The Cultural Matrix of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Some Preliminary Conceptual and Empirical Observations
Introduction
Globalization is bringing all corners of the world closer together and increasingly causing managers to attend to issues of culture and diversity. As more American companies operate in other countries, managers are faced with the task of assessing the applicability of traditionally Western management styles and human resources practices in other cultures. Training for expatriate managers in the values and culture of their host country has become increasingly important, and helps managers better understand which ideas and practices fit well and which do not. As noted by Hofstede (1980), practices such as group reward systems and upward appraisal systems meet with varying success in different cultures around the globe.
An important construct in organizational behavior and in current Westernized business literature is Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). OCB has been defined as:
(Organ, 1988, p. 4)Employees provide organizations with unique human resource capabilities that can create a competitive advantage, and OCB is one type of behavior that may contribute to that advantage.… individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization.
OCB has been studied in-depth during the last several years, both to determine its antecedents as well as its consequences. In the management research literature, OCB has been found to affect overall organizational effectiveness (Walz & Niehoff, 1996). The results have indicated that managers consider OCB when appraising performance and determining promotions and pay increases (Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 1993), and that reliable antecedents of OCB include the perception of fairness in the work place, job satisfaction, leader supportiveness, and organizational commitment (Organ & Ryan, 1995). Human Resource managers can play a critical role in encouraging OCB by designing effective appraisal systems that are perceived as equitable, by carefully crafting management development programs, by establishing fair compensation systems, and by designing jobs geared toward increased employee satisfaction and commitment.
However, what has not been studied as extensively is the applicability of OCB in other cultures. It is possible that the cultural context itself may encourage or dissuade OCB-type performance, thus attenuating the effect of established antecedents of OCB as found in North American studies. It is likewise conceivable that national culture might influence those conditions (e.g., organizational commitment) that relate to OCB. Finally, culture might moderate the effects of antecedents (such as perceived fairness or satisfaction) that in the U.S. have been interpreted as having direct effects on OCB.
Several other questions pertaining to OCB and culture are ripe for in-depth study. Does the term OCB have the same meaning in other cultures? Do terms exist in other languages to describe the same phenomenon? Are there different perceptions of OCB in other cultures? Are there different consequences of OCB? Are the distinct classes of OCB such as Altruism (i.e., OCB directed toward specific individuals), and Generalized Compliance (the more impersonal OCB directed toward the organization as an entity), as found in U.S. studies, analogous to those understood in other cultures? And finally, how can Human Resources practitioners play a role in recognizing and maximizing OCB in their organizations? For example, in a study by Farh, Earley, and Lin (1997) using a Chinese sample, three of five dimensions of OCB were found to be similar to those typically used in the U.S., while two dimensions were unique to the Chinese sample.
Section snippets
Contextual Influences on OCB
George and Jones (1997) have emphasized the importance of contextual factors as influences on OCB. They suggest three levels of context including: individual (e.g., skill level, role definition), group (e.g., norms, goals), and organizational (e.g., structure, policies, rewards); all of which traditionally are impacted by HR functions such as selection, team development, and organization design.
Cultural group norms may encourage employees to help each other whenever necessary. Or, the norm may
Heuristic Model
Existing research on cultural differences provides a ready foundation for examining how certain cultural variables might affect the perceptions or expressions of OCB. Two well-established dimensions of culture are “Individualism–Collectivism,” and Power Distance (PD). Hofstede (1980) defines these dimensions below.
Exploratory Survey
The survey used for this research was truly exploratory in nature, and was designed to gain an understanding of whether the OCB phenomenon noted in the Western world, exists in other cultures—as well as what the perceptions of “organizational citizenship” types of behaviors are in other cultures. The survey was distributed via electronic mail and hard copy to individuals who are non-native U.S. citizens, speak English, and have at least 6 months of work experience in another country.
For each
Propositions
Prior to analyzing the data, four propositions were established as tentative expectations for trends in the data: Proposition 1 Collectivist cultures will report less instrumental individual motivation and greater organizational commitment than individualistic cultures. Proposition 2 In individualistic cultures only, OCB will be positively related to beliefs that OCB influences performance appraisal. Proposition 3 Higher PD cultures will report less instrumental individual motivation than lower PD cultures. Proposition 4 In low PD cultures, perceived
Results
The average age of the respondents was 33.7 and 58 percent were male. The average years of work experience was 7.6. The nature of the work performed by the respondents included a variety of professions such as: teachers, bankers, sales, engineers, and computer specialists. It is possible, however, that the higher level work experience of the respondents could, in some way, attenuate differences that would be found with lower level employees as respondents.
Countries represented in the survey
Subject Comments and Follow-up Interviews
Some of the more interesting and valuable information came from subject's open-ended comments and follow-up interviews. Alternative names for OCB provided by the survey participants were: “Tall Poppy/Crawler” (Australia); “Fraternal criticism/support” (Chile); “Towing the company line/brown nosing” (England); “Training” (India); “Chusei-sin” (loyalty) or “Aisha-seisin” (Love of the organization) in Japan; “Boranteea” (Japan); “Doduk” (Korea); “Corporate Culture” (South Korea); and “Good
Discussion and Directions for Future Research
What then may we draw from these findings as tentative leads for global HR systems, as the latter pertain to OCB?
There can be little doubt that workplace behaviors described as altruistic, courteous, and conscientious occur in one form or another in all parts of the world. However, our findings suggest some cultural nuances to the meanings of some of these behaviors, as well as the conditions that might inhibit or facilitate them.
Consider, for example, the general observation that in
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