RELIGIOUSITY AS AN ANTECEDENT OF EMPLOYEES’ ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.37.2074Abstract
Organisational practitioners and academics have recognized that employees’ discretionary behaviours that go beyond their formally prescribed roles hold great promise for organizations and their members. This calls for identification of individual and organizational factors that promote these behaviours. The study investigated the extent to which employees’ level of religiosity predicts their organizational citizenship behaviour. A cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 272 which comprised of 125 males (46%) and 147 females (54%) and were conveniently sampled from various organizations in the Central region of Ghana. Sixty-four percent of the respondents were Christians, while 34.3% and 1.7% were Muslims and Traditionalists respectively. Religiousity was measured using Huber and Huber’s five dimension Centrality of Religion Scale (CRS), and OCB was measured using Organizational Citizenship Behavior Checklist (OCB-C) developed by Fox and Spector’s which has a total of 20 items. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, Pearson’s Product Moment correlation, ANOVA and multiple regressions. The results indicated that religiosity of the employees had significant contribution to their citizenship behaviour in their organizations. Regression analysis of the dimension of the religiosity scale showed that only religious ideological values and private practice significantly contributed to the OCB of the employees. ANOVA analysis also indicated that the religious denominations of the employees significantly influenced their OCB. The findings of this study suggest that efforts by organizations and society at large to inculcate religious values in employees would be invaluable for smooth and efficient organizational functioning. Further implications are discussed.
References
Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2010). Religiosity, subjective well-being, and neuroticism, Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 13, 67.
Affeldt, D. L., & MacDonald, D. A. (2010). The relationship of spirituality to work and organizational attitudes and behaviors in a sample of employees from a health care system. Journal of transpersonal psychology, 42(2), 192.
Al-Goaib, S. (2003). Religiosity and social conformity of university students: An analytical study applied at King Saoud University. Arts Journal of King Saoud University, 16(1), 51-99.
Alizadeh, Z., Darvishi, S., Nazari, K. & Emami, M. (2012). Antecedents and consequences of Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3(9), 494-505.
Asamani, L. & Opoku Mensah, A. (2013).To What Extent does Employees’ Perception of Organizational Justice Influence Their Organizational Citizenship Behaviour? European Journal of Business and Management, 5(16), 32-41.
Athanasou, J., & King, N. (2002). Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour: A study of Australian human-service professionals. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 17(4), 287-297.
Fok, L. Y., Hartmandy, S. J., Patti, A. L., & Razek, J. R. (2000). The relationship between equity sensitivity, growth need strength, organizational citizenship behaviour, and perceived outcomes in the quality environment: A study of accounting professionals. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 15(1), 99- 120.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior Checklist (OCB-C). (2011). Retrieved in February, 2016, from http:// shell.cas.usf.edu/~pspector/scales/ocbcpage.html
Gallup, Jr. G, & Jones T. (2000).The Next American Spirituality: Finding God in the Twenty-First Century. Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications.
Garcia‐Zamor, J. C. (2003). Workplace spirituality and organizational performance. Public administration review, 63(3), 355-363.
Gary J. R. (2003). “The relationship among organizational justice, trust and role-breadth self-efficiency”.A dissertation submitted to the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Ghana. Statistical Service. (2005). 2000 Population & Housing Census of Ghana: GA-MY (Vol. 2).
Hackney, C. H., & Sanders, G. S. (2003). Religiosity and mental health: A meta–analysis of recent studies. Journal for the scientific study of religion,42(1), 43-55.
Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, R. W., McCullough Jr, M. E., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., & Zinnbauer, B. J. (2000). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of departure. Journal for the theory of social behaviour, 30(1), 51-77.
Huber, S., & Huber, O. W. (2012). The centrality of religiosity scale (CRS). Religions, 3, 710-724.
Khalid, S. A., Rahman, N. A., Madar, A. R. S., & Ismail, M. (2013).Undergraduates’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Role of Religiosity. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(7), 572-584.
King, R. (2007). Regulatory State in an Age of Governance: Soft Words and Big Sticks. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kutcher, E. J., Bragger, J. D., Rodriguez-Srednicki, O., & Masco, J. L. (2010).The Role of Religiosity in Stress, Job Attitudes, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(2), 319-337.
Lawler, E. E. (1994). From job‐based to competency‐based organizations. Journal of organizational behavior, 15(1), 3-15.
Lawton, C., & Morgan, P. (2007). Ethical issues in six religious traditions. Edinburgh University Press.
Leonard, A. G. (1966). The lower Niger and its peoples. London: Frank Cass.
Liu, C.C. (2010). The relationship between personal religious orientation and emotional intelligence. Social Behavior and Personality 38(4), 461-468.
Marschke, E. B. (2008). A comparative study: Do corporations that embrace spirituality in the workplace encourage desired organizational outcomes?. ProQuest.
Mbiti J.S. (1969). African religions and philosophy. London: Heinemann.
Mbiti, J. S. (1989). God, sin, and salvation in African religion. Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center, 16(1-2), 59-68.
Mbiti John, S. (1969). African religions and Philosophy.
McGhee, P., & Grant, P. (2008). Spirituality and ethical behaviour in the workplace: Wishful thinking or authentic reality.
Mitroff, I. I., & Denton, E. A. (1999). A study of spirituality in the workplace.MIT Sloan Management Review, 40(4), 83.
Moore, T. W., & Casper, W. J. (2006). An examination of proxy measures of workplace spirituality: A profile model of multidimensional constructs. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 12(4), 109-118.
Moorman, R. H. (1991). Relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors: Do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship?. Journal of applied psychology, 76(6), 845.
Neale, M., & Griffin, M. A. (2006). A model of self-held work roles and role transitions. Human Performance, 19(1), 23-41.
Ntalianis. F & Darr, W (2005).The influence of religiosity and work status on psychological contracts. The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 13(1), 89-102.
Oler, J. S. (2004). The Effect of Religiosity and Spirituality on Work Practices and Trust Levels in Managers and their Subordinates in Food and Nutrition Care Departments.
Olowookere, E .I. (2014).The influence of Religiosity and Organizational Commitment on Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: A Critical. Review of Literature, Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal,1(3),48-63.
Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington Books/DC Heath and Com.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Paine, J. B., & Bachrach, D. G. (2000). Organizational citizenship behaviors: A critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. Journal of management, 26(3), 513-563.
Rastgar, A. A., Zarei, A., Davoudi, S. M. M., & Fartash, K. (2012). The link between workplace spirituality, organizational citizenship behavior and job performance in Iran. Arth Prabhand: A Journal of Economics and Management, 1(6), 51-67.
Rego, A., Ribeiro, N., & Cunha, M. P. (2010). Perceptions of organizational virtuousness and happiness as predictors of organizational citizenship behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 93(2), 215-235.
Richards, P. S., & Bergin, A. E. (1997). A spiritual strategy for counseling and psychotherapy.
Rust, A. B., & Gabriels, C. C. (2011). Spirituality in the workplace: Awareness of the human resources function. African Journal of Business Management, 5(4), 1353.
Salem, Z. O., & S. Agil, S.O. (2012). The effects of Islamic management ethics on organizational commitment of employees in Libyan public banks. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. 6(7), 260-270.
Shafranske, E. & Malony, H. M. (1990) Clinical psychologists’ religious and spiritual orientations and their practice of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 27, 72–78.
Tabachnick, B.G., & Fidell, L.S. (2007). Using Multivariate Statistics, Fifth Edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Weaver, G. R., & Agle, B. R. (2002). Religiosity and ethical behavior in organizations: A symbolic interactionist perspective. Academy of management review, 27(1), 77-97.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
