Organisational Behaviour HBH220N Convenor: Dr Nikola (Nick) Djurkovic Mid-Semester Essay Topic 1 What is organisational citizenship? Explain the links between the various types of organisational citizenship behaviours and job-related outcomes. In what ways does organisational citizenship affect organisational performance? Illustrate with examples where appropriate. FACTUM PER-LITTERA SWIN BUR * NE SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY By David Helal 7535198
Organisational citizenship behaviour is an important element to address if the organisation wishes to increase its performance and attain its goals. Organizational citizenship is how employees engage in positive behaviour by going beyond their role requirements within an organisation to contribute to a higher level of performance so that the organisations goals are achieved. In 1983 a man by the name of Dennis Organ, whom founded the term organisational citizenship behaviour defined it as 'Individual behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization' (Organ, 1988) Through OCB an organisation can reduce costs, increase job satisfaction, productivity, efficiency, effectiveness and overall performance (Podsakoff, Whiting & Blume, 2009). Organ identified five dimensions/categories of OCB that capture the employee behaviour traits necessary in establishing citizenship behaviour, these behaviours aid in improving employee and organisational performance. 1) Altruism, altruistic behaviour is behaviour that benefits others at one's own expense e.g. helping a co- worker. Through altruistic behaviour the working environment can become more productive because employees can share knowledge between fellow co-workers thus assisting in the completion of work. 2) Courtesy is another dimension of OCB that involves being polite to others e.g. expressing friendliness towards employees and helping prevent problems between co-workers. Courtesy can create a positive atmosphere amongst members of the organisation thus enabling employees to develop stronger relationships. By developing stronger relationships employees will look forward to attending work therefore increasing job satisfaction and reducing staff absenteeism. 3) Conscientiousness, conscientious employees commit themselves to getting work done and above expectations. These employees are the backbone to establishing a strong workforce because they are compliant and have high expectations of themselves. This makes them more likely to go beyond their duties to achieve the organisations goals. Another dimension identified by Organ is 4) Sportsmanship, which involves not complaining about trivial matters and obeying the organisations regulations. Through sportsmanship employees will learn not to focus on the negative aspects of their assigned duties, therefore aiding in the establishment of a positive and efficient working environment. A positive and efficient working environment can cater for greater innovation in the workplace thus
increasing productivity and reducing costs. By reduced costs an organisation can direct more money to improving its products therefore establishing greater customer satisfaction. 5) Civic virtue is another dimension of OCB that involves engaging in what's important to the organisation e.g. ethics or resource management. Employees who have high civic virtue will have deep concerns and an active interest in the life of the organisation (Chang & Hsieh, 2012), thus aiding in the maintenance and sustainability of