Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior - Essay Example

Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour in any given organization are crucial and influence the overall functioning of an organization. As a result, it is crucial to assess the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviour and leadership concerning how these two aspects influence one another. Organizational citizenship behaviour is a term used to refer to the behaviour that an individual exhibits, in any given organization, which is discretionary and cannot be observed or viewed overtly. This means that organizational citizenship behaviour is a form of covert behaviour that is exhibited and cannot be recognized, in any way, by the reward system of an organization, but has a significant input on the overall performance or turnover of an organization (Podsakoff 2000, p.513). This behaviour is not part of the expected conduct that an individual is expected to portray prior to employment; thus, it is difficult to detect, as they are a result of the personal choice of the individual in question. This implies that organizational citizenship behavior is controlled and determined by an individual who exhibits it out of at his or her own decision and choice. The other important point about organizational citizenship behavior is that it is an effort from the employees to benefit the organization without expecting any form of reward (Shweta and Jha 2009, p.33). In spite of the definitions and explanations that label organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), there have been challenges attempting to prove that OCB is not a discretionary form of behavior, but rather can be influenced by other factors both within the organization and outside it. While evaluating the relationship between the OCB and leadership in an organization, it is crucial to avoid confounding by looking at all the other factors, other than leadership, that influence OCB and their impact on it as well. Firstly, organizational leadership shares a close relationship with OCB based on a number of leadership styles used in an organization, as well as efficiency of leadership in an organization (Lian and Tui 2012, p.60). In addition, there exist a relationship between leadership and OCB, which is based on the relationships found between leaders in an organization and their exchanges with their managers and subordinates in the organization. With this in mind, the Leader-Member exchange determines the relationship between employees, their superiors, and their employers. This is to mean that leadership styles that involve role modelling and communicating high levels of performance, as well as envisioning and invigorating employees intellectually affect organizational citizenship behaviour among the employees (Lian and Tui 2012, p.36). In such a case, the leadership style affect the ways in which employees interact with management to create an improved or poor performance willpower amongst the employees. As a result, employees OCB is affected negatively to an almost bare minimum, such that employees exercise their discretionary to flunk the organization. Therefore, the relationship between OCB and organizational leadership can be described as dependent on the state of leadership or style of leadership to influence how employees’ covert behaviour. In addition, transformational leadership behaviour is one that is known to influence this behaviour in employees as it involves direct contact between employees and management. It is through communication and motivation found in the transformational leadership style that contributes to improved OCB. This is because of the conduct of the leaders towards the employees, where they express satisfaction and appreciation for good performance. In addition, employers and leaders who have shared resources with the employees, bring out the relationship between OCB and leadership. This is due to the level of personal support that employees share with the leaders, as well as time and information, which draw employees to engage in OCB readily. Studies indicate that leaders with defined job roles or those that do not interact with employees frequently tend to experience withheld OCB, in spite of its lack of observable characteristics or means of reward. Moreover, leadership styles influence OCB based on the reward systems that the management has put in place in any given organization to enhance the performance of the employees. This is as seen using reward systems that are friendly to the employees rather than to the management. This is done through systems designed especially to promote cooperation rather than cooperation in an organization as is common in most cases. Through the said reward system, employees are influenced to improve their performance, which, in turn, affects their OCB by having to tune to more efficient individual behaviours that work for the good of the entire company, instead of the good of the individual. This can be seen in cases where competition among employees and the leadership is eliminated and replaced with the cooperation, as is the case in transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is one such style that uses the said reward system; thus, allowing OCB to be influenced positively as leaders and employees work on an almost equal basis by working together. As a result, leaders are able to reward their employees effectively for their performance without bias and motivate better performance for the future. The above can also be achieved by having reward systems that assess employees with equity rather than from an individual ground, which a basis for competition and not cooperation. However, in spite of leadership coming up with such reward systems to counter competition and improve OCB, the use of individual reward systems has been identified to improve performance in an organization thanks to improvement of OCB (Cloninger and Flood 2011, p.37). This works based on rewarding an individual and allowing the individual to achieve his or her full potential concerning career growth and development of individual rewards. Another way in which the relationship between leadership and OCB exists is in the case of organizational justice, where treatment of employees in an organization holds a crucial spot in the influence of OCB. This can be seen clearly through the perception of employees on whether they are treated fairly by the leaders and other members of the organization such as fellow staff. This is because fair treatment based on leadership policies influences commitment and satisfaction, which in turn has a significant on organizational citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, in order to prove this point the following concept is brought out; equality among all workers must be put across among leaders and employees in order not to interfere with the delicate balance in OCB. Decision making also counts towards proving the relationship between the two due to the presence of communication between leaders and employees, which create a comfortable relationship within which employees can work (Niehoff and Moorman 1193, p527). As a result, commitment among employees can be boosted or brought down by modifying the concept of equality among the employees and between them and the leaders of an organization. Concerning justice, leadership policies focus on certain aspects of justice that determine the level of OCB that employees display or practice. This is based on fair distribution of organizational resources through procedural justice and fairness of treatment of all organizational members, influence and direct OCB on a massive scale if ignored or under emphasized. Relationship between organizational leadership and OCB can further be expressed through job satisfaction and the ability of employees to adapt to leadership policies. An ethical climate that bears its roots from the leadership and finds its way down to the employees creates a conducive environment for positive OCB among employees. This is to mean that it is difficult for the employee to develop positive OCB if he or she is not in a position to enjoy the job or if they are not conversant with the expectations of the leadership (Huang and Tsai 2012, p.514). Studies also indicate that employees exhibit positive OCB if leaders in an organization foster ethics rather than better performance as it prove the commitment of the leadership towards the wellbeing of the employees. As a result, OCB is affected as long as the ethics in the leadership are affected in the entire organization as they affect the integrity of employees and their ability to commit themselves fully to their jobs due to a state of uncertainty. Attitude of those in the leadership has also been reported to influence OCB among employees based on the ability of the employees and leaders to cater for the needs of one another. In this case, the relationship between OCB and leadership is determined by how employees and leaders relate to each other based on best to handle employees by the leaders, where proper treatment of employees is of concern to employees and performance is of concern to the leadership. In addition to the relationship between OCB and leadership, the factor of respect between subordinates and superiors, where subordinates is used to mean employees and superiors refers to the leaders (Hongyu et al 2012, p.233). The relationship between these parties concerning the amount of respect that they give to each other, determines OCB among employees. It works in the same way as the attitudes that employees have towards the leadership of an organization, only that, in this case, it is a two way process involving the leadership. When the employees respect the leadership and its policies, the level of commitment towards the organization increases and, as a result, the level of OCB is affected towards the positive side of the scale. Considering management, when leadership is more concerned with the needs of the employees, it does more for the good of employees who in turn get positive OCB for improved performance and productivity. In addition to the relationships found in an organization between the leadership and employees, casual relationships between the two appear to influence OCB based on the level of comfort that employees have in the presence of their employers and managerial staff (Lin et al 2012, p.170). In conclusion, organizational citizenship behaviour and organizational Leadership have a strong relationship between them based on how leadership influences organizational citizenship behaviour. This is as seen through motivation and commitment of employees towards the organization and its goals. References Jha, S. (2009). 'Determinants of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: A Review of Literature', Journal Of Management & Public Policy, 1, 1, pp. 33-42. Cloninger, P, Ramamoorthy, N, and Flood, P. (2011). 'The Influence of Equity, Equality and Gender on Organizational Citizenship Behaviors', SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075), 76, 4, pp. 37-46. Huang, C, You, C, and Tsai, M. (2012). 'A multidimensional analysis of ethical climate, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviors', Nursing Ethics, 19, 4, pp. 513-529. Podsakoff, P. (2000). “Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Critical Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature and Suggestions for Future Research”. Journal of Management, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 513–563. Lin, R. et al (2012). What are the Relationships Between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior?—An Empirical Study. International Conference on Economics. [Online]. Available at: http://www.ipedr.com/vol38/035-ICEBI2012-A10056.pdf [Accessed on25/112012]. Niehoff, B and Moorman, R. (1993). “Justice as a Mediator of the Relationship between Methods of Monitoring and Organizational Citizenship Behavior”. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 36, No 3, pp. 527-556. Hongyu. N., Mingjian, Z., Qiang, L., Liqun. W, (2012),"Exploring relationship between authority leadership and organizational citizenship behavior in China: The role of collectivism", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 6 Iss: 2, pp. 231–244. Lian, K. and Tui, L. (2012). “Leadership Styles and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Subordinates’ Competence and Downward Influence Tactics”. Journal of Applied Business and Economics vol. 13(2), pp. 59-96. Read More