance of the productive spirit. For the proper and timely functioning of all the employees, guiding them the right and proper direction is also very much needed. In order to do that, what is largely needed is proper leadership. Transformational leadership is the most working and the apt method of leadership. This is evident from the fact that transformational leadership is something that believes in the principle of bringing about a change or a transformation. The leaders make sure that the employees are motivated from time to time. They are encouraged throughout in order to regain their self confidence.
Inspiration motivation
The very foundation of transformational motivation or transformational leadership is that of inspiration. Transformational leaders are devoted in motivating and inspiring their employees throughout (Jawahar, 2017). Transformational leaders must make sure that they keep on making the employees remember and abide by the mission, vision, the goals and the objectives of the organization. They make sure that their vision is so much compelling that they know very well what outcomes they actually are expecting from their reactions.
Intellectual stimulation
This also is very important motivation or stimuli needed for the employees. The transformational leaders make sure that they always encourage their followers to be very much creative innovative. They always encourage their fellow followers to think about and implement different kinds of creative ideas. They also make sure that none of their actions are hurt or criticize the actions of their employees in public.
Idealized influence
The transformational leaders are also of the opinion that they can teach their followers some lessons only when they themselves are following the same (Kivanc, 2017). In other words they believe in the principle of preaching before practicing (Heather). It is only when the leaders themselves are very much organized in their actions, the followers also believe in following them. It is only then that the leaders get full trust and respect of their followers.
Individualized consideration
The transformational leaders must keep this in and that they have to reward each and every employee individually. In other words, the transformational leaders must go beyond their day to day managing routine work. Rather they must try their level best to carry forward their respective companies to the next level of hard work, efficiency, performance and success (Ge, 2017). They will mainly focus on the aspects of team building, motivation and collaboration with the employees.
Individual decisions and motives
The organization citizenship behavior is largely based on the individual behavioral characteristics like that of positive affectivity and the negative affectivity, agreeableness, consciousness and several other such aspects. Another very important determinant of the organizational citizenship behavior is that of extraversion (Zayas-Ortiz, 2014). There is also another important trait that must be present within the individuals for the being open to this commitment towards the organization beyond their respective rules and regulations of the business or the employment contract.
Groups cohesiveness
In order to inculcate this feeling of a kind of citizenship towards the company, the employees need to feel this inner urge or deep connection with their company. Just as the citizens of a nation always feel the deep urge within themselves to remain connected with each other and carry on their duties and responsibilities towards the nation. In the same way it is also the duty of the employees to remain very much connected towards each other (Zayas-Ortiz, 2014). This will also make the employees to perform as a team for the overall betterment of the company. The individual members will be much more helpful towards each other. They will also be sensitive enough to perform as a team whenever there is the need (Ge, 2017). Apart from this, if there is proper team cohesiveness then there will also be the cultivation of a positive mood within the team. This in turn will increase the effectiveness within each and every individual and they will always come forward with a very positive mood. On the other hand, cohesiveness also leads to the greater inter connectivity and the communication within the group. A proper cohesiveness within the group also increases the commitment of the team members towards each other. As a result of all these factors, the trust and the communication within all the individuals also increase.
Employee attitudes
One of the very important and significant aspects of the employee attitude is that of job involvement. The employees must be very much involved within their job and the respective roles and responsibilities associated with it (Zayas-Ortiz, 2014). It happens that the employees get so much associated with their present job role that they start investing their personal resources in order to fulfill all the responsibilities associated with it.
Leader member exchange and the supervisor behavior
This is also a very important aspect of the organizational citizenship behavior. It is because of the fact that there must a very good understanding and a feeling of proper cooperation among all the employees of the organization (Roya, 2017). There must be a very good, friendly and a cooperative relationship between the managers, leaders and their subordinates.
Organizational Justice
There are some set of principles that determines the organization justice, they are
There must be the principle of equity or equality maintained in case of the organizational citizenship behavior. The contribution of the employees must always be in proportion to the amount of income received by them (Wuryanti., 2017). However, it must also be noted that organizational citizenship behavior is something that must be done by the employees selflessly. In other words, they must know how to go beyond their prescribed contractual rules and regulations and develop a very strong connection with each of their colleagues, superiors and must see their company as their nation.
The principle of perception
There must be a general and overall perception of the feeling of proper justice among each and every individual.
The principle of polyphony
There must a greater participation in the decision making process (Francisco). This will not only encourage the active participation of all the employees within the major decisions but it will also lead to a greater fairness in the decision making process and the final decision that is being taken.
Benefits of organizational citizenship behavior
It is very much essential for each and every company to know and realize the fact that the organizational citizenship behavior can be induced among the employees by providing them full job satisfaction (Changsuk, 2017). It is only when the employees are totally satisfied with their job that they can think about making some additional contributions or sacrifices for their co workers and the company as a whole. It is a known fact that the colleagues who are ready to make some little sacrifices or some efforts towards some of the little extra things without complaining. However it must also have noted that the employees will have full job satisfaction only when they are satisfied with their superiors or their subordinates (Jeffrey, 2017). This can be done if the leaders adopt the method of transformational leadership. In other words, the leaders must not only provide their employees or their followers with only professional support but also proper emotional support as well. They must make sure to boost up the self confidence of their followers throughout. They must keep on encouraging their followers and motivate them constantly.
In order to encourage organizational citizenship behavior, the leaders can practice different kinds of leadership styles like instrumental leadership, supportive leadership and also transformational leadership. However among all these three kinds of leadership style the important one is that of transformational leadership that constantly keep on motivating the employees. The transformational leaders will always try to act like a constant source of inspiration. They will keep on inspiring the employees. These leaders strive in bringing about a change or a transformation in the working style of the organization. They know that this can be done by making the employees recognize their own potential (Jennifer, 2017).
Transformational leadership is the most influential kind of leadership style (Eeman, 2017). This is because of the fact that the central feature of this kind of leadership is that it will always motivate the followers to do something or perform some more activities than what they originally expected. Moreover this transformational leadership is so called, because it creates a special kind of appeal to the followers by winning over their trust, and by making them do something much more than their contractual responsibilities for the overall good of the company. It is through the constant effort and the motivation that the transformational leaders can transform or convert their followers to take up many complicated challenges for the good of the organization. Thus, the transformational leaders know how to increase the level of performance within their followers. However, it must also be noted that transformational leadership also emphasizes on the fact that all their followers must be comfortable in making some comprises and sacrifices as well (Changsuk, 2017). This is because of the fact that organizational citizenship behavior dos not only requires the employees to take up additional challenges and responsibilities than their initial contractual ones but also it needs the employees to keep a constant willingness to face and endure several frustrations, inconveniences, irregular costs.
A greater amount of this particular aspect of the organizational citizenship behavior is largely based on the leadership style that is prevalent within the company. It is a quite evident that a greater part of this transformational leadership is very much dependent on the trait of obedience. The obedience of the employees will increase only if they find their leaders to be very much friendly and considerate towards them. This is because of the fact that undertaking a greater amount of responsibilities or working even by enduring some inconveniences or frustrations is often undertaken by the employees or the followers on the advice or the command of their supervisor or the leaders (Alex, 2017). However, an important thing to note in case of transformational leadership is that, in this case the leaders do not really believe in commanding or forcing their employees. They always want to carry on their leadership by the methods of persuasion, cooperation and understanding (Zayas-Ortiz, 2014). This is possible only when there is a free and transparent relationship between the employees and their supervisors. Transformational leaders are of the belief that if they expect the employees (followers) to take up more responsibilities and also endure several risks and inconveniences, then they (the leaders or the supervisors) themselves must be very much understanding and considerate as well. There must always be a two way process. One of the important aspects of the organizational citizen behavior is that of knowledge sharing. There is a good and positive relationship existing between knowledge sharing and this organizational citizenship behavior. This is because of the fact that in order to take up some additional responsibilities the employees definitely will require sufficient amount of knowledge. It is also not possible for each and every employee to have every kind of knowledge. As a result of which the process of knowledge sharing must be induced within the business organization. Sharing of knowledge also increases the interaction between the employees (Roya, 2017). It can lead to increased amount of understanding and mutual cooperation. However there is a problem that is encountered in this process of knowledge sharing is that of jealousy or insecurity. It is quite common that the employees will not try to share the knowledge with others without getting anything in return. Hence, the transformational leaders make sure that their employees are awarded and appreciated thoroughly for sharing their knowledge with others. These rewards are done mainly in terms of money, promotions, respect and other such things. This in turn will also create a kind of trust factor between the employees and their supervisors.
Transformational leadership aims at changing or transforming the mindset and the behavioral patterns of the employees towards each other and also towards the organization as a whole. This transformation takes place in such a way that the employees or the followers change their self concept. In other words, they are able to discover increased amount of confidence and potentiality within themselves that were previously unknown to them (Mahmud, 2017). The self concept of the individual employees, mainly refer to the self esteem, self worth, self expression. The transformational leaders try their level best to support and motivate their employees so that they can develop totally new spheres of their self concept. This is where the Organizational citizenship behavior comes into play. One of the most prominently visible effects of transformational leadership is that of organizational citizenship behavior.
Another important characteristic of OCB is the role played by the mediators (Miguel, 2017). In other words, the mediators are the various aspects that form the midways or the mediators between the leaders and their followers. One such mediator between transformational leaders and their followers is trust (Wuryanti., 2017). This is the trust, that the followers have over their leaders or their supervisors. However, it must be noted in this context that the behavior of the transformational leaders must be given more emphasis than the trust of the followers in their leaders. It is evident from the fact that the trust or the faith will be constructed only when there is a good behavior is available to all the followers from the side of their leaders (Kivanc, 2017). The transformational leaders must also take this into account that the job designs are to be done in such a way that their followers can identify some very important and core responsibilities within that. This can be linked with the aspect of organizational identification. This is because of the fact that the employees spend the majority of their time within their workplaces; hence, it is the duty of the leaders to influence the way the followers feel towards their organization.
Thereby it can be concluded that transformational leadership and the OCB are directly proportional to each other (Roya, 2017). One must not only view the OCB as the workers who go above and beyond their contractual job responsibilities but it can also be viewed as the initiative taken up by the workers to cooperate, communicate and help their colleagues for the overall good of the organization. In order to induce this attitude or behavior within the employees the transformational leaders must also try their level best to motivate and encourage their employees throughout.
References
Alex, N. G. (2017). How Servant Leadership Influences Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Roles of LMX, Empowerment, and Proactive Personality. Journal of Business Ethics. , 145(1), 49-62.
Changsuk, K. J. (2017). How ethical leadership cultivates healthy guanxi to enhance OCB in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources., 55(4), 408-429.
Eeman, B. R. (2017). Impact of organizational citizenship behavior on job performance in Indian healthcare industries. International Journal of Productivity & Performance Management, 66(6), 780-796.
Francisco, C. S. (n.d.). Human Resources Management, Citizenship Behavior, and Turnover Intention in the Portuguese Public Administration. International Journal of Public Administration, 40(11), 979-988.
Ge, W. Q. (2017). Exploring the impact of megaproject environmental responsibility on organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment: A social identity perspective. International Journal of Project Management., 35(7), 1402-1414.
Heather, C. &. (n.d.). The impact of gender ideology on the performance of gender congruent citizenship behaviors. Human Performance. , 30, 212-230.
Jawahar, I. &. (2017). Do career satisfaction and support mediate the effects of justice on organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior? . Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)., 34(3), 215-228.
Jeffrey, M. S. (2017). The role of job dedication in organizational citizenship behavior performance. . Management Research Review., 40(10), 1042-1057.
Jennifer, T. E. (2017). Organization OR Environment? Disentangling Employees’ Rationales Behind Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment. 30(3), 187-210.
Kivanc, I. N. (2017). Understanding citizenship behavior of academics in American- vs. Continental European-modeled universities in Turkey. Personnel Review., 46(6), 1142-1164.
Mahmud, A. &. (2017). The Effect of Organizational Justice on Its Citizenship Behavior among Sales Personnel in the Banking Sector in Jordan. International Journal of Business, Marketing, & Decision Science, 10(1), 60 75.
Miguel, B. Y. (2017). Analyzing organizational citizenship behavior in Mexico: A collectivist perspective. Global Business & Organizational Excellence, 37(1), 16-27.
Roya, A. A. (2017). The mediating effect of organizational citizenship behavior on the relationship between workplace spirituality and intention to leave. Intangible Capital, 13(3), 615-639.
Wuryanti., &. H. (2017). Improving Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Ocb) Through Islamic Work Ethics and Knowledge Sharing. International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 10(2), 173-187.
Zayas-Ortiz, M. (2014). Relationship between organizational commitments and organizational citizenship behavior in a sample of private banking employees. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy.
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