EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND JOB INVOLVEMENT AS PREDICTORS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to determine whether emotional intelligence and job involvement can predict organisational citizenship behavior- OCBI and OCBO among selected private sector organizations in Enugu Metropolis. A total of three hundred and seventy four (374) participants, 205 males and 169 females, ages 20-69 years (Mean= 35.14, S.D= 1.18) were involved in this study. They were selected using convenient sample method from PRODA, Emene, and INNOSSON Plastic Co., Emene. 146 out of the participants indicated that they were married, 190, single and 38 divorced. A structured questionnaire composing of four sections and three instruments were used for data collection with the first section eliciting demographic data from the participants. Workplace Emotional Intelligence Profile short version (WEIP-S), Job involvement Scale (JIS) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Checklist (OCB-C) formed the subsequent sections of the questionnaire. The study was a cross-sectional study using the survey research approach. Multiple Regression analyses was used to test the hypotheses using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS v23). The emotional intelligence was found to make significant positive contribution in predicting organizational citizenship behaviour. It was also found that Job involvement made statistically significant contribution in predicting organizational citizenship behaviour.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The fact that every organization desires employees who will perform beyond their usual duties and expectations for organizational growth and sustainability cannot be considered baseless. Extra-role behaviors, which are behaviors that are not prescribed by job descriptions and may be similar across jobs, and serve the accomplishment of organizational goals is of considerable importance in an organization (Katz, 1964). Although defining specific roles for each job reduces human variability and increases predictability of the quality and quantity of the performance, individuals should be encouraged to engage in spontaneous and innovative behaviors that may help the organization to survive (Öztürk, 2010). Katz and Kahn (1966) stated that organizational well-functioning heavily depends on extra-role behaviors. Managers therefore need employees who do more than what is described in the work contract. Specifically speaking, what managers look out for is Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) (Öztürk, 2010), which were explained by Organ (1988:4) as “discretionary behaviors, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and that in aggregate promote the effective functioning of the organization”. Such discretionary behaviors which are not specified by role prescriptions are vital for achieving organizational goals (Öztürk, 2010). OCB which is employees’ voluntary performance of tasks or duties that are not part of those specified officially is of immense importance in any organization. OCBs are not within the role or range provided by job descriptions as it is not a clear employment contract and does not attract reward when exhibited nor attract express punishment when ignored (Gabriel, 2015).

As Katz (1964) identified, it is not possible for an organization to foresee all contingencies within its operations, or to anticipate environmental changes accurately, or to control human variability perfectly. Therefore, an organization which depends solely upon its blueprints of prescribed behavior for workers is a very fragile social system (Katz, 1964). Therefore, the necessary things for organizational survival and effectiveness is employees who contribute to organizational functioning by engaging in extra role behaviors such as assisting co-workers, avoiding frequent faultfinding, defending the organisation whenever occasion demands (Gabriel, 2015), helping a new co-worker or one that has heavy workload, voluntarily attending and actively participating in unit meetings, paying attention to self- development to become versatile and being flexible in terms of tasks that can be performed, and not complaining about petty problems (Öztürk, 2010).

Allen and Rush (1998) stated that organizational citizenship behaviors when aggregated over time and persons become important since they facilitate the accomplishment of organizational goals and enhance organizational performance; hence, it promotes the effective functioning of the organisation (Organ, 1998; Allen & Meyer, 1990; Bolino & Turnley, 2003; Shroudt & Wolfle, 2002; Shrrodt, Cawyer & Sanders, 2003).

The evolution of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour is traceable to Bateman and Organ (1983) who assigned the label of organisational citizenship behaviour to a type of behaviour Katz and Kahn referred to as spontaneous behaviour or extra – role behaviour (Van Dyne, Cummings & Parks, 1995); Civic organizational behaviour (Graham, 1991); Prosocial organizational behaviour (George, 1990, 1991); Organisational spontaneity (George & Johnes, 1997) and contextual performance (Borman & Motowildo, 1993, 1997).

Records from empirical research has shown that OCBs benefit the organizations in many ways such as customer satisfaction, quality and quantity of the service or product, sales performance, customer complaints, and revenue (Karambayya, 1990; Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 1994; MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Ahearne, 1998; Walz & Niehoff, 1996; Koys, 2001; Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009; Öztürk, 2010). Podsakoff et al (2009) defined certain ways by which OCBs may affect organizational performance. These were organized by Öztürk (2010) as follow:

OCBs might enhance both coworker and managerial productivity. OCBs may also free up resources for more productive purposes and reduce the need to devote scarce resources to purely maintenance functions. Moreover, OCBs may serve as effective means of coordinating activities between team members and across work groups. OCBs may also enhance the organization’s ability to attract and retain the best people by making it a more attractive place to work. Additionally, OCBs may enhance the stability of organizational performance by reducing variability. Furthermore, OCBs may improve an organization’s ability to adapt to environmental changes. Lastly, OCBs may enhance organizational effectiveness by creating social capital. (2010:3).

Organisational citizenship behaviour is a multidimensional construct. Literature is saturated with plethora of organisational citizenship behaviour dimensions. For example, several researchers (Graham, 1986; Morrison, 1994; Smith, Organ & Near, 1983, Organ, 1988) posit that there are five dimensions: Altruism, Conscientiousness, Civic virtue, Courtesy; and Sportsmanship; whereas Podsakoff et al, (2009) developed seven dimensions: (1) Helping behaviour, (2) Sportsmanship, (3) Organisational Loyalty, (4) Organisational compliance, (5) Individual initiative, (6) Civic Virtue, and (7) Self Development. Williams and Anderson, (1991) simply divided organisational citizenship behaviours into OCBI- behaviours directed at individual members of the organisation and OCBO- behaviours directed at the organisation.

Since it is agreeable upon that even with all advancements in ICT and other machines and devices, workers in an organization are the main value creators in the organizations and the organizations’ success depends on their performance, it will be an important task for research to identify the variables that trigger workers’ commitment in OCBs. Therefore, the present study aims to discover the variables that influence engagement in OCBs in workers. Among numerous variables available, the present study concentrates on the recently thriving variable, Emotional intelligence and workers’ involvement in the job (Job Involvement) to see the influence these would have on OCBs-directed towards individual colleagues (OCBI) and towards the organization (OCBO).

Emotional Intelligence took its origin from the concept of Social Intelligence of Salovey (1990) who defined Emotional Intelligence as the sub set of Social Intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions (James, Velayudhan & Gayatridevi, 2010). From the time of the publication of Goleman’s (1995) book, emotional intelligence (EI) has been a passionately debated topic. Some proponents of EI claim it can predict various work-related outcomes, including job performance (Bachman, Stein, Campbell, & Sitarenios, 2000) and turnover (Goleman, 1998). Also, there is accumulating evidence that EI abilities and traits influence organizational citizenship behavior (Daus & Ashkanasy, 2005; Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004).

Even beyond cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence is valuable to everyone in the organization. James et al (2010) opined that emotional Intelligence becomes a stronger predictor of task performance and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour directed.....

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Item Type: Project Material  |  Attribute: 60 pages  |  Chapters: 1-5

Format: MS Word  |  Price: N3,000  |  Delivery: Within 30Mins.

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