A study on organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitmen

International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 - 6510(Online),

Volume 4, Issue 4, July-August (2013)

103

A STUDY ON ORGANISATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR AND

ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG EMPLOYEES

C.MURALI KUMARAN1 and Dr.M.SIVASUBRAMANIAN

2

1Research Scholar, Assistant Professor cum Liaison Officer, Business Administration Wing,

Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University. 2Research Guide, Professor Business Administration, Business Administration Wing,

Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University.

ABSTRACT

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is a term that encompasses anything positive and

constructive those employees do, of their own volition, which supports co-workers and benefits the

company. Typically, employees who frequently engage in OCB may not always be the top

performers, but they are the ones who are known to ‘go the extra mile’ or ‘go above and beyond’ the

minimum efforts required to do a merely satisfactory job. This study set to test the relationship

between organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment. The study concludes

that there was a moderate level of citizenship behaviour was found among the employees and low

level of organisational commitment was found among the employees. The study also concludes that

there is a significant relationship between citizenship behavior and organisational commitment.

INTRODUCTION

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is a term that encompasses anything positive and

constructive those employees do, of their own volition, which supports co-workers and benefits the

company. Typically, employees who frequently engage in OCB may not always be the top

performers (though they could be, as task performance is related to OCB), but they are the ones who

are known to ‘go the extra mile’ or ‘go above and beyond’ the minimum efforts required to do a

merely satisfactory job.

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has garnered much academic attention since its

conception. It is perceived to be something intangible; OCB is not always formally recognised or

rewarded, and concepts like ‘helpfulness’ or ‘friendliness’ are also difficult to quantify. Yet OCB has

been shown to have a considerable positive impact at the organisational level, enhancing

organisational effectiveness from 18 to 38% across different dimensions of measurement (Podsakoff,

MacKenzie, Paine & Bachrach, 2000; Ehrhart, 2004).

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has undergone subtle definitional revisions since

the term was coined in the late 1980s, but the construct remains the same at its core. OCB refers to

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anything that employees choose to do, spontaneously and of their own accord, which often lies

outside of their specified contractual obligations. In other words, it is discretionary.

OCB may not always be directly and formally recognised or rewarded by the company,

through salary increments or promotions for example, though of course OCB may be reflected in

favourable supervisor and co-worker ratings, or better performance appraisals. In this way it can

facilitate future reward gain indirectly. Finally, and critically, OCB must ‘promote the effective

functioning of the organisation’ (Organ, 1988, p. 4).

OCB has been shown to have a positive impact on employee performance and wellbeing, and

this in turn has noticeable flow-on effects on the organisation. The effects on employee performance

are threefold. Firstly, workers who engage in OCB tend to receive better performance ratings by their

managers (Podsakoff et al., 2009). This could be because employees who engage in OCB are simply

liked more and perceived more favourably (this has become known as the ‘halo effect’), or it may be

due to more work-related reasons such as the manager’s belief that OCB plays a significant role in

the organisation’s overall success, or perception of OCB as a form of employee commitment due to

its voluntary nature (Organ et al., 2006).Regardless of the reason, the second effect is that a better

performance rating is linked to gaining rewards(Podsakoff et al., 2009) – such as pay increments,

bonuses, promotions or work-related benefits. Thirdly, because these employees have better

performance ratings and receive greater rewards, when the company is downsizing e.g. during an

economic recession, these employees will have a lower chance of being made redundant (Organ et

al, 2006).

Citizenship behaviours come in many distinct shapes and forms. Traditionally thought of as

the worker who ‘goes above and beyond’ the minimum requirements, it can also be the employee

who takes the initiative and always offers to lend a hand; the knowledgeable, helpful and cooperative

colleague; the senior staff member who is able to roll with the punches; or the friendly, approachable

manager who shows the new employees around the office and introduces them to other staff. All of

these types of OCB should be actively encouraged – employees support the organisation through

enhancing each other’s performance and wellbeing, and this is reflected in reduced costs and

increased profitability at the organisational level.

In fact no organization can succeed without the employees’ commitment and attempt since the

committed employees devote more time and attention to their work. This study sets out to test

whether the relationship between Organisational Commitment and Organisational Citizenship

Behaviour (OCB) found among the employees.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Early research efforts on employee characteristics focused on two main causes of OCBs. The

first of these is a general affective “morale” factor, which Organ and Ryan (1995) view as underlying

employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, perceptions of fairness, and perceptions of leader

supportiveness. These variables have been the most frequently investigated antecedents of OCB, and

all of them have significant relationships with citizenship behaviours of roughly comparable strength

(ranging from .23 to .31). Thus, those variables comprising employee “morale” do appear to be

important determinants of citizenship behaviours. These findings raise the question of whether there

are other variables that comprise employee morale (e.g., trust, more specific forms of satisfaction,

etc.) whose effects may also be important to examine.

In addition to “morale,” Organ and Ryan (1995: 794) argue that various dispositional factors,

such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, positive affectivity, and negative affectivity, “predispose

people to certain orientations vis-à-vis coworkers and managers. And those orientations might well

increase the likelihood of receiving treatment that they would recognize as satisfying, supportive,

fair, and worthy of commitment.” Thus, these dispositional variables could be seen as indirect

contributors of OCBs, rather than direct causes.



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Organ and Ryan (1995) found that although the correlation between conscientiousness and

altruism was significant (r 5 .22) when all available data were included, this relationship became

nonsignificant (r 5 .04) when studies with self-rated OCBs were excluded from the analysis.

Similarly, the correlation between positive affectivity and altruism dropped from .15 (significant) to

.08 (non-significant) when this bias was controlled. The same really cannot be said for the

relationship between conscientiousness and generalized compliance. Indeed, although this

relationship was weaker when common method variance was controlled for, it was still significant.

Role perceptions also have been found to have significant relationships with at least some of the

organizational citizenship behavior dimensions, although the size of these relationships is not very

substantial. Both role ambiguity and role conflict are significantly negatively related to altruism,

courtesy, and sportsmanship but not to conscientiousness and civic virtue. However, since both role

ambiguity and role conflict are known to be related to employee satisfaction, and satisfaction is

related to organizational citizenship behaviours, it is likely that at least a portion of the relationship

between ambiguity and conflict and OCBs is mediated by satisfaction.

McLean Parks (1993) Generally speaking, demographic variables (e.g., organizational tenure

and employee gender) have not been found to be related to OCBs. The finding that gender is not

related to citizenship behaviours is somewhat surprising, given that He argued that males are more

likely to engage in conscientious behavior than females, because “this type of behavior suggests an

exchange orientation or an emphasis on quid pro quo, frequently associated with a male preference

for equity over equality.” Thus, even though the existing empirical evidence has not been very

supportive of the hypothesized effects of gender on citizenship behavior, additional evidence is

needed before this issue can be resolved conclusively.

Morrison (1994), has stated employees have a broad conception of performance that includes

OCBs when they value organizational rewards, and believe that their leader administers them

contingent upon good performance, they engage in citizenship behavior as a means of obtaining

rewards. This line of reasoning is consistent with who found that employees often

view OCBs as an expected part of their job.

Karambayya (1990). She found that employees in high performing work units exhibited more

citizenship behaviours than employees in low performing work units. Unfortunately, although these

results were promising, they were far from conclusive because unit performance was measured

subjectively rather than objectively. In addition, the data were obtained from raters in 12 different

organizations, raising the possibility that different raters used different criteria in their evaluations of

organizational success.

Anna-Lena (2005) This study investigates the potential antecedents of organizational

citizenship behaviours (OCBs) in a retail setting. Much remains unknown about the factors affecting

OCBs in retail settings. Several characteristics of retail jobs, as compared with other organizational

behavior contexts, suggest the need to examine antecedents of OCBs. Job attitudes (job satisfaction

and organizational commitment) are proposed as direct predictors of OCBs. Leadership support,

professional development, and empowerment are posited as indirect predictors of OCBs and direct

predictors of job attitudes. The possible moderating impacts of employee demographics and job

types on the modelled relationships are also examined. The research hypotheses are tested using data

collected from 211 frontline employees who work in a retail setting. The employees have customer-

contact roles in the upscale food and grocery retailer that participated in the study. The pattern of

results is more complex than hypothesized. Job attitudes are related to OCBs but the mediating role

of job attitudes is not supported. The relationships between leadership support, professional

development, and empowerment, and OCBs and job attitudes differ systematically. Evidence of how

employee demographics can alter the modeled relationships is also presented. The findings have

significant implications for the theory and practice of managing frontline employees. Limitations of

the study are discussed and a program of further research is sketched.



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Ayesha Noor (2009). Organizational citizenship behavior becomes one of the important factors

that enhance the organizational effectiveness. The main purpose of this study was to explore the

importance of OCB of universities teachers of Pakistan as the outcome of organizational commitment. In

this study the impact of training & development opportunities, work-life policies and empowerment

practices on organizational commitment has also been analyzed. The data was collected from 160

universities teachers of Pakistan through questionnaires. The result of 134 respondents reveals that

training & development opportunities, work-life policies and empowerment practices have significant

positive relationship with organizational commitment and also organizational commitment impacts

positively in enhancing the organizational citizenship behavior of the teachers and implications that can

help universities of Pakistan in augmenting the OCB of teachers have also been discussed.

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 (Lok and Crawford, 2001).

Organizational commitment is significantly associated with the organizational citizenship behavior as its

construct. (Gautam, Dick, Wagner, Upadhyay & Davis, 2004). According to Wilson &Western (2000)

Training and development plans of individuals can be supportive for the organizational objectives if there

is a clear sense of direction. The teachers who are empowered participate in decision making that affect

the learning and teaching. If there is empowered work environments then it assist in improving the

quality of work life, teacher leadership and professionalism.

From 30 years the concept of organizational commitment is evolving. (Putterill & Rohrer,

1995).Organizational commitment of the employees get positively influences if there are opportunities to

work challenging tasks.(Chew & Chan, 2007).According to Parish, Cadwallader & Busch (2008)

Employees commit more positively to the change occurring at workplace only when they judge the role

autonomy. Depending upon the level of attachment of an individual the consequences of commitment

varies accordingly (O’Reilly & Chatman,

1986). Previous studies reveals that organizational commitment is very beneficial for the organization as

it reduces the absenteeism rate and turn over ratio and enhances the organization productivity.(Jernigan,

Beggs & Kohut,2002).Organizational commitment is very important because it is linked with

absenteeism, work effort and turnover. (Joiner & Bakalis, 2006).According to Boon & Arumugam (2006)

culture of the organization and management practices should be scrutinize in order to sustain high level

of organizational commitment, because high commitment is examined as the essential component of

employee relations. (McCabe & Garavan, 2008).It is the goal of the organization to estimate the

commitment level of their employees and probe the ways to increase the commitment (Liu, 2006). An

individual having the organizational commitment shows loyalty and intention to stay with the

organization and shows personal interest towards the employment. (Brewer, 1996).An employee who is

highly committed to the organization contributes to the organization performance. (Freund & Carmeli,

2003).Support should be provided for enhancing the commitment to the organization. (Aube, Rousseau &

Morin, 2007). For retaining the employees the organizations should enhance the organizational

commitment. (Stallworth, 2004).Extra- role behaviors are the results of the organizational commitment.

(Foote, Seipel, Johnson & Duffy, 2005).Results of previous researches shows that commitment is the

predictive of organizational citizenship behavior because it significantly impacts OCB. (Liu, 2008).

http://ciitlahore.edu.pk/pl/abrc/Proceedings/All%20papers/Examining%20Organizational%20Citizenship

%20Behavior

Jehad Mohammad (2011). This study is designed to measure the two dimensions of

organisational citizenship behaviour (i.e., OCBI and OCBO) and to examine how these organisational

citizenship behaviours are related to the two facets of job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic). To achieve

the research objectives, the survey method is employed. Findings of this study reveal that both extrinsic

and intrinsic job satisfaction are very important in predicting citizenship behaviour. Implications and

limitations of the study are discussed along with suggestions for future research.



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OBJECTIVES

1. To study the demographic profile of the respondents.

2. To access the level of job commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour of the

respondents.

3. To study the relationship between demographic variables, organisational commitment and

organisational citizenship behaviour.

METHODOLOGY

Descriptive research design was adopted for the present study. The universe of the present study

is the employees of Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited, Neyveli. The researcher adopted simple

random sampling for selecting the 120 sample for the study. The researcher used interview schedule as a

tool for collecting data. The interview schedule consisted of three sections. 1. Personal details,

2. Organisational Commitment and 3. Citizenship Behaviour. Data was collected from both primary and

secondary sources. The data were analyzed using various statistical tools like mean, standard deviation,

t-test, coefficient of correlation and ANOVA.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE S.no Variable Particulars Frequency Percentage

1. Age Below 30 13 10.8

30 – 40 74 61.7

Above 40 33 27.5

2. Gender Male 90 75.0

Female 30 25.0

3. Marital Status Married 102 85.0

Unmarried 12 10.0

Widow 6 5.0

4. No. of Dependent 2 and Below 90 75.0

3 -4 26 21.7

5 and Above 4 3.3

5. Educational Qualification Primary 14 11.7

Secondary 54 45.0

Higher Secondary 16 13.3

Graduation 9 7.5

Diploma 20 16.7

Professionals 7 5.8

6. Designation Worker Level 75 62.5

Supervisor Level 17 14.2

Executive Level 28 23.3

7. Years of Experience Up to 5 22 18.3

6-10 42 35.0

11 & above 56 46.7

8. Monthly Income Below 10000 89 74.2

10001-15000 7 5.8

15001-20000 9 7.5

20001-25000 7 5.8

Above 25000 8 6.7

9. Citizenship Behaviour Very High 5 4.2

High 14 11.7

Moderate 44 36.7

Low 39 32.5

Very Low 18 15.0

10. Organisational Commitment High 26 21.7

Moderate 34 28.3

Low 38 31.7

Very Low 22 18.3



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The above table shows that 61.7 percent of the respondents belong to the age group between

30-40 years and majority of the respondents were male. The findings also show that majority of the

respondents were married and majority of them had 2 dependents. High percent of the respondents

(45 percent) were educated up to secondary level and 62.5 of the respondents were at workers level.

The findings also shows that less than half of the respondents were having an experience above 11

years and majority of the respondents were earning an income below Rs.10000.

The findings revealed that 36.7 percent of the respondents had a moderate level of citizenship

behaviour, 32.5 percent of the respondents had low level of citizenship behaviour, 15 percent of them

had very low level of citizenship behaviour, 11.7 percent of them had high level of citizenship

behaviour and only 4.2 percent of them had very high level of citizenship behaviour. From this it can

be concluded that moderate level of citizenship behaviour was found among the respondents.

The findings related to organisational commitment revealed that 31.7 percent of the respondents had

low level of organisational commitment, 28.3 percent of the respondents had moderate level of

organisational commitment, 21.7 percent of the respondents had high level of organisational

commitment and 18.3 percent of them had very low level of organisational commitment.

DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR

S.no Variables Statistical Tool Value Significance

1. Age and Citizenship Behaviour

Correlation r = 0.381

p<0.01

Significant

2. Gender and Citizenship Behaviour

t-test t = 3.128

p<0.01

Significant

3. Marital Status and Citizenship Behaviour ANOVA F = 5.866

P<0.01

Significant

4. Educational Qualification and Citizenship

Behaviour

ANOVA F = 0.644

P>0.05

Not- Significant

5. Designation and Citizenship Behaviour

ANOVA F = 2.940

P<0.05

Significant

6. Experience and Citizenship Behaviour


P<0.01

Significant

7. Monthly Income and Citizenship Behaviour Correlation r = 0.026

P>0.05

Not-Significant

The coefficient of correlation value shows that there is a significant relationship between age

and level of citizenship behaviour of the respondents at 0.01 level. It is interpreted that higher the

age, higher is the level of citizenship behaviour. The t-test value shows that there is a significant

difference in the level of citizenship behaviour among male and female at 0.01 level. The mean value

shows that female (117) had better citizenship behaviour compared to male (104) respondents. The

ANOVA value shows that there is a significant difference in the level of citizenship behaviour

among married, unmarried and divorced respondents at0.01 level. The mean value shows that

unmarried (124) had better citizenship behaviour compared to married (107) and widow (93). The

ANOVA value shows that there is no significant difference in the level of citizenship behaviour

among the levels of education of the respondents at 0.05 level. The ANOVA value shows that there

is a significant difference in the level of citizenship behaviour among the different levels of job at

0.05 level. The mean value shows that worker and executive level had better citizenship behaviour

compared to supervisory level. The coefficient of correlation value shows that there is a significant

relationship between organisational citizenship behaviour and experience of the respondents at 0.01

level. It is interpreted that higher the experience of the employee, higher is the citizenship behaviour.

The coefficient of correlation value shows that there is no significant relationship between monthly

income and citizenship behaviour at 0.05 level.



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DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT


1. Age and Organisational Commitment


p<0.01

Significant

2. Gender and Organisational Commitment t-test t = 2.798

p<0.01

Significant

3. Marital Status and Organisational

Commitment

ANOVA F = 3.673

P<0.01

Significant

4. Educational Qualification and Organisational

Commitment

ANOVA F = 1.124

P>0.05

Not-

Significant

5. Designation and Organisational Commitment ANOVA F = 0.970

P>0.05

Not-

Significant

6. Experience and Organisational Commitment Correlation r = 0.156

P>0.05

Not-

Significant

7. Monthly Income and Organisational

Commitment


P>0.05

Not-

Significant

The coefficient of correlation value shows that there is a significant relationship between age

and level of organisational commitment of the respondents at 0.01 level. It is interpreted that higher

the age, higher is the level of organisational commitment. The t-test value shows that there is a

significant difference in the level of organisational commitment among male and female at 0.01

level. The mean value shows that female (36) had better organisational commitment compared to

male (33) respondents. The ANOVA value shows that there is a significant difference in the level of

organisational commitment among married, unmarried and divorced respondents at0.01 level. The

mean value shows that unmarried (36) had better organisational commitment compared to others.

The ANOVA value shows that there is no significant difference in the level of organisational

commitment among the levels of education of the respondents at 0.05 level. The ANOVA value

shows that there is no significant difference in the level of organisational commitment among the

different levels of job at 0.05 level. The coefficient of correlation value shows that there is no

significant relationship between organisational commitment and experience of the respondents at

0.01 level. The coefficient of correlation value shows that there is no significant relationship between

monthly income and organisational commitment at 0.05 level.

CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR AND ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT


1. Citizenship Behavior and

Organisational Commitment


p<0.01

Significant

The coefficient of correlation value shows that there is a significant relationship between

Citizenship Behavior and Organisational Commitment at 0.01 level. It is interpreted that higher the

organisational commitment, higher is the level of citizenship behaviour and vice versa.

CONCLUSION

The study concludes that there was a moderate level of citizenship behaviour was found

among the employees and low level of organisational commitment was found among the employees.

The study also concludes that there is a significant relationship between citizenship behavior and

organisational commitment. It is concluded that demographic variables like age, gender and marital

status influences the level of citizenship behavior and organisational commitment of the employees.



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