Organisational Justice and Citizenship Behaviors: A Study in the Portuguese Cultural Context

First, Be a Good Citizen: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Well-Being at Work and the Moderating Role of Leadership Styles

The study investigates the effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on well-being at work. The study further examines the moderating role of people and task-focused leadership styles between OCB on well-being at work. Individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) and organizational-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO) will also be analyzed. A quantitative study was conducted and convenient sampling was adopted in selecting respondent workers (n = 200) in different Portuguese organizations. The results show that OCBs positively and significantly influence well-being at work. The strength of individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) on well-being at work is stronger than that of organization-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO). Contrary to expectations, the relationship between leadership styles and well-being was not statistically significant, offering possibilities for discussion regarding the central importance usually attributed to leadership in the organizational context. However, leadership styles have a moderating effect between OCB and well-being at work, except when the employee adopts OCBO and the leadership style is people-oriented. The present study is innovative because it positions OCB as an antecedent in the relationship with well-being at work and investigates the moderating role of leadership styles in the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and well-being.

The individuals' discretionary behaviors at work. An overview and analysis of its growing interest

Nearly forty years have passed since the term Organizational Citizenship Behavior appeared. Despite a current consensus among scholars about the citizenship gestures as prosocial acts of employees that benefit the organization, it does not apply commonly to the exponential growth of all OCB-related concepts. The concept's expansion has confused the researchers and practitioners, mainly when choosing the most appropriate instruments (constructs) and dimensions to use in their area of interest and context. A systematic literature review was conducted and 420 articles were analyzed. Results point that the trends on OCB-like behaviors goes higher, with an average annual growth rate of new studies of 3.13%. United States (39%) and China (25%) lead but some "under-studied" contexts like Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania start being studied towards OCB. New trends appear in the spectrum of the many different domains and disciplines related to OCB, while leadership and task performance remain the most studied domains and disciplines. In future studies, researchers must freely choose the OCB dimensions and constructs they want to use or adapt to meet their needs and research needs since there is no written rule about their use, only the care to be taken with the context and discipline studying.

Come and say what you think: reducing employees' self-censorship through procedural and interpersonal justice

BACKGROUND

Self-censorship in an organization may be defined as a conscious decision by employees to refrain from expressing opinions, criticism or suggestions in situations of perceived irregularities. There are at least two reasons for this decision: firstly, the fear that speaking up would prompt negative consequences, and secondly, the belief that it would not bring about a change in the situation. Procedural justice in an organization may encourage employees to limit that silence, thereby diminishing fear and undermining the belief that change is impossible.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

A set of three studies (total number of participants N = 710) was conducted in order to determine whether procedural justice predicts self-censorship and also to define the role of interpersonal justice in this relationship. It was assumed that procedural justice, while useful in the formation of an impartial and rigid legal system within an organization, is constrained by its disregard for personal relations.

RESULTS

It was found that when employees perceive a work environment as providing influence over procedures, they declare less self-censorship motivated by fear and resignation. In high interpersonal justice conditions the role of procedural justice in predicting employee self-censorship as well as employee silence beliefs increases.

CONCLUSIONS

Both fair treatment of all employees and the contextual and need-centered nature of such treatment should be integrated if self-censorship is to be reduced. The results confirm this conclusion for self-censorship (decision) and employee silence beliefs (belief that relations within the organization do not encourage people to speak up).

Psychological needs matter more than social and organizational resources in explaining organizational commitment

This study investigates the effects of psychological needs satisfaction on teacher's commitment, over and above the impact of social and organizational resources, by building a model based on the Job Demands-Resources theory, Self-Determination Theory, and Conservation of Resources Theory. Hierarchical multiple regressions with data obtained from a sample of 301 Romanian teachers (89% women) reveal that psychological needs satisfaction explains a significant amount of variance in teacher commitment, compared to the variance explained by social resources and organizational resources (affective and normative organizational commitment). These results highlight the role of needs' satisfaction in predicting teachers' commitment and provide valuable information for practitioners aiming to design interventions to increase teachers' commitment.

Going the Extra Mile: Impact of Individuals’ Behavior on Information Technology Governance

ABSTRACT Objective: this work emphasizes the information technology governance (ITG) behavioral expression and aims to identify whether individual behavior contributes to the increase of the perceived maturity of the ITG mechanisms. The organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) concept was the base to develop a model of relations between individual behavior and ITG maturity. Methods: we carried out a survey with 243 IT personnel of the executive branch of a Brazilian state government. We used partial least squares as data analysis technique. Results: the findings show the existence of a positive and significant relationship between the variable spirit of initiative and the perceived maturity of the ITG mechanisms. Conclusions: the impact of ITG changes in individuals’ behavior needs to be considered, which reinforces that ITG is a critical resource for implementing public policies and executing governmental strategies. In order to raise the IT governance maturity, managers should foster the spirit of initiative in their teams, acting on their antecedents such as feelings of control, complexity, self-efficacy, and responsibility for changes. Consequently, individuals can make a deliberate decision, constantly evaluating the likely outcomes of their behaviors in favor of the adoption of ITG mechanisms.

On the Value of Considering Specific Facets of Interactional Justice Perceptions

This research seeks to verify the value of considering specific perceptions of informational and interpersonal justice over and above employees' global perceptions of interactional justice. In Study 1 (Sample 1: n = 592; Sample 2: n = 384), we examined the underlying structure of workers' perceptions of interactional justice by contrasting first-order and bifactor representations of their ratings. To investigate the true added value of specific informational and interpersonal justice perceptions once global interactional justice perceptions are taken into account, we also considered the relations between these global and specific perceptions and various outcomes. Our findings revealed that workers' perceptions of interactional justice simultaneously reflected a global interactional justice factor and two specific facets (interpersonal and informational justice). In Study 2, we identified employees' latent justice profiles based on their global (interactional justice) and specific (interpersonal and informational justice) levels of interactional justice. Five different interactional justice profiles were identified: low interpersonal, high interpersonal/average informational, high informational, normative, and high interpersonal/low informational. Employees' perceptions of transformational leadership are a significant predictor of profile membership. Finally, the five profiles were significantly associated with anxiety and emotional exhaustion.

A cross-sectional study of the relationships between organizational justices and OCB

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to test the mediating effect of organizational identification (OI) in the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and also to examine the moderating effects of transactional and relational contracts in the relationship between OI and OCB.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were collected from employees working for ten companies in South Korea. The participants were asked with a self-reported survey, and 284 questionnaires were used in the analyses.

Findings

– Among the three types of organizational justice, the effects of distributive and interactional justice on OCB were mediated by OI. The authors also found that the positive relationship between OI and OCB was stronger for both a low level of transactional and a high level of relational contract. In addition, the moderated mediation analyses confirmed that the indirect relationships between distributive, interactional justice and OCB through OI were valid for both high and low level of transactional contract, and only for low level of relational contract.

Practical implications

– To facilitate employees’ OCB, organizations have to pay adequate attention to distributive justice which is rather neglected, and also must understand what types of psychological contract employees have.

Originality/value

– This study intensively explored the internal mechanism as to how the different types of organizational justice lead to OCB by identifying the mediating effect of OI and moderating roles of psychological contracts.