Key Antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior ( OCB ) in the Banking Sector of Pakistan

The study is focused on the effects of Altruism, Conscientiousness, and Civic Virtue (three of the antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior OCB) and their relationship with Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) in the Banking Sector of Pakistan. As per previous studies it has been hypothesized that there exists a direct and significant relationship between the antecedents chosen and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). Results prove that all the above mentioned antecedents have significant positive relationship with OCB. The purpose of this study is to invoke Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) in Pakistani organizations.


Introduction
Organizational Citizenship Behavior is relatively new concept considered under Organizational Behavior.The major research, in this relatively infant field of study has mainly taken place in the 1990s and still continuing at a stable pace.The research taking place currently is focused on establishing the relationship of OCB with its three aspects (commonly referred to, in the literature as the facets of OCB).The reason for choosing OCB as a research ground is its positive relationship with unit performance, which means by measuring OCB we can get one step closer in increasing the unit performance.
Interestingly researchers define OCB in not very much different contexts and backgrounds, also there is much consistency found in their ways of interpreting OCB.Jacqueline et al. (2004) refers, OCB to be an extra-role behavior i.e. it is any behavior not officially required by the organization; rather its practice depends solely on the consent of employee as a consequence of the organizational environment.OCB makes the impact on organization effectiveness; OCB should have a particular impact on the overall effectiveness of organizations by adding to the social framework of the work environment (Todd, 2003).I have chosen altruism, conscientiousness, and, civic virtue among the Big Five facets of OCB.
There is profound relation between OCB and Altruism; it is commonly referred to as the helping behavior of an employee, towards its fellow employees.Todd (2003) found that Altruism, for instance, usually is interpreted to reflect the willingness of an employee to help a coworker, also is referred to and explained as the selflessness of an employee towards organization.
Conscientiousness is another important antecedent of OCB, much of the studies have taken place to study its relationship with OCB.Konovsky & Organ (1996) found in their study that, conscientiousness was significantly inter-related to all types (facets) of OCB.According to Neihoff & Yen (2004), more conscientious employees will stay informed with up-to-date knowledge about products or services offered.
The third selected antecedent that affects OCB is Civic Virtue, it is a behavior exposed by taking part in the unofficial activities of the organization, which are not mandatory and obligatory, but result in the social cohesiveness within the organization.As per Borman et al. (2001) the definition of civic virtue is, to involve oneself responsibly in and being concerned about the life of the company.
To this date, most of the research in the field of Organizational Behavior (OB) was held in the geographical context of western culture, In sub continental region; culture, environment, values and norms are totally different and need a separate study to make HR practices applicable more meticulously, many western multinational companies are moving in this region because of cheap labor and immense potential market, so this study would principally be targeted to help in a better understanding of the OCB in a different geographical context.This research will focus on different banks of the region.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
OCB typically refers to behaviors that positively impact the organization or its members (Poncheri, 2006).OCB can be defined as defending the organization when it is criticized or urging peers to invest in the organization (Turnipseed & Rassuli, 2005), or a behavior that exceeds routine expectations (Joireman et al. 2006).OCB can be affected by instilling in employees a perception of expertise in their job tasks (Todd, 2003).There is persuasive evidence that OCB is an outcome consistent with a social exchange relationship (Deckop et al. 1999).Organizational concern emerged as the motive most closely related to OCB directed towards the organization (Dick et al. 2006).OCBs yield significantly higher outcomes in the long term than in the short term for the organization (Joireman et al. 2006).The importance of OCB can be realized by the argument of Koys (2001) who suggests; Organizational citizenship behavior had an impact on profitability but not on customer satisfaction.Also (Jacqueline et al. 2004) individuals engage in OCB as a form of reciprocity based on organizational treatment.The 'best' performing workers produced the strongest link between performance and functional participation, which is a helping-type (Altruism) OCB, as found by Turnipseed & Rassuli (2005).Employee attitudes were found to influence subsequent organizational citizenship.Indeed, as citizenship appears to consist of discretionary behaviors, how the employee perceives the organization (as evidenced by his/her attitude toward it) would likely predispose this employee to either perform or withhold such performance (Dick et al. 2006).Results indicate that perceptions of citizenship performance predict overall performance equally well across all task performance levels (Coole, 2003).Results from the studies of Yorges (1999) suggest, that creating a group atmosphere can have detrimental consequences, particularly regarding OCB (due to competition).Deckop et al. (1999) argue that, for employees low in value commitment, a pay-for-performance system appears to be a disincentive for engaging in OCB.To the extent organizations can manage their relationship with employees; they are more likely to engage in OCB (Jacqueline et al. 2004).The belief among theorists is that as more employees engage in OCB, the organization becomes more successful (Neihoff & Yen, 2004).OCB and CWB (Counterproductive Work Behavior) were significantly negatively correlated (Baker, 2005), which means that a person high on OCB scale will not show any such behavior posing an adverse effect to production.Interestingly, the study of Deckop et al. (1999) yields, that; the age of employee had (s) a negative and a marginally significant effect on OCB.Such behavior (i.e.Organizational Citizenship Behavior) might enhance coworkers' or supervisors' productivity, help coordinate activities, increase the stability of organizational performance, and help the organization attract and retain employees (Borman, 2004).As Pakistan particularly and Asia in general are different from the rest of the world, if culture is made the origin of segregation, Gautam et al. (2006) argues that citizenship behavior within an organization may vary, with change in geographic context; OCB is enacted differently in different cultural contexts -that what it means to be a 'good citizen' may vary.Employees who perform citizenship behaviors may be more likely to elicit support from their organizations (Moorman et al. 1998).After all above arguments there also exist a view regarding OCB i.e.OCB is an extra-role behavior that is not formally evaluated (Pond et al. 1997).

Antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
There are many factors that can contribute to the determination of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) which include Altruism, Conscientiousness, Civic Virtue, Sportsmanship, Courtesy, etc. but the factors that have been researched to have a significant relationship with Organizational Citizenship Behavior, are the first three i.e.Altruism, Conscientiousness, and Civic Virtue.As Borman et al. (2001) finds Altruism and conscientiousness are the two major or overarching dimensions of OCB.

Altruism
Todd (2003) Altruism, for instance, usually is interpreted to reflect the willingness of an employee to help a coworker, also is referred to and explained as the selflessness of an employee towards organization.Also, as per, (Redman & Snape, 2005) 'Altruism' is concerned with going beyond job requirements to help others with whom the individual comes into contact.Altruism is accounted as a one of the significant antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), reason being, as Pare' & Tremblay (2000) explains -behaviors such as helping a colleague who has been absent from work, helping others who have heavy workloads, being mindful of how one's own behavior affects others' jobs, and providing help and support to new employees represent clear indications of an employee's interest for its work environment.Socially driven values emphasizing the group over individual concerns are likely to encourage altruistic behaviors benefiting the group.Altruism and compassion may arise as a natural consequence of experiences of interconnection and oneness (Vieten et al. 2006).Altruism or helping coworkers makes the work system more efficient because one worker can utilize his or her slack time to assist another on a more urgent task (Neihoff & Yen, 2004).Redman & Snape (2005), 'altruism' involves helping specific individuals in relation to organizational tasks.The altruistic person can obtain utility from other persons' utility (by convincing them with their selflessness aspect of personality) (Wu, 2001).Rush & Allen (2001) states that, an abundant body of social psychological research indicates that there are gender differences with regard to helping behavior and altruism.Participants (employees) who were allowed to work individually (i.e., did not perceive any group boundaries) were much more likely to engage in altruism and courtesy behaviors as found by Yorges (1999).The measure of altruism may be akin to citizenship behavior directed toward one's colleagues (resulting in the benefit of the organization) as established by Brennan & Skarlicki (2004).Altruism encourages teamwork and cooperation, allowing employees to increase the pool of available knowledge (Neihoff & Yen, 2004).
H1: based on above research findings we can argue that altruism is an antecedent of OCB; hence Altruism will show direct and positive relation with OCB.

Conscientiousness
'Conscientiousness' refers to discretionary behaviors that go beyond the basic requirements of the job in terms of obeying work rules, attendance and job performance (Redman & Snape, 2005).In other words, conscientiousness means the thorough adherence to organizational rules and procedures, even when no one is watching.It is believed to be, the mindfulness that a person never forgets to be a part of a system (organization).Conscientiousness, and Openness are all better predictors of decision-making performance when adaptability is required than decision-making performance prior to unforeseen change (Lepine et al. 2000).Konovsky & Organ (1996) found in their study that, conscientiousness was significantly related to all five types of OCB.Also, Conscientiousness was significantly related to Generalized Compliance and to Civic Virtue, (two of the antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior).More conscientious employees will stay informed with up-to date knowledge about products or services offered (Neihoff & Yen, 2004).High conscientious individuals, in contrast, persisted longer than individuals lower in conscientiousness whether or not there was an additional benefit and whether or not they varied the procedure while performing (Sansone et al. 1999).Conscientiousness, with its emphasis on responsibility and dedication, is likely to underlie the first motive for interpersonal helping-taking the initiative to engage in behaviors for the good of the organization -conscientiousness can be expressed in numerous ways in organizations and, most obviously, in terms of job performance (King et al. 2005).Conscientiousness affects important work outcomes (Roberts et al. 2005).Theoretically, conscientiousness may be an important predictor of workplace behaviors because it provides the organization and direction that are necessary to produce targeted behaviors (King et al. 2005).Higher values are associated with greater conscientiousness when combined (Yorges, 1999).Conscientiousness accounted for unique variance in citizenship targeted toward the organization, as researched by Ladd & Henry (2000).Lowery & Krilowicz (1996), Supervisory evaluations of performance were found to be determined by Altruism and Conscientiousness as well as by objective job performance.

Civic Virtue
'Civic Virtue' refers to behaviors that demonstrate a responsible concern for the image and wellbeing of the organization (Redman & Snape, 2005).Borman et al. (2001) defines civic virtue as responsibly involving oneself in and being concerned about the li fe of the company.Civic virtue is behavior indicating that an employee responsibly participates in, and is concerned about the life of the company (represented by voluntary attendance at meetings) (Todd, 2003).Baker (2005) explains Civic Virtue is responsible, constructive involvement in the political processes of the organization.As mentioned earlier, Conscientiousness was (is) significantly related to Generalized Compliance and to Civic Virtue (Konovsky & Organ, 1996).There was (is) an impact of fairness for only a single form of OCB (Civic Virtue), as found by Bacharach & Jex (2000).As per Redman & Snape (2005) the civic virtue is positively predicted by commitment to customers and co-workers (hence resulting in the behavior, beneficial to the organization) with evidence of partial mediation by global commitment.Neihoff & Yen (2004), acts of civic virtue would include employees offering suggestions for cost improvements or other resource-saving ideas, which might directly influence operating efficiency.Coole (2003) argues that civic virtue was more limited in their relation to organizational effectiveness; i.e. the more the organization is effective the chances of emergence of this very behavioral aspect is the most.Extraversion was (is) negatively related to the citizenship behaviors of Altruism, Civic Virtue, and Conscientiousness (Baker, 2005).Todd (2003) points out that, it is noteworthy that some different types of OCBs such as helping behavior and civic virtue appear to impact distinct measures of organizational effectiveness in their own ways.Civic virtue is more likely to involve a purposeful contribution (in OCB) by employees compared to other dimensions (Jacqueline et al. 2004).If employees identify strongly with the organization (i.e., high civic virtue), one would expect them to exert extra effort to improve their productivity, resulting in improved efficiency (Neihoff & Yen, 2004).

H3: the above research shows that civic virtue is an important antecedent of OCB and Civic Virtue will have a positive relationship with OCB.
Insert Figure 1 here

Theoretical framework
In the diagram given at the end of the study (Appendix I), the theoretical framework is showing the relationship among OCB and its antecedents (Altruism, Conscientiousness, and Civic Virtue); which will be helpful in testing the postulates and certain relationships and will also improve the understanding of the dynamics of the situation.

Participants
The employees of different banks in the cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were the participants in my study.The survey was conducted on random basis i.e. questionnaires were without any discrimination or bias.Mine is a cross-sectional study as I have collected the data only once.Due to some limitations (discussed in following pages) the sample consists of 176 employees from the above mentioned sector, but the accuracy has not been compromised.It is expected, that all respondents have provided the response honestly and correctly up to their understanding and comprehension of the questionnaire.

Measures
In my survey, responses were rated on the Likert scale format, with answer ranging from 1 to 5 (1 = never and 5 = always).To measure Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB); I used OCB measure developed by Lee and Allen (2002) and a measure of contextual performance developed by Motowidlo and Van Scotter (1994).To measure the chosen antecedents of OCB i.e.Altruism, Conscientiousness, and Civic Virtue I adopted the relevant sections of Organization Citizenship Behavior Questionnaire, developed by Podsakoff et al., 1990;Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 1994.The respondents were assured of confidentiality to guarantee the fairness of responses (questionnaire appended).To avoid any oversight due to a non-serious attitude I tried to utilize the time off of employees to fill the questionnaires.Also the respondents were provided with full explanation of the questionnaire.

Methodology
After the collection of data, scores were developed for the chosen constructs, by averaging the responses to items comprising each dimension (OCB, Altruism, Conscientiousness, and Civic Virtue).Then on acquired means, different analyses were employed particularly Correlation and Regression, to investigate about the presence of relationship (if any) between OCB and its constructs, their significance along with the direction.

Demographic Analyses
The subsequent Figure 2 in Appendix I has tabulated the demographics data on the basis of age, gender and education level of respondents with their description range and frequency.

Insert Figure 2 here
Data shows that 56 respondents fall between the age bar of 18 to 26 and the high frequency between 26 to 36 years show that most of the employees are in this sorting; the overall frequency between 36 to 44 is 18 whereas 25 employees were 45 years of age and above.The education categorization shows that most of the respondents were well educated, only 22 of them were below the graduate level, and rest of them were either graduates or were post graduates.The data also reveals that the ratio of male respondents is higher than females.One of the big reasons of this difference in ratio is our Pakistani culture in which, it is not acceptable by the masses to let women work in any sector, other than medical and teaching.Although a new moderate era has taken a slight start but still people are reluctant, but we can expect this gap to be filled soon.Moreover, a good percentage i.e. 79% of employees had spent more than two years with their current organizations.

Correlation Analyses
Insert Figure 3 here Different software's were used to calculate the aforementioned (and following) values of correlation and regression, particularly MS Excel and SPSS software.Here 2nd column is showing the means of responses, 3rd column is showing the standard deviation of these means, the last three columns are depicting the inter-relationship between OCB and the selected antecedents, as well as their relationship among themselves.All the values are positive and significant up to 0.01 (**).Our concern is mainly with the fourth column of the table which is showing the correlation between OCB and chosen antecedents.

Regression Analysis
Insert Figure 4a here Insert Figure 4b here The Regression analysis suggests that the chosen antecedents account for more than 50% of the variation in OCB among the employees of different banks in Pakistan.

Discussion
This research offer strong indications, that the selected antecedents have deep impact on OCB in the Banking Sector of Pakistan.It was expected that geographical, cultural and environmental factors may cause some deviation and contradictions from the results found by earlier researchers who considered only Western culture in their research but to my surprise the values weren't much different than those yielded by preceding western researches.OCB has a vital importance to an organization; because if personnel are not willing to work and their work directions are not parallel to the organizational objectives then the organization cannot achieve the operational efficiency.As without OCB there won't be much concern present among the employees about the promotion and benefit of the organization.This research included three variables; the first one was "Altruism" which is also referred to and explained as the selflessness of an employee towards the organization.The applied analyses yield significant results, providing the evidence that H 1 is true.The analyses show that the value of the correlation between OCB and Altruism is 0.418**.If the workforce of an organization have the enthusiasm to help one another and are selfless in achieving the organizational goals, it will naturally result in the development of, OCB in the organization and consequently the organization itself.In my research area, the Banking Sector of Pakistan, it was observed that the notion of HRM (Human Resource Management) till now, has not rooted deep into the base of the organizations.Incentives for motivation being provided to the employees only include huge financial spurs, keeping in view the economy of the geographic region.
The second variable i.e.Conscientiousness, was also identified to have a tremendous role in the development of OCB.Conscientiousness is a personality dimension that can be defined as the magnitude of adherence to the rules and norms of an organizational setting.Conscientiousness can also help to make the environment of the organization better and calm and it can help to make affable relationship with peers.The results shown in correlation table indicate that the relationship between OCB and Conscientiousness was significantly positive i.e. 0.428**.There may be a conflict between our value and the value found by previous researchers, the reason for the delineation may be, as in this part of the world, many of the employees do not have a definite set of organizational code, to adhere to; which results in low score by the respondents on Conscientiousness scale.
Finally, Civic Virtue was the last among the chosen antecedents of OCB.Civic Virtue can be explained as the willing involvement of the personnel in the routine and non-routine matters of his/her organization for the projection of a good image of the organization.The correlation result is showing the significant result on the relationship between OCB and Civic Virtue.The value yielded by this study for correlation between OCB and Civic Virtue is .405(**).In this region of the world people focus more on income rather than getting themselves involved in efforts to improve the impression of their organization.It is a common understanding in society that one who is politically and financially strong and one who has good acquaintanceship with the higher ups in the management, would not have any trouble surviving.But by interpreting the results, it can be concluded that in most of the private organizations, the commitment of employees with their organization and work is increasing with the level of awareness.Employees are realizing the fact that not only the office work but the other office related routines can also play a role in the betterment of the organization and consequently, for the employees themselves.In sum it is expected that the idea of civic virtue is emerging in organizations, but we will have to give it some time to let it reach to its prudent level.
A mere observation of the respondents' attitude towards the organization (during the filling of questionnaires) inferred that citizenship behavior develops its pedigree with the passage of time i.e. it was observed that, the longer the period of affiliation, the stronger was the citizenship behavior, also it was observed that more the satisfaction among the employees regarding the organization, caring for their employees, high was the rating on OCB scale.The research also capitulates that the citizenship behavior has a very significant effect on the stability of the organizational structure.

Implications
The rationale of this research was to test the relationship between OCB and its chosen antecedents, in a different cultural context i.e.Pakistan's Corporate Sector.Even though it was found in literature that the cultural context moderates the relationship to a significant level, but interestingly this study proves otherwise, i.e. the results were directionally as well as magnitude wise consistent with the Western researchers.Firstly employees projecting altruistic behavior i.e. to help out their coworkers with their work related problems will demonstrate OCB, which in return will act as a benefactor for the entire organization.It will also result in employees having faith in each other which may cause the employee relationship, of supervisor subordinate at vertical level, and peers at horizontal level to boom.
Secondly those employees showing a due concern towards the progress of their organization by performing activities that will boon the organization, this behavior also leads to the betterment of environment and behavior within the organization.If employees strictly adhere to the rules and regulation then it will automatically result in some positive effects, which may include timeliness, decrease in employee absenteeism, resulting in turn in the prosperity of the organization.
Finally if employees take part in activities not mandatory by the organization but which result in the impression of the organization to prosper, then the social life within the organization will become pleasant, which at the end of the day will result in satisfied employees and may cause the employees to develop vigorous and frictionless relationships among themselves.

Limitations
It is felt by the researchers that there is an ample room for research in this field but the lack of resources poses a serious limitation.Also it is believed that the sample size is not enough to represent the whole industry and there is a slight possibility that the future research in the same industry may yield a bit different results.
It was found during the survey that maximum employees had no concept of OCB, the researchers made their honest efforts to make every respondent understand the questionnaire so that the research is productive, but it is felt that the following researchers should translate the language of questionnaire so that it is easily interpreted by the respondents.
Finally, it is advised to the future researchers to include antecedents like Tenure, Salary, Job Satisfaction (JS) and Organizational Commitment (OC) etc. in their studies, as it was experienced that they may have an impact on the determining of OCB among the workforce of an establishment.