THE EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION AND LEADER SUPPORTIVENESS ON ALTRUISTIC ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: A CASE OF ACADEMICIANS

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1 THE EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION AND LEADER SUPPORTIVENESS ON ALTRUISTIC ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: A CASE OF ACADEMICIANS Aizzat Mohd. Nasuruddin T. Ramayah Mohd Nordin Yusoff ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of job satisfaction components and leader supportiveness on altruistic organizational citizenship behavior within the Malaysian context. Analyses of 96 responses on a sample comprising of academicians revealed that only consideration had a significant effect on altruistic organizational citizenship behavior. Implications for managerial practice and future research are discussed. Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Leader Supportiveness, Altruistic Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Academicians, Dyad INTRODUC TION The effects of technological advancement and globalization have increased a country s business competition. To sustain its economic growth and competitiveness, Malaysia needs an educated and skilled workforce. As the country becomes more industrialized and the economy becomes more knowledge-based, the role of institutions of higher learning in generating, disseminating, and sharing knowledge, information, and creativity becomes crucial. Under such challenging environments, employees in institutions of higher learning particularly the academicians need to be able to deliver value-added services to both their internal and external customers. Reacting to customers needs spontaneously by going beyond the call of duty represents one avenue in which universities can enhance their service quality. In Malaysia, studies on organizational citizenship behavior have been somewhat limited (for instance, Nasurdin, 2001, Tan, 2001). These studies, however, have focused on Organ s (1988) multidimensional categorization of organizational citizenship behavior. Hence, this study hopes to contribute to the existing literature on organizational citizenship by focusing on the effects of the job satisfaction components and leader supportiveness components on altruistic citizenship behavior. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Altruistic Organizational Citizenship Behavior Altruistic OCB is a type of behavior in which the person performs the act voluntarily without expecting to receive material or social rewards in return (Farh et al., 1990). It is directed toward an individual, group, or organization with whom the employee interacts while carrying out his or her duties (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986). The actor of the behavior expects that his or her behavior can benefit the individual or organization to whom it is directed. Van Dyne and LePine (1998) introduced two dimensions of extra-role behaviors namely helping and voice, which are closely related to altruistic OCB. Van Dyne and LePine (1998) classified helping as promotive behavior that emphasizes small acts of consideration. According to Van Dyne and Le Pine (1998), helping behavior reflects cooperation and emphasizes interpersonal harmony. This form of behavior helps build and preserves relationships. Voice behavior, on the other hand, are promotive behavior that emphasizes expression of constructive challenge intended to improve existing conditions (Van Dyne & LePine, 646

2 1998). From a psychological perspective, Hoffman (1981) defined altruistic behavior as behavior that promotes the welfare of others without conscious regard for one s own self interests (p.121). According to past scholars (for example, Hoffman,1981, Barnett et al., 1981), empathy motivates helping behavior. Examples of altruistic organizational citizenship behaviors include assisting coworkers with job-related as well as personal matters (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986), volunteering for additional assignments, which may or may not be job-related (Smith et. al., 1983; Brief & Motowidlo, 1986; Farh et al., 1990), and offering ideas for improvement (Van Dyne & LePine, 1998, Bettencourt et al., 2001). Job Satisfaction and Altruistic OCB Job satisfaction has been most consistently studied as an antecedent of OCB by previous researchers (Wagner & Rush, 2000). This is because expressions of satisfaction reflect cognitive appraisals of the fairness of the social exchange that the employee enjoys with the organization (Organ & Konovsky, 1989). Within such a context, the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) is likely to induce employees to reciprocate by exhibiting discretionary extra-role helping behavior aimed at benefiting the organization. Herzberg s (1969) discovered that employees job satisfaction resulted from motivators or intrinsic satisfiers whereas job dissatisfaction resulted from hygiene factors or extrinsic satisfiers. Intrinsic satisfiers include promotional opportunities, achievement, recognition, responsibility, the work itself, and the intrinsic interest of the job (Herzberg, 1969). Extrinsic factors, on the other hand, include pay, job security, working conditions, policy and administration, and relationships with co-workers and supervisors (Nestor & Leary, 2000). Studies carried out by prior researchers (for instance, Bateman & Organ, 1983; Smith et al., 1983; Organ & Konovsky, 1989; Moorman, 1993; Organ & Lingl, 1995; Tang & Ibrahim, 1998; Wagner & Rush, 2000) showed that job satisfaction had a positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior. Bateman and Organ (1983) argued that the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior stems from social psychology perspective. According to Bateman and Organ (1983), a person who is satisfied with his/her job is likely to experience a positive emotional state characterized by positive affect (Clark & Isen, 1982), which in turn, tends to stimulate him/her to decrease the psychological distance between self and others. As such, the individual is likely to display prosocial, citizenship behaviors. Another study undertaken by Tang and Ibrahim (1998) using samples derived from the United States and the Middle East showed that even though both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction had positive relationships with altruistic organizational citizenship behavior, the intrinsic component was more strongly related to altruistic OCB. Organ and Konovsky (1989), in contrast, concluded that the cognitive appraisal of one s job rather than affective component affect one s satisfaction, which in turn, stimulates the individual to perform OCB. In a social exchange relationship (Blau, 1964), the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) will dictate that the employee reciprocates via extra-role citizenship behavior. Thus, one would expect both the intrinsic and extrinsic components of job satisfaction would have an effect of altruistic citizenship behavior. Thus, this study posits the following hypotheses: H1: Intrinsic satisfaction will be positively related to altruistic OCB H2: Extrinsic satisfaction will be positively related to altruistic OCB. Leader Supportiveness and Altruistic OCB One set of predictors of OCB that has received attention by past researchers is leader behavior particularly leader supportiveness. According to Yukl (1994), leader supportiveness behaviors include showing consideration, acceptance, and concern for the needs and feelings of other people. 647

3 Schnake et al. (1993) viewed leader supportiveness as a kind of helping behavior. Employees who benefited from this act may then be motivated to reciprocate with OCB. Leader supportiveness is similar to a leadership style known as consideration, which Yukl (1989) defined as the degree to which a leader acts in a friendly and supportive manner, shows concern for subordinates, and look for their welfare (p. 75). Studies carried out by previous scholars (for instance, Smith et al., 1983; Podsakoff et al., 1996; Tang & Ibrahim, 1998) showed that leader supportiveness had a positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior. According to Smith et al. (1983), leader supportiveness can have a positive influence on citizenship behavior due to two reasons. First, leader supportiveness behavior is, in itself, citizenship behavior. Given that leaders serve as role models, employees are likely to emulate their leader s prosocial behavior because such behavior provides cues for what is deemed as appropriate. Second, within the social exchange framework (Blau, 1964), subordinates may choose to exhibit citizenship behavior as a means of reciprocation when they judged their leaders to be supportive of them. This argument is consistent with that of Yukl (1994). According to Yukl (1994), leader supportiveness behaviors help leaders build and maintain effective interpersonal relationships with their subordinates. A superior who is considerate and friendly towards people is more likely to win friendship and loyalty than a superior who rules with an iron hand. Supportive leaders are likely to gain emotional ties with their followers, which in turn, can easily gain cooperation and support in order to achieve certain organizational objectives (House, 1971). Furthermore, a leader s supportive behavior will increase subordinates job satisfaction and efforts, thereby, encouraging them to extend efforts beyond their prescribed role requirements. Working with someone who is cooperative and supportive is more satisfying than working with someone who is hostile, egoistic and uncooperative (Yukl, 1994). According to Schnake et al. (1993), traditional leadership comprising of the initiating structure and consideration components have a positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior. Initiating structure is the degree to which a leader defines and structures subordinates roles in achieving organizational goals (Yukl, 1989). Initiating structure, for instance, could involve explaining to employees how to perform a task. Proper guidance provided by leaders may be viewed as a form of support that may induce employees to reciprocate via extra-role behaviors. Podsakoff et al. (1996) id entified transformational leadership behavior as having the power to inspire and motivate subordinates to work beyond their self-interest and perform beyond expectations. Transformational leaders who are able to articulate a vision, provide a role model, foster acceptance among group, set high performance expectations, support subordinates, and provide intellectual stimulation will gain his or her staff s trust. This, in turn, will result in manifestation of extra-role citizenship behavior by the subordinates. Thus, one would expect both the initiating structure and consideration components of leader supportiveness to have a positive effect on altruistic citizenship behavior. Therefore, the third and fourth hypotheses conjectured in this study are as follows: H3: Initiating structure will be positively related to altruistic OCB. H4: Consideration will be positively related to altruistic OCB. METHODOLOGY Based on the above-mentioned discussion, the theoretical framework for this study is shown in Figure

4 FIGURE 1 Conceptual Framework of the Study Independent Variables Job Satisfaction Intrinsic Extrinsic Leader Supportiveness Initiating Structure Consideration Altruistic Organizational Citizenship Behavior Subjects Participants in the study consisted of academic staffs attached to one public institution of higher learning located in northern Malaysia. A total of 250 sets of questionnaires were distributed. Each set of dyad contains two sets of questionnaires whereby one set is assigned to the academician whereas the other set is assigned to the particular academician s superior. Proportionate sampling was utilized where the questionnaires were distributed in proportion to the population of academic staffs attached to the different centres of studies. Respondents were given three weeks to answer the questionnaires. Measurements The predictor variables in this study are represented by job satisfaction and leader supportiveness. Job satisfaction was measured using a 20-item instrument (Weiss et al., 1967). A 5-point Likert response format ranging from (1) Strongly Disagree to (5) Strongly Agree was utilized. Twelve items were used to measure intrinsic satisfaction whereas extrinsic satisfaction was gauged via the remaining 8 items. Leader supportiveness was measured using a 30-item instrument (Stodgill, 1963). A 5-point Likert response format ranging from (1) Strongly Disagree to (5) Strongly Agree was used. Initiating structure was measured using 14 items whereas consideration was gauged via the remaining 16 items. The criterion variable in this study is altruistic organizational citizenship behavior, which was measured via supervisory ratings using 14 items derived from previous scholars (for example, Smith et al., 1983; Williams & Anderson, 1991; Wagner & Rush, 2000). A 5-point Likert response format ranging from (1) Strongly Disagree to (5) Strongly Agree was utilized. Method of Analyses Altruistic citizenship behavior can be influenced by personal factors (Krebs, 1970; Gergen et al., 1972). Seven personal variables (age, gender, education, race, organizational tenure, job tenure, and work experience) were controlled in the statistical analysis following previous researchers (Organ & Konovsky, 1989; Organ & Lingl, 1995; Van Dyne & LePine, 1998). Since gender, race, and education were categorical in nature, these variables were initially dummy coded. The four hypotheses for th is study were tested using a two-step hierarchical regression (Cohen & Cohen, 1975). RESULTS Response and Profile of Respondents Of the 250 questionnaires sent out, 96 useable responses were obtained representing a response rate of 38.4%. In terms of gender, 78.1% of the sample consisted of males with the remaining 21.2% being females. Regarding marital status, a majority (97.9%) of respondents were married. In terms of education, 70.8% had doctoral degrees. As for race, 77.1% were Malays, 17.7% were Chinese, with 649

5 the remaining 5.1% being Indians and others. The mean age for the sample is years with a standard deviation of 6.23 years. In terms of organizational tenure, the mean value for the sample is years with a standard deviation of 6.25 years. As for job tenure, on the average, the sample has been in the job for years with a standard deviation of In terms of work experience, the mean value for the sample is years with a standard deviation of 6.20 years. Table 1 depicts the reliability coefficients of the survey instruments. TABLE 1 Reliabilities of the Study Variables Variables No. of Items Items Deleted Cronbach Alpha Intrinsic Satisfaction Extrinsic satisfaction Initiating Structure Consideration Altruistic OCB As can be observed from Table 1, the instruments used in this study were considered reliable, with coefficients ranging from 0.57 to 0.96, which exceeded or were very close to the minimum acceptance level of 0.6 (Sekaran, 2000). The mean score for the predictor variables and the criterion variable can be seen from Table 2. The mean score for intrinsic satisfaction was computed by averaging the scores for all the 11 items. Similarly, the mean scores for extrinsic satisfaction, initiating structure, consideration, and altruistic organizational citizenship behavior were gauged by averaging the scores for the respective 8, 14, 16, and 14 items. TABLE 2 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations of the Study Variables Variables Mean Standard Deviation Intrinsic Satisfaction Extrinsic satisfaction Initiating Structure Consideration Altruistic OCB From Table 2, it can be seen that the mean value for the study variables ranges from 3.28 to 4.19, with a standard deviation of 0.27 to The result of the two-step hierarchical regression undertaken to test the four hypotheses of this study is depicted in Table 3. As shown in Table 3, when the seven personal variables were entered into the regression equation in the first step, the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) was found to be indicating that 12.5% of altruistic organizational citizenship behavior is explained by the demographic variables. Nevertheless, the F-statistics is insignificant suggesting that the proposed model was inadequate. In step 2, by adding the four independent variables, R 2 increased to 28.5%. This R 2 change (0.160) is, however, significant. This implies that the additional 16.0% of the variation in altruistic citizenship behavior is explained by the model variables (consideration, initiating structure, intrinsic satisfaction, and extrinsic satisfaction). The F-statistics is significant (p = 0.000) suggesting that the proposed model was adequate. From the second regression model, it can be observed that when the four model variables were added into the equation, only consideration (β = 0.394) had a significant and positive relationship with altruistic citizenship behavior at the 0.01 level. These results provided evidence 650

6 to support the fourth hypothesis but failed to provide support for the first, second, and third hypotheses of the study. Independent Variables TABLE 3 Hierarchical Regression Results Std Beta (Model 1) Std Beta (Model 2) Control Variables Age * Gender (0=Male, 1=Female) Education (0=PhD, 1=Masters) Race (0=Malays, 1=Others) Organizational Tenure Job Tenure Working Experience Model Variables Intrinsic Satisfaction Extrinsic Satisfaction Initiating Structure Consideration 0.394** R Adj. R R 2 Change F Change ** Note: ** p < 0.01 ; * p < 0.05 CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS The results obtained from this investigation indicated that one out of four independent variables namely consideration had a positive relationship with altruistic organizational citizenship behavior. The finding on the positive relationship between consideration and altruistic citizenship behavior is consistent with those obtained by past researchers (for instance, Smith et al., 1983; Schnake et al., 1993; Podsakoff et al., 1996). When employees judged themselves to be recipients of their leaders support, consideration, and concern, they are likely to reciprocate by exhibiting extra-role helping behavior. Both the intrinsic and extrinsic components of job satisfaction as well as the initiating structure component of leadership had no relationship with altruistic organizational citizenship behavior. One plausible explanation may be attributed to the Malaysian culture itself where the act of helping others is part and parcel of life (Abdullah, 1992) irrespective of one s level of job satisfaction and one s perception of his/her leader s task orientation. In addition, this finding may also be due to the nature of the academic profession itself, where academicians are more intrinsically motivated and the goal of generating and disseminating knowledge is considered supreme. Within such a context, academicians will continue to exhibit helping behavior regardless of their satisfaction level and their leader s task orientation. From the managerial point of view, the findings from this research suggest that organizational authorities need to consider the feelings and needs of their subordinates. In order to enhance the display of altruistic citizenship behavior among academicians, relevant authorities in institutions of higher learning should provide ample social support and show their concern for the welfare of their staffs. The first limitation of this study relates to the use of cross-sectional data, which limits inferences with regards to causality between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The use of a 651

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