Abstract
In today's competitive organizational environment, strategic leaders depend upon employees with the capacity to continually change, innovate and improve, making highly engaged workers more valuable than ever (Norris, 2013). These changing conditions require the strategic cultivation of a workforce willing to contribute to the effective functioning of the organization through discretionary organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Using the survey method, we obtained data from 232 working professionals from a large metropolitan area in the Midwest and tested the extent to which spirituality in the workplace and perceived organizational support influenced the exhibition of OCBs. Our findings show that spirituality in the workplace exerts influence on altruism, conscientiousness, and courtesy, which represent interpersonally directed OCBs, and perceived organizational support exerts influence on civic virtue, which is an organizationally directed OCB.
TopIntroduction
In today’s competitive organizational environment, strategic leaders depend upon employees with the capacity to continually change, innovate and improve, making highly engaged workers more valuable than ever (Norris, 2013). These changing conditions require the strategic cultivation of a workforce willing to contribute to the effective functioning of the organization through discretionary organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Organ, Podsakoff, and MacKenzie (2006) define OCB as “Individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization” (p. 8). Organ (1988) conceptualized OCB as a five-dimension taxonmy and Williams and Anderson (1991) categorized OCBs as citizenry behaviors that are targeted at the organization (OCB-O) or targeted at other individuals (OCB-I) (Spitzmuller, Van Dyne, & Ilies, 2008). For this study, sportsmanship and civic virtue represent citizenry behaviors directed toward the organization; altruism, conscientiousness, and courtesy are organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward individuals.
Good organizational citizens preserve and enhance the social and psychological contexts that sustain task performance (Organ, 1988; Organ 1997). Sensitivity to the needs of others, showing courtesy by informing others of decisions or policies that have an effect on them (Tepper, 2003), making proactive suggestions at meetings (Farrell & Finkelstein 2011), offering ideas to improve the functioning of the organization (Lloyd, Boer, Keller, & Voelpel, 2015; Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983, Williams & Anderson, 1991), and providing encouragement to colleagues are the types of citizenry behaviors that positively contribute to the overall development of a healthy social and psychological organizational context (Tepper, 2003). Strategic leaders have long recognized the benefits of OCBs on organizational effectiveness (Dick, Grojean, Christ, & Wieseke, 2006; Joireman, Daniels, George-Falvy, & Kamdar, 2006; Lai, Simon, & Chow, 2015; Naeem, Malik, & Bano, 2014; Yen & Neihoff, 2004) as well as the negative consequences that can result in the absence of OCBs (Lamude, 1994; Motowidlo, 2003; Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique, 2008).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Interpersonally Directed OCBs: Interpersonally directed OCBs are the organizational citizenship behaviors that are targeted toward other individuals.
Sportsmanship: Individuals displaying sportsmanship do not complain or brood over petty grievances.
Civic Virtue: Individual demonstrate civic virtue behaviors through voluntary participation in the life of the organization.
Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Discretionary behaviors that help improve organizational efficiency, enhance organization effectiveness, and positively contribute to the enhancement of the social and psychological context that supports task performance ( Organ, 1988 , 1997 ).
Conscientiousness: Individuals show conscientiousness when role behaviors are carried out with diligence and above what is expected.
Altruism: Individuals express altruism by helping others with organizational tasks.
Spirituality in the Workplace: A recognition that employees have an inner life that is nourished by meaningful and belonging to a community where there is a sense of interconnectedness and belonging ( Ashmos & Duchon, 2000 ).
Organizational Directed OCBs: Organizationally directed OCBs are the organizational citizenship behaviors that are targeted toward the organization.
Courtesy: Individuals display courtesy through actions such as sharing information with others.