Linking organizational justice with organization citizenship behaviors: Collectivism as moderator

Shahzad, Asif; Siddiqui, Muhammad Ayub; Zakaria, Muhammad Article Linking organizational justice with organization citizenship behaviors: Collectivism as moderator Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences (PJCSS) Provided in Cooperation with: Johar Education Society, Pakistan (JESPK) Suggested Citation: Shahzad, Asif; Siddiqui, Muhammad Ayub; Zakaria, Muhammad (2014) : Linking organizational justice with organization citizenship behaviors: Collectivism as moderator, Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences (PJCSS), ISSN 2309-8619, Johar Education Society, Pakistan (JESPK), Lahore, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, pp. 900-913 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/188176 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Pak J Commer Soc Sci Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences 2014, Vol. 8 (3), 900-913 Linking Organizational Justice with Organization Citizenship Behaviors: Collectivism as Moderator Asif Shahzad (Corresponding author) Assistant Professor, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Muhammad Ayub Siddiqui Assistant Professor, Bahria University, Islamabad Pakistan Email: [email protected] Muhammad Zakaria Assistant Professor, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan Email: [email protected] Abstract The study examines the link between organizational justice (OJ) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) using collectivism (COLL) as moderating variable in Pakistan. Survey based data is collected using questionnaire from 350 respondents of six public sector universities in Pakistan. The Cohen model was used for testing the moderating effect of collectivism. Empirical results show significant positive link between organizational justice and OCB, and that collectivism moderates positively in organizational justice and OCB link. The results imply that the leader’s success at workplace depends upon treating employees with justice. Additionally, Logit model was also used to test the moderating effect of collectivism in the relationship of OJ and OCB link. This study is an important contribution to the existing literature as it employs Cohen model and logit model together in the field of organizational behavior. Keywords: organizational justice, OCB, collectivism, moderation 1. Introduction In the field of organizational behavior, organizational justice (OJ) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) are two major topics. The objective of this study is thus to investigate whether there is a link between organizational justice and citizenship behaviors, moreover the influence of collectivism as moderating variable was also explored in the study. Justice has numerous explanations like giving others the fair treatment. It is an ethical asset which has characteristics of societal acceptance. Justice also indicates integrity and equality. Justice in any organizational setting is considered to be essential at least from two viewpoints; (a) as a moral end in itself and, (b) the harmful consequences of its nonexistence. In Pakistan where low productivity prevails, it is important to fix out how the perceived justice influences citizenship behaviors. Researchers have argued that the employees disturbed by injustice, not only turn out to be angry and depressing but may also retaliate directly or indirectly (Folger & Konovsky, Shahzad et al 901 1989). In present competitive world, organizations require employees to perform beyond their usual job descriptions. On the other hand, employees want to show higher levels of performance and do something extra than their job descriptions when they have assurance that they will be treated fairly at workplace. Fair treatment promotes the work motives and enhances performance at workplace. Based on this, two vital organizational concepts emerge, organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). According to (Greenberg, 1987) organizational justice is the perception of equality at workplace. Organizational justice is of basic concern to modern managers who care about providing equal employment opportunities, reasonable labor practices, ensuring merit system, and ensure justice practices at work place. The word of organizational citizenship behavior was initiated by (Organ, 1988). Organ defines OCB as a discretionary behavior that goes beyond ones official job and is intended to facilitate other people in organization. Citizenship behaviors appear in numerous different shapes and forms. In the organizational framework, citizenship behaviors normally describe an extra effort shown by individuals on behalf of other fellow-workers or for the organization as a whole. Many prominent scholars particularly Hostede’s cultural ranking model has categorized Pakistan to be a highly collectivist nation and very low score on individualism category by scoring it as 14/100 which is very low (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Thus, the present study will not only contribute and add value by examining the direct link of organizational justice on OCB, but will also increase our knowledge by studying this model in a collectivist society of Pakistan. The injustice in Pakistan has been on the rise since last few decades (Batool, 2013 ). Though injustice has been discussed and investigated but comprehensive model to address the issue has been lacking behind particularly in the organizational settings, as employees have been the prime victims of this uprising. A lot of negative consequences emerge when employees face injustice at workplace including health problems, stress which further leads to turnover intentions and ultimately the organizational productivity suffer (Guangling, 2011). In Pakistan, without any doubt the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is the foremost controller of higher education system in the country. HEC is legally responsible for making higher education policies in Pakistan but at the same time responsible for quality assurance, faculty assessment, degree recognition, improvements in existing universities and development of new universities and institutions in Pakistan. Pakistan has both types of universities private as well as public sector universities, numerous of which are chartered and supported by the Federal government as well as by the Provincial governments. The present study on OJ------- OCB link along with the interactive effect of collectivism will definitely help and assist the policy makers of Pakistan to highlight certain guiding values which will assist in developing strategies/policies to promote justice practices and citizenship behaviors among faculty members. In Pakistan, the universities in their present shape are not geared to produce new knowledge, nor do their graduate and undergraduate study programs are up to international standards. Unfortunately, the faculty members do not co-operate with each other in research activities, the research culture in the universities require improvement. Organizational citizenship behaviors facilitate the coworkers, students, faculty members, supervisors, and subordinates to help each other towards mutual gains and managing Organizational Justice and Organization Citizenship Behaviors 902 assignments. Most of the past studies on OJ---OCB link has been mostly conducted in the individualistic societies of the West (specifically the US society), so raising issues concerning the acceptability of the results to the collectivist societies of the East (e.g. Pakistani society). Hence, this research tries to fill the gap to examine the impact of organizational justice on citizenship behaviors in a collectivist culture of Pakistan. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Organizational Justice The issue of justice as a topic of research interest dates back to the period of Plato and Socrates (Ryan, 1993). Though, effort on organizational justice started earlier, however, it got promoted with Adam’s work on equity theory (Adams, 1965). In the organizational settings, organizational justice is the fair and ethical treatment of employees within an organization (Greenberg, 1987). Researchers have identified at least three different dimensions of organizational justice (Greenberg, 1987; Erdogan, 2002). These dimensions are outcomes, processes, and interpersonal interactions. Individuals are worried about the justice of the remuneration, rewards, and growth. This viewpoint is commonly acknowledged as distributive justice. Employees are also concerned about the equality of the decision making procedures regarding allocation of resources. This is known as procedural justice. Finally, individuals are also of conscious with the type of the social treatment received from social group, particularly key organizational authorities. This perspective is commonly recognized as interactional justice. Although these three kinds of justice are linked, they are accepted as separate dimensions of organizational justice construct (Erdogan, 2002). In previous studies, researchers have revealed a positive relationship of organizational justice with group commitment (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001), satisfaction (Shiang – Lih, Henry, & Nicholas, 2010), perceived organizational support (Yang & Zhang, 2012), organizational commitment (Matthew, Chang-Bae, & Jae-Jin, 2012), trust (Wayne & C. John, 2004), employee development (McDowell & Fletcher, 2004), job performance (Suliman, 2007), and organizational citizenship behavior (Hakan, 2011; Kursad & Murat, 2009). Whereas organizational injustice is established positively related with feelings of anger (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001), workplace aggression (Pierre-St & Holmes, 2010), workplace deviance (Ambrose, Seabright, & Schminke, 2002), and emotional exhaustion (Stephen, Frenkel, & Lloyd, 2012). Likewise if managerial decisions are considered biased or undeserved, the affected individuals experience tension, annoyance and anger (Folger & Konovsky, 1989). Moreover, annoyed employees react to organizational injustice, directly by robbery, disturbance and disruption or indirectly by withdrawal of OCB (Shahzad & Mahmood, 2012). Keeping and maintaining the three dimensions of justice all together is a worthwhile task. Previous research on organizational justice suggests that the three dimensions of justice interact and work together (Skarlicki & Folger, 1997). To be brief, the negative and ill effects of injustice can be to some extent reduced if at least one dimension of justice is sustained, for instance, a distributive and a procedural injustice will have low negative consequences and effects if interactional justice is high. 2.2 Organizational Citizenship Behaviors The term organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is anything positive, encouraging and constructive that employees demonstrate at their own will, which supports colleagues Shahzad et al 903 and benefits the organization (Organ, 1988). Organizational citizenship behavior is not all the time formally acknowledged or rewarded by the organization and concepts like cooperation or friendliness are also not easy to measure (Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). The typical examples of OCB include showing positive attitude and offering to help colleagues, become familiar in the office, helping coworker who may be stressed with deadlines, and performing over time without expectation of reward. There are five dimensions of OCB (Organ, 1988). 1. Altruism: being helpful, cooperative, and accommodating 2. Courtesy: being well-mannered, polite and avoid conflicts 3. Conscientiousness: carefulness, and doing extra than just the requirement 4. Civic virtue: giving importance and showing involvement with the organization 5. Sportsmanship: accepting and tolerating less than ideal working conditions The traditional and common measures used as suitable and valid predictors of OCB include; organizational commitment, job satisfaction, employee engagement, trust between an employees and colleagues, motivation, and perceived fairness (Organ, 1988; Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). Moreover, helping behaviors enhances the social environment in the organization, lowers the rates of absenteeism and turnover intentions, increases employee well-being, and productivity (Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). Previous studies suggested that there is a positive association between fairness perceptions and citizenship behavior (Moorman, 1991; Organ, 1988). They also suggested that employees in organizations believe, in the beginning, a social exchange connection, which continues until inequality is showed. Moreover, the injustice at workplace can result in deviant behaviors (Organ, 1988; Shahzad & Mahmood, 2012). The examples of these behaviors include resistance to administration, escape from job, disobedience, anger and retaliation. Research on anger/violence also recommends that individuals are ready to become violent and aggressive if they think that someone has unethically and dishonestly tried to injured them (Berkowitz, 1989). A justification for workers engage in OCB is hypothetically inherent in equity theory (Adams, 1965), which conditions that individuals compare and assess their inputs (effort, experience, training, energy and work) and outputs (rewards) with their colleagues. If employees trust and think that the organization is dealing them equitably, then they are prepared and willing to reply the organization by engaging in OCB. Conversely, if employees consider that they are being unethically and one-sided treated by the organization, they will probably believe that the social exchange has been dishonored and violated, as a result, they are likely to withdraw from the social exchange relationship. This withdrawal can lead towards the increased absenteeism and turnover (Andrew & Jesica, 2012), lower performance (Dwayne & Dion, 2010), increased workplace deviant behavior (Skarlicki & Folger, 1997) and minimized citizenship behaviors (Moorman, 1991). In short when employees recognize a equitable and fair working environment, they will likely take action and respond in accordance with social exchange (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005) and show more OCBs (Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000; Young, 2010). In the light of the above mentioned discussion, a positive relationship between organizational justice and OCB is expected. Hence the following hypothesis is suggested for the research. Organizational Justice and Organization Citizenship Behaviors 904  H1: Organizational Justice will positively influence organizational citizenship behaviors. 2.3 Collectivism Generally, organizational culture is a set of ethics, principles, common understanding, beliefs, thinking and criteria for behavior that are commonly shared and acceptable by all members at workplace (Hofstede, 1991). The Hofstede model (Hofstede, 1991) differentiated organizational cultures on the basis of five dimensions;  Power distance (Pakistan score is high in PD)  Individualism/collectivism (Pakistan score is high in collectivism)  Masculinity/femininity (Pakistan score balance 50/50)  Uncertainty avoidance (Pakistan is high)  Long/short term orientation (Pakistan is long term) In individualistic cultures, individuals are “I” conscious, and self-actualization is important. Individualism is a mind-set that highlights the importance of individual over the group identity (Hofstede, 1991). Individualists have less acceptance and tolerance for violations. Similarly, individualists are unlikely to retain relationships when their requirements are not met. In individualistic cultures, individuals are encouraged to focus on results and on outperforming other people. When competitiveness is the standard, workers are estimated to be more aware of the impartiality of outcomes, and less conscious of the equality of interactive relationships. Individual cultures represent sharper limitations between the self and others. Personal independence, and conscientiousness, rather than group identification, are emphasized. In contrast, Collectivism generally is the degree to which individuals ignore their identities on group attachments (Hofstede, 1991). In collectivistic cultures, individuals are ‘we’ conscious. Their individuality is based on the social classification to which they belong. For collectivists, social associations are very important and one of the basic mechanisms through which individuals becomes emotionally involved and attached to their organizations. Collectivists view work relationships as family relationships. In reality, collectivists have a habit of developing and maintaining relationships even when they are not personally beneficial. In collectivist cultures value and respect for people, acceptance, tolerance, respect for individual civil rights, and building relationships are fundamental values. Therefore if organizational culture emphasizes relationship development, employees feel motivated to form high citizenship behaviors. Therefore, a strong link between organizational justice and OCB is expected in collectivist culture (O’Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991). Therefore, it is hypothesized that:  H2: Collectivism will moderate positively between organizational justice and OCB link. 3. Theoretical Framework In theoretical framework which is presented in Figure 1. There is only one independent variable i.e. organizational justice (OJ). There is only one dependent variable i.e. organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and there is also only one moderating variable i.e. collectivism (COL). It indicates the rational connection between the three different kinds of observed variables i.e. Independent, moderating and dependent variables. Shahzad et al 905 Figure 1: Proposed Theoretical Framework Note: OCB = Organizational citizenship behaviors; Coll = Collectivism; OJ= Organizational Justice 4. Methodology and Results The researchers used personally administered questionnaire to collect the data in the present study. This type of method helped in collecting the all-inclusive replies within a short period of time. Convenience sample technique was used to select a sample of six public sector universities from a complete list of public sector universities in Islamabad/ Rawalpindi (HEC, 2012). To calculate the sample size, the researchers used the formula given by (Yamane, 1967:886). So, in present research, the sample consisted of all fulltime faculty members (Lecturers, Assistant Professors, and Associate Professors) of six universities. A total of 486 faculty members were contacted, out of 486, only 350 individuals agreed to fill the questionnaire. The response rate was 72%. Table 1 provides the demographic of the sample. Organizational Justice (I.V) Organizational Citizenship Behavior (D.V) Collectivism (M.V) Organizational Justice and Organization Citizenship Behaviors 906 Table 1: Demographics of Sample Characteristics (CHT) Frequency(F) Percent(P) Gender (G) Male (M) 210 60% Female (F) 140 40% Age (A) 1 - Less than 30 years 110 31% 2 - 30 - 40 years 160 46% 3 - More than 40 years 80 23% Tenure (T) 1 - Less than 5 years 120 35% 2 - 5 - 10 years 110 31% 3 - 10 - 15 years 60 17% 4 - More than 15 years 60 17% Designation (D) Lecturer 150 43% Assistant Professor Associate Professor 150 50 43% 14% The consistent scales were used to measure the variables in the present research. The value of (Alpha) internal consistency for the scales in this study is presented in table 2. The whole/entire questions were measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = (SD) Strongly Disagree, 2 = (D) Disagree, 3 = (N) Neutral, 4 = (A) Agree, 5 = (SA) Strongly Agree). Firstly, independent variable (OJ) Organizational justice was measured with 12 questions from (Niehoff & Moorman, 1993). The value of (Alpha) internal consistency for the questionnaire of OJ in this study was .81. Similarly, OCB was measured using 20 questions from (Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). The value of (alpha) internal consistency for the questionnaire of OCB in this study was .76. At last Collectivism was measured using 8 questions from (Triandis, 1995). The value of (alpha) internal consistency for the questionnaire of collectivism in this study was .79. The quantitative analysis of the present study is presented in tables (2, 3, 4, and 5). The researchers used SPSS Version 20 and e-views-7 for the analysis of correlation, regression, logit model and Cohen (Moderation technique). In table-2, the correlation tests are presented. From the analysis of table-2, it is observed that organizational justice (OJ) is positively associated to (OCB) organizational citizenship behavior (r = 0.717**, p<0.01), Likewise organizational justice is positively related to collectivism (r = 0.590**, p<0.01), and similarly, collectivism is also positively connected to organizational citizenship behaviors (r = 0.576**, p<0.01). Shahzad et al 907 Table 2: Reliability Coefficient Cronbach’s Alpha and Bivariate Correlation Test S.No Variables Items Alpha OJ Collectivism OCB 1 OJ (org.justice) 10 .81 1 0.590** 0.717** 2 Collectivism 16 .79 0.590** 1 0.576** 3 OCB 10 .76 0.717** 0.576** 1 Table 3: Cohen technique of the Moderated Regression Approach for Collectivism (OJ – OCB) OCB = b0 + b1OJ  + b2COLL  + b3 (OJ * COLL) No. DV IV Beta T Std.Errors 1 OCB OJ b 1 0.526 8.935 0.05868 2 OCB COLL b 2 0.482 10.542 0.04572 3 OCB OJ*COLL (MoD) b3 0.701 9.641 0.07271 Note: OCB = Organizational citizenship behaviors; Coll = Collectivism; OJ= Organizational Justice; MoD = OJ * COLL. In table-3, the results of Cohen moderation technique are presented. The moderation equation of table 3, while analyzing the results, the beta value (b1) received on OJ---- OCB link is (0.526), which shows that OJ report positive link with organizational citizenship behavior. The value of (b2) received on Coll-----OCB link is (0.482), which is significant and shows that collectivism report 48.2 % variations in OCB. Similarly, the regression coefficient received on (b3) Mod is (0.701), which is also significant and shows that MoD report 70.1% variations in citizenship behaviors, which mean that collectivism, strengthen the relationship between organizational justice and citizenship behaviors. The value of T-statistics (9.641) is also significant and show that collectivism moderates positively between OJ-OCB links. The overall results of regression model are statistically significant and helping to understand the linkages among I.V, M.V, and D.V. The standard errors of the estimate indicate that the results have normal in error (no Heteroscedasticity issue) and the overall regression model is significant. Additionally, in present study the logit model approach was also employed to test the relationship among OJ---OCB link along with the moderating effect of collectivism. For this purpose, the researchers converted the score of OCB (dependent variable) likert scale instrument (quantitative variable) to (dummy variable) binary numbers in (0, 1) responses which fulfilled the requirement of the logit model approach. For empirical analysis researchers estimated the following econometric model. R 2 0.742 Adj R-2 0.740 F - statistics 3 30