Organizational citizenship behavior & HRM practices in Indian banks.
| Author | Jain, Sheelam |
| Position | Human resource management |
Introduction
Attitudes, skills, and behaviors of the bank employees particularly the frontline employees affect customer perceptions of service quality. If customers perceive good service quality, their satisfaction level may be enhanced and loyalty may be maintained. Increasing customer satisfaction can reduce customers' switching behavior, and this may enhance service performance (Rodoula, 2010). Therefore, to meet or exceed the customers' expectations of service delivery, it is imperative for service firms (e.g., commercial banks) to seek ways to motivate frontline employees to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) (Yang, 2012). If the employees exhibit extra-role behaviors (e.g., OCB), consumers will generate person-to-person trust, and this may enhance customers' loyalty (Sun & Lin, 2010). Employees with high levels of OCBs are willing to get more involved in the organization (Chen, Hui & Sego, 1998). In the study by Jain (2009), job satisfaction, personal effectiveness, reputational effectiveness, sense of accomplishment and contribution, botheration free existence and vertical trust were found positively predicted by different dimensions of OCBs. Some other outcome variables like career orientation, perceived job mobility, turnover intentions, work recognition and organizational commitment were also found to be significantly predicted by OCBs (Jain, 2009). The study by Moideenkutty, Blau, Kumar & Nalakath (2005) found that managerial evaluations of employee performance are affected by both objective productivity and organizational citizenship behavior. In their study, while objective productivity alone accounted for nine percent of the variance in subjective performance, objective productivity and organizational citizenship behavior together accounted for 41 percent of the variance. Thus, OCB has positive relationship with varied individual and organizational variables.
Review of Literature
OCB may be described as behaviors that (a) goes beyond the basic requirements of the job, (b) is to a large extent discretionary, and (c) is of benefit to the organization (Lambert, 2000). By discretionary behavior is meant that the behavior is not an enforceable requirement of the role or the job description, that is, the clearly specifiable terms of the person's employment contract with the organization; the behavior is rather a matter of personal choice (Organ, 1997). Examples of these efforts include cooperation with peers, performing extra duties without complaint, punctuality, volunteering and helping others, using time efficiently, conserving resources, sharing ideas and positively representing the organization (Turnipseed & Rassuli, 2005). Organ (1988) highlights five specific categories of discretionary behavior which are altruism (welfare), courtesy, conscientiousness (compliance), sportsmanship and civic virtue. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine & Bachrach (2000) presented seven common themes or dimensions on OCB: Helping behavior, sportsmanship, organizational loyalty, organizational compliance, individual initiative, civic virtue, and self development. A meta-analysis by Podsakoff et al. (2000) showed that helping behavior increases moral cohesiveness and belonging sense of a team which results into high performance and low turnover inside the organization. Sun, Aryee & Law (2007) argue that high-performance HRM practices can shape positive psychological climate perceptions of employees since such practices would send a signal of long-term investment in employee competence, helping create shared employee perceptions of a supportive organizational context that encourages OCB. When employees evaluate their work environments in a positive way, they tend to enhance their identification with their jobs and organizations, and thus are more likely to display extra-role behaviors that are beneficial for their employers (Wei, Han & Hsu, 2010). Akinyemi (2012) found significant relationship between climate and OCB. He suggests that for service-oriented industries, such as banks, to enhance employees' citizenship behavior a congenial developmental climate must exist. Biswas & Varma (2007) found a positive correlation between organizational climate and an employee's OCB. In another empirical study (Biswas, 2010), psychological climate was found to be an antecedent of OCB. OCB was found to be significantly related to organizational support (e.g., Podsakoff et al., 2000; Mei, 2009). The study of Suresh & Venkatammal (2010) demonstrated strong relationship between organizational processes (openness in communication and relationship among organizational members) and OCB.
In prior research (e.g., Moorman, 1993; Deckop, Mangel & Cirka, 1999; Bhatnagar & Sandhu, 2005) found that managers who perceive psychological empowerment in their occupational environment exhibit organizational citizenship behavior. In extant research (e.g., Cappelli & Rogovsky, 1998; Allen & Rush, 1998; Tremblay, Rondeau & Lamelin, 1998), HRM practices as regards to employee empowerment and training have been determined to have a direct and positive impact on OCB. OCB has been theoretically and empirically tied to performance appraisal (PA) context also (e.g., Zheng, Zhang & Lee, 2012; Findley, Mossholder & Giles, 2000; Norris-Watts & Levy, 2004). Findley et al. (2000) found that fairness in PA process explained variances in OCB. Norris-Watts & Levy (2004) found that PA feedback was associated with OCB through affective commitment. Employee empowerment also appears to be a promising approach for service organizations seeking to stimulate higher levels of OCBs (Raub & Robert, 2013). In prior research, it was found that employees would exhibit higher levels of OCB when they feel a sense of control or autonomy on the job (Wilson & Coolican, 1996). Job self-efficacy was found to be a strong predictor of organizational citizenship behavior (Todd, 2003). Thus, review of prior research indicates that HRM practices in general and organizational climate, training, employee empowerment and performance appraisal & development in particular have positive impact on OCB.
Research Methodology
The present study measures OCB of bank managers as regards to their helping behavior, courtesy, and sportsmanship. The study also measures the impact of selected HRM practices viz., organizational climate, employee training, employee empowerment and performance appraisal on OCB. The following hypotheses regarding OCB and its relationship with HRM practices have been tested in the study:
[H.sub.1]. The organizational citizenship behaviors as regards to helping behavior, courtesy and sportsmanship exist favorably among managers in the selected banks.
[H.sub.2]. There exists a positive correlation between the various study dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviors.
[H.sub.3]. There is no significant difference between the OCB of employees belonging to public sector, private sector and foreign banks in India.
[H.sub.4]. There is no significant difference between the OCB of employees belonging to various managerial levels in the selected banks.
[H.sub.5]. The HRM practices as...
To continue reading
Request your trialCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
