Exploring Organizational Citizenship Behaviour In An Essay.

Dimensions of OCB

Discuss about the Exploring Organizational Citizenship Behaviour.

Organizational citizenship behaviour is an important quality among the employees of the organization such that a positive organizational outcome is experienced in productivity as well as environment and culture. The organizational citizenship behaviour refers to the voluntary commitment of a person in a business organization that is not included in the job role of the person. The organizational citizenship behaviour is a positive initiate for the business organization since the voluntary participation of the employees highlights the fact that the employees have job satisfaction in the role that they are assigned to. There are mainly three aspects of OCB (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). This behaviour is considered as a discretionary behaviour that is done by the employee other than the responsibilities mentioned in the job description of the person (Chen et al. 2013). This highlights the fact that the employees engage themselves automatically in the development of the organization. Moreover, OCB is carried out by the employees who have already thorough with their regular work. Thus, employees engaging in OCB are highly skilled and expertise in their regular work (Demir 2015). Moreover, the OCB enhances the overall effectiveness of the organization. OCB might also refer to the behaviour that contributes to the non-task related behaviour of the employees, that are also essential in the enhancement of the organization and achievement of the organizational goals. The contributions of OCB to ehnace the positivity of the organization are as follows (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). Since the employees contribute to the developmental work promptly, hence the dedication and diligence with which they work is not forceful. Hence, a positive effect in the organization is observed in the enhancement of the working environment, along with the assurance of achievement of the organizational goals. Moreover, workplace spirituality is also related to the OCB. The positive contributions also refer to the recognition of the inner peace and the employee takes up inner life of the employees that is nourished by meaning work at the workplace that voluntarily. Thus, the outcomes of the organizational activities are positive (Demir 2015).

OCB affects the organization as well as the employee behaviour positively. The employees experience enhanced performance as well as productivity of the organization. With the growth of the concept of OCB, the positivity and pleasantness of the employees are also enhanced. The success of the organization depends largely on the OCB displayed by the employees (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). As a direct effect of the OCB, the enhancement of the employee performance is observed. As a result, the organizational performance is also increased.  The direct effects of the OCB in the organization are the enhancement in the productivity and the environment of the workplace. However, the long term effects are te employee satisfaction, employee retention, lower rates of employee deflection. The overall enhancement of the business and the hike in the productivity is observed, as the employees display spontaneous participant and cooperation (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004)

Antecedents of OCB

The dimensions of the OCB play a pivotal role in the organization and in establishing a strong relation among the employees and the organization. The various dimensions of the OCB that play an important role in imparting positivity in the workplace environment are altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship spirit, courtesy as well as civic virtue. The dimension of sportsmanship is an important virtue since it enhances the positivity in the workplace and makes the workplace culture a healthy one. Sportsman spirit exhibited by the employees would result in lesser conflicts among the employees. These virtues displayed among the employees are desirable, since these qualities enhance the workplace environment. The sportsman spirit includes negligence of the trivial issues at the workplace and helpfulness towards the employees (Demir 2015). Moreover, having the sportsman spirit among the employees would reduce the interference of the management in trivial matters. The virtue of altruism refers to the helpfulness of the employees in order to share the burden of the employees having heavy workloads. Conscientiousness displayed by the employees refers to the virtue in which the employees go out of the norms of the duties to help and assist other co-workers (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). The civic virtue is also an essential dimension of the OCB, in which the employees engage in politics in the business organization. This is done spontaneously by the employees and does not need to be forced or directed by the business organization. The relation between the organizational commitments and the organizational citizenship behaviour is an intense one. With the increase in the OCB, the commitments of the employees towards the achievement of the organizational goals are also increased (Demir 2015). The practical implications lie in the fact that the organization should support moral commitments with the employees, in order to develop a strong OCB. The organizational commitment along with the demonstration of the OCB might affect the organization by improving the quality of workplace life and culture. The commitment of the organization towards the employees is important for the achievement of the OCB among the employees. Since, OCB refers to the behaviour that is spontaneous, hence commitment of the employees result in the spontaneity of the employees (Demir 2015). Moreover, in order to assure OCB in the organization, the management and the organization must display justice and commitment towards the employees in order to receive the OCB from the employees (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). The effect of the OCB in the organization is a positive one, since enhancement of productivity, achievement of the organizational goals as well as employee retention is achieved. The concept of OCB is also a part of the pro-social behaviour. The pro-social behaviour refers to the behaviour of the members of the organization, among the groups as well as with the seniors and juniors, in order to maintain peace and harmony at the workplace. It has been highlighted that OCB is not related to the rewards system of the organization. The employees who exhibit OCB does not expect any reward and incentives (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). Hence, the OCB is displayed without any expectation of recognition. Thus, OCB is important to enhance the business of the organization.

The antecedents of the OCB refer to the pre-requisite conditions that are essential for the application of the OCB. These are the job satisfaction of the employees, the perception of the organizational justice, task characteristics and personality as well as leadership behaviour. The job satisfaction of the employees plays an essential role in initiating and enhancing the OCB of the employees. The job satisfaction of the employees is achieved by the satisfaction of the work they do, along with the correct salary paid to them. Thus, as job satisfaction is achieved, the employees take interest in participating positively in various tasks that are not a part of their duty or job description. Thus, achievement of job satisfaction is a pre-requisite for the initiation of the OCB among the employees (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). Moreover, the justice of the organization towards the employees is a determining factor for the initiation of the OCB (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). If the employees achieve organizational justice, then, they might take spontaneous initiatives and engage in OCB. However, denied of justice in the workplace, the employees would not engage in OCB, since job satisfaction is not achieved. The task characteristics that are assigned to the employees need to be within the expertise of the employees. Task given to the employees that are out of the expertise of the employees, would incur dissatisfaction among the employees. Thus, it is important that the characteristics of the work given to the employees matches with that of the skills. Another essential pre-requisite is the leadership behaviour displayed by the leaders and the managers (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). If the leaders are inefficient, then the employees might not be satisfied with their job roles and hence OCB would not be initiated. Thus, the role of the leader is important in determining the OCB of the employees. The personality characteristics among the employees also determine the OCB displayed by the employees. Thus, it might be concluded that, OCB is an important and inevitable for any organization (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). The enhancement of the organizational productivity is witnessed with the display of the OCB among the employees. Thus, the job satisfaction of the employees, result in engagement in the OCB, which results in the enhancement of the organizational culture as well as productivity. It is important for the business organizations to create environment for the OCB among the employees (Somech and Drach?Zahavy 2004). With the commitment of the organization, along with the justice ensured by the business organization, and the employee satisfaction, OCB could be imparted successfully along with increased enhancement in the productivity, and improvement of the organizational environment. Thus, to conclude it might be stated that display of OCB by the employees is important and significant.

References

Chen, S.H., Yu, H.Y., Hsu, H.Y., Lin, F.C. And Lou, J.H., 2013. Organisational support, organisational identification and organisational citizenship behaviour among male nurses. Journal of nursing management, 21(8), pp.1072-1082.

Demir, K., 2015. The Effect of Organizational Justice and Perceived Organizational Support on Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Organizational Identification. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 15(60).

Somech, A. and Drach?Zahavy, A., 2004. Exploring organizational citizenship behaviour from an organizational perspective: The relationship between organizational learning and organizational citizenship behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77(3), pp.281-298.