University of London International Programmes

Human Resource Management

MN3075
Developed by Praba Nair
Associate Lecturer, SIM GE
Version 2

Copyright © 2019 by Singapore Institute of Management Pte Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Topic 2

Chapter 4: Individual Performance:

Attitudes & Behaviours
 Chapter 4: Individual Performance: Attitudes
& Behaviours
Aims
The aim of this lesson is to examine the impact of attitudes and
behaviours on individual performance.
Learning Outcomes
• To discuss the concept of performance through the framework
of task and contextual performance.
• To understand and describe organisational citizenship
behaviour (OCB) and its antecedents.
• To define organisational commitment and explore its
antecedents.
• To explain how human resource practices might be used to
enhance employee commitment in organisations.
 Recommended Reading
• Pages 63 – 78 of the Subject Guide,
• Podsakoff, P.M., S.B. Mackenzie, J.B. Paine and D.G.
Bachrach ‘Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A critical
review of the theoretical and empirical literature and
suggestions for future research’, Journal of Management
26(3) 2000, pp.513–63.
• Bolino, M.C., W.H. Turnley and B.P. Niehoff ‘The other
side of the story: re-examining prevailing assumptions
about organizational citizenship behavior’, Human
Resource Management Review 14(2) 2004, pp.229–46.
 Understanding Performance

Katz and Kahn (1978) broke down performance in three

aspects:
1. Joining and staying with the organisation.
2. Meeting or exceeding standards of performance
prescribed by organisational roles (in-role performance)
3. Going beyond prescribed roles to perform actions such
as cooperating with others, protecting the organisation
from harm, offering suggestions for improvement and
representing the organisation favourably to outsiders
(extra-role performance).

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 Understanding Performance

• Task Performance
– Activities that directly contributes to the organisation’s core
business e,g, teaching in school; R & D activities.
– Activities that directly transform raw materials into goods and
services that the organisation produces
– Activities that indirectly support the organisation’s core business
e.g. finance, purchasing.
– It is specific to the job role.
• Contextual Performance
– It is typically more discretionary as opposed to role prescribed
and support the broader organisational, social and psychological
environment which the technical core functions
– Behaviours that contribute to the organisation’s effectiveness
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 Understanding Performance

Contextual Performance
There are five categories of contextual performance
according to Borman and Motowidlo (1993):
1. Volunteering to carry out task activities that are not
formally part of the job,
2. Persisting with extra enthusiasm when necessary,
3. Helping and cooperating with others,
4. Following organizational rules and procedures, and
5. Endorsing, supporting, and defending organisational
objectives

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Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB)

“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.”
Organ, Dennis W. (1988, p.4)
Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome

By discretionary, Organ (1988) described OCB as the type of behavior

that is not a part of job description, but “rather a matter of personal
choice, such that its omission is not generally understood as
punishable”.
The conceptualisation of OCB has evolved over time, based on
different starting points – Organ (1988); Graham (1991); Williams and
Anderson (1991) and Van Dyne, Graham and Dienesh (1994).

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 Dimensions of OCB
Bateman and Organ (1983) identified five dimensions of OCB:
1. Conscientiousness
– employees carry out tasks well beyond the minimum required levels e.g.
punctuality at work and adherence to rules and regulations
2. Altruism
– employees give help to others voluntarily
3. Sportsmanship
– employees tolerating less than ideal circumstances without complaining,
or not always finding fault with the organization
4. Courtesy
– employee treat others with respect e.g. consulting people who may be
affected by a decision.
5. Civic virtue
– employees responsibly participate in the life of the organisation, keeping
up with developments happening in the organization

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 Dimensions of OCB
One of the challenges of Organ’s definition of OCB is that it is extra-
role or voluntary. Graham (1991) defines OCB as a global measure
(not as a complement to task performance) of individual behaviour at
work’ (p.251) i.e. OCB should also include in-role job performance:
• Obedience
– acceptance of the necessity and desirability of rules and
regulations
• Loyalty
– allegiance to the organisation as a whole, representing the organisation
in a favourable manner to outsiders.
• Participation
– active and responsible involvement in organisational affairs. It has three
dimensions:
• Social – interpersonal and social contact (interacting with other
organisational members
• Advocacy – challenge of the status quo (suggesting change)
• Functional – individual self-development and work activities that add
value to the organisation
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 Beneficiaries of OCB

• Williams and Anderson (1991) highlighted the target recipients

of OCB. They divided up the dimensions of OCB into two
different types of OCB based on whom the behaviors were
directed at.
• OCBI – include behaviors that benefit specific individuals in
the workplace and indirectly contribute to the organisation e.g.
altruism and courtesy
• OCBO - include behaviors that benefit the organisation as a
whole e.g. conscientiousness, civic virtue, and sportsmanship.
• The implication is that different factors may predict each
category of behaviour.

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 Consequences of OCB

• Consequences for the organisation

– Podsakoff, Ahearne and Mackenzie (1997) looked at
whether OCB improved the performance of machines
crews in a paper mill. They found that helping behaviour
and sportsmanship impacted performance quantity (25%
variance) and helping behaviour impacted performance
quality (20% variance).
– Walz and Niehoff (1996) investigated the relationship
between OCB and the effectiveness of fast-food
restaurants:
– OCB explained 15% variance in operating efficiency
– 39% variance in customer satisfaction and
– 43% variance in food cost percentage (taking into account
wastage).
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 Consequences of OCB for Organisation

• Overall, the empirical evidence supports a link between

employees engaging in OCB and organisational
performance.
– OCB affects organisational performance through:
• Co-worker productivity (helping behaviour)
• Managerial productivity (sportsmanship)
• Enhance organisational performance (all five)

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 Consequences of OCB for Individual

• Evidence suggests that an individual’s decision to

engage in OCB may affect their performance rating
(Podsakoff, MacKenzie and Hui, 1993; MacKenzie,
Podsakoff and Fetter, 1993) and also whether they are
considered for promotion (Park and Sim, 1989).
• Effect on managerial evaluation of performance
– Norm of reciprocity – those who exhibit OCB are rated
higher by supervisors
– Distinctiveness of OCB behaviours – since it is not in the
job role
– Inference of high performer – OCB and overall
performance positively related
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 Antecedents of OCB

1. Personality Antecedents
2. Social exchange construct
3. Commitment

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 Antecedents of OCB

1. Personality Antecedents
– Conscientiousness does have a positive effect on OCB
(Organ and Ryan,1995)
– Personality and work attitudes
• Personality affects work attitudes which in turn affects OCB
– Individual–collectivism to OCB (Moorman and Blakely,
1995)
• Self-interest
• Group-interest
Collectivists are more likely to engage in OCB since they put the
group’s interest before their own
– Link between personality variables and OCB is weak.

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 Antecedents of OCB
2. Social exchange construct
– Job Satisfaction
• Relationship between OCB and job satisfaction affected by the
‘sizable fairness component in responses to satisfaction
scales’ (Organ 1990, p.60).
– Justice
• Individual’s perception of fair outcomes, procedures and
interpersonal treatment
• Procedural and interactional justice are important in predicting OCB
but that individual significance may vary depending on the
dimensions of OCB
• Procedural justice was a predictor of OCB directed at the
organisation whereas interactional justice was better at predicting
OCB directed at the supervisor (Malatesta and Bryne1997)

– Perceived Organisational Support (POS)

• Employees’ belief that organisation values them
• Correlation between POS and OCB based on the norm of
reciprocity

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 Antecedents of OCB
3. Commitment
– Individuals who are committed to the organisation are
more likely to engage in OCB.
– Employees who feel emotionally attached to the
organisation will have a greater motivation to make a
meaningful contribution to the organisation (Meyer and
Allen, 1997).
– Job definition and OCB – those who define their jobs
broadly are more likely to engage in OCB Morrison (1994)
– HR practices and commitment – Walton (1991) identifies
two approaches in shaping employee attitudes and
behaviour which are the control approach and the
commitment approach.

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 Antecedents of OCB
3. Commitment
– Organisational commitment can be viewed in three forms:
• Affective commitment – psychological attachment to the
organisation
• Continuance commitment – costs associated with leaving the
organisation
• Normative commitment – moral obligation to remain with the
organisation

– Antecedents of organisational commitment

• organisational characteristics
• person characteristics
• organisational policies and practices.
– Empirical evidence suggest a positive relationship between
organisational commitment and behaviours. Affective
commitment is more likely to enhance OCB.
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 Consequences of Organisational
Commitment
• Meyer and Allen (1997) reviews empirical evidence
on the behavioural consequences of commitment:
– Individuals who are highly committed are less likely to leave the
organisation (true for affective, continuance and normative
commitment).
– Positive relationship between affective commitment and
attendance at work.
– No relationship between continuance commitment and normative
commitment and attendance at work has been found.

• Overall, empirical evidence suggests a positive

relationship between organisational commitment and a
number of behaviours. Organisations benefits from
having affectively committed employees.
Chapter 4: Individual Performance: Attitudes & Behaviours Page 20 / 24
Praba Nair
 Conceptual Issues
• Employees and managers have difficulty distinguishing
between in-role and citizenship behaviours
– "realistically, what we have in organization
environments is a continuum such that different forms
of contribution vary in the probability of being
rewarded and of the magnitude of the reward…”
Organ (1988: 5)
• Do different forms of OCBs have different consequences
for an organisation?

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 Discussion 1
How do you define performance?

?
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 Discussion 2
What advantages are gained by employers by
having a committed workforce?

?
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 Summary
• OCB is related to contextual performance and falls under individual’s
discretion. Stronger relationship between an individual’s attitudes
and contextual performance than task performance.
• OCB as the type of behavior that is discretionary and is not a part of
the job description. There are five dimensions.
• Two broad categories of OCB
1. Organisation (OCBO)
2. Specific individuals in organisation (OCBI)
• Three antecedents of OCB. Stronger evidence of the effect of
organisational justice and perceived organisational support on OCB.
• Highly committed employees are more likely to engage in OCB
(especially affective commitment).
• Key issue for organisations is how to manage employees’
commitment through its HR practices.

Praba Nair