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42 Pages·2012·0.47 MB·English

by  Paul Rose

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Author: Low, Siew Shen
Title: Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Organizational Commitment in Individualist
and Collectivist Cultures
The accompanying research report is submitted to the University of Wisconsin-Stout,
Graduate School in partial completion of the requirements for the
Graduate Degree/ Major: MS Applied Psychology
Research Adviser: Alicia A. Stachowski, Ph.D.
Submission Term/Year: August, 2012
Number of Pages: 42
Style Manual Used: American Psychological Association, edition
6tb
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I understand that this research report must be officially approved by the
Graduate School and that an electronic copy of the approved version will be made
available through the University Library website
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I attest that the research report is my original work (that any copyrightable
materials have been used with the permission of the original authors), and as such,
it is automatically protected by the laws, rules, and regulations of the U.S.
Copyright Office.
STUDENT'S NAME: Siew Shen
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STUDENT'S SIGNATURE: --~=~=------- DATE: I }q I /"y
ADVISER'S NAME: Alicia A. u"'"'""u
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Low, Siew Shen. Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Organizational Commitment in
Individualist and Collectivist Cultures
Abstract
Numerous studies in western, individualist cultures have found commitment to be a determinant
of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs). Recent research on eastern, collectivist cultures
has demonstrated similar results. Research also suggests that collectivist employees, who are
group-goal oriented, show higher commitment in the workplace, which is positively related to
OCBs. However, little research has been done to compare the effects of commitment on OCBs
across cultures. The current research compared the organizational commitment and OCBs of an
individualist (United States) and collectivist (Malaysia). A total of 58 employees in Business and
Finance and Nursing departments completed an online survey of their individualist/collectivist
attitudes, organizational commitment, and OCBs. Contrary to predictions, the results indicated
that there were minimal cultural differences between US and Malaysian participants. Findings
indicated that US participants engaged in more OCBs than Malaysian participants, and there
were non-significant differences in organizational commitment.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts and support of my
professor, Dr. Alicia A. Stachowski, family members, and friends in the completion of my thesis
project. Dr. Stachowski had guided me academically and supported me psychologically. I thank
her for being there all the times when I needed her advice. I would also like to thank my family
and friends who were always there to encourage and support me. Thanks to all the organizations
that were willing to participate, as well as the participants who were willing to spend their time
responding to my survey.
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Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................2
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................6
Chapter I: Introduction ....................................................................................................................7
Statement of the Problem .....................................................................................................7
Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................................8
Definition of Terms: Individualism versus Collectivism (IC) .............................................8
Definition of Terms: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) ...............................10
Definition of Terms: Organizational Commitment ...........................................................11
Relations among IC, OCBs, and Organizational Commitment ........................................12
Figure 1: Predicted Relationships among Individualism-Collectivism, Organizational
Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs), and Organizational Commitment …………………..… 14
Chapter II: Methods .......................................................................................................................15
Participants .........................................................................................................................15
Materials: Individualism-Collectivism (IC) Scale .............................................................15
Materials: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) Scale .......................................16
Materials: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) ........................................17
Procedure ...........................................................................................................................17
Chapter III: Results ........................................................................................................................20
Descriptive Statistics and Correlations ..............................................................................21
Hypothesis Testing.............................................................................................................25
Chapter IV: Discussion ..................................................................................................................27
Limitations and Future Directions .....................................................................................30
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Conclusion .........................................................................................................................32
References ......................................................................................................................................33
Appendix A: Individualism-Collectivism (IC) Scale ....................................................................36
Appendix B: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) Scale ...............................................37
Appendix C: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ).................................................38
Appendix D: Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval Letter ................................................39
Appendix E: Sample of Survey Invitation Letter .........................................................................40
Appendix F: Thank You Message .................................................................................................41
Appendix G: Sample of Survey Reminder Letter ..........................................................................42
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List of Tables
Table 1: Numbers of Participants by Country and Department ……………………….……......20
Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations of Participant Demographics by Country ….…..........21
Table 3: Descriptive Statistics for Study Variables.………………………………….………….22
Table 4: Intercorrelations among Individualism-Collectivism (IC), Organizational Citizenship
Behavior (OCBs), and Organizational Commitment scales ……………...………………...…...24
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Chapter I: Introduction
Over the past two decades, research has shown that Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
(OCBs) have an impact on the effectiveness and productivity of organizations, which is an
important factor in organizational success (Chen, Niu, Wang, Yang, & Tsaur, 2009; Felfe &
Yan, 2009; Organ, 1990; Turnipseed & Murkison, 2000). Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
are not only beneficial to an organization, but also to its employees. For example, Lambert
(2000) found a positive correlation between OCBs and employees’ job satisfaction. With the
promising benefits to both organizations and employees, researchers have high interest in this
area.
Statement of the Problem
Although several researchers have slightly different definitions of OCBs, Organ’s (1990)
definition is the most commonly accepted and used in the field (Chen et al., 2009; Felfe & Yan,
2009; LePine, Erez, & Johnson, 2002; Moorman & Blakely, 1995; Turnipseed & Murkison,
2000). According to Organ (1990), OCBs are defined as the prosocial behavior of employees in
organizations. While beneficial to the organization, employees usually do not get formally
rewarded by the organization for demonstrating OCBs. Research showed job satisfaction
(Feather & Rauter, 2004), perceived justice (Cohen & Avrahami, 2006), job standardization
(Chen et al., 2009), commitment (LePine et al., 2002; Felfe & Yan, 2009), and loyalty (Moorman
& Blakely, 1995) have become important for determining OCBs. Among these factors,
commitment (Felfe & Yan, 2009; Hsu, 2000) and loyalty (Moorman & Blakely, 1995) were
found to be higher in collectivist cultures as compared to those in individualist cultures.
Moorman and Blakely (1995) found that collectivist employees tended to display more OCBs
than individualist employees.
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Purpose of the Study
Previous research has only studied the effects of OCBs within either collectivist or
individualist cultures. For example, studies have been conducted on the relationship between
commitment and OCBs in a purely collectivistic culture (e.g., Hsu’s [2002] research in China)
and another on individual differences of individualism-collectivism in a purely individualistic
culture (e.g., Moorman & Blakely’s [1995] research in United States). However, little research
has been done to compare the effects of commitment on OCBs across individualistic and
collectivistic cultures. Therefore, the current research aims to (1) study the relationship between
OCBs and organizational commitment in individualistic and collectivistic cultures (i.e., United
States and Malaysia), and (2) explore specifically how commitment influences the relationship
between individualism-collectivism and OCBs.
The paper is organized by chapter. The relationships among individualism-collectivism,
OCBs, and organizational commitment are described, and hypotheses offered. Detailed
methodology is presented in Chapter II, followed by results in Chapter III. Lastly, the discussion
and limitations of the current research are discussed in Chapter IV.
Definition of Terms
Individualism versus Collectivism (IC). Unlike individualist cultures that promote
individual goals and rights, collectivist cultures emphasizes group (cooperating) achievements
(Moorman & Blakely, 1995). According to Hofstede (2001), the degree of focus on individual or
collective achievements and interpersonal relationships are different in individualistic and
collectivistic cultures. In collectivist cultures, people tend to focus more on collective
achievement (group welfare and goals) and emphasize interpersonal relationships. On the other
hand, people in individualistic cultures focus more on individual achievement (self-interest and
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goals) and place less emphasis on interpersonal relationships compared to collectivistic cultures.
Hofstede (2001) also suggested that individuals in Asian societies are more aware of
collectivistic characteristics than individuals in Western societies. To support Hofstede’s point of
view, Farh, Zhong, and Organ (2000) suggested social welfare participation, as well as
interpersonal harmony, are more important in the collectivistic culture than in the individualistic
culture. Emphasis on group welfare and interpersonal harmony were two of a few factors related
to OCBs (De León & Finkelstein, 2011; Farh et al., 2000; Moorman & Blakely, 1995; LePine et
al., 2002).
Similarly, researchers have also explored the relation between IC and organizational
commitment. Recently, Felfe and Yan (2009) found that collectivistic cultures had higher levels
of commitment as compared to individualistic cultures. Collectivist employees tended to form
close relationships with the organization by maintaining their collectivistic beliefs and norms.
This close relationship encouraged more commitment to the organization. On the other hand,
individualist employees, who focused more on self-interest than interpersonal harmony, placed
less emphasis on having a close relationship with the organization as compared to collectivist
employees, and hence showed lower commitment to their organizations. Their findings indicated
that the level of commitment differed depending on the cultural context (i.e., individualistic or
collectivistic).
Although previous research found a similar relationship between cultural context (i.e.,
IC) and OCBs or commitment, the focus of cultural context was different in these studies. In
general, the research focused on either group level or individual differences of cultural context.
Researchers typically studied group level of cultural context by comparing two countries – for
instance, Felfe and Yan’s (2009) research on Germany (individualism) and China (collectivism).
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On the other hand, instead of studying a group’s cultural context, some researchers focused on
studying individual differences. For example, Moorman and Blakely (1995) studied cultural
context as an individual difference variable by comparing individualist or collectivist employees
in an organization of United States. The current research aims to study cultural context by
comparing two countries (group level). Specifically, the US was selected as an individualistic
culture, and Malaysia was selected as a collectivistic culture.
Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs). Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
(OCBs) are the primary outcome of interest in the current research. Researchers have utilized
Organ’s works on OCBs as the basis for a large number of empirical studies (LePine et al.,
2002). To reiterate, OCBs are defined as the prosocial behavior of employees in the organization,
which are voluntarily behaviors not listed in their job descriptions (Organ, 1990). Organ (1990)
proposed five dimensions of OCB, which were (a) altruism, in which employees help colleagues
to solve work-related problems or issues, (b) conscientiousness, in which the employees go
beyond their required job responsibilities in the organization, (c) sportsmanship, in which
employees are tolerant and refrain from complaining about the organization even when they do
not agree with the organization, (d) courtesy, in which employees try to avoid or prevent
workplace conflicts with colleagues, and lastly (e) civic virtue, in which employees express deep
concern for the organization and are actively involved.
There are a number of meaningful predictors of OCBs. In 2002, LePine and colleagues
did a meta-analysis of the predictors of OCBs (from 1983 to 1999). They found that job
satisfaction, organizational commitment, fairness, trait conscientiousness, and leader support
predicted OCBs. In addition to these, numerous studies have shown that organizational