Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Department of Education, Payame Noor University, Oshnaviyeh, Iran.
2 Department of Education, Islamic Azad University, Piranshahr, Iran.
3 Department of Educational Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
4 Department of Educational Sciences, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
For the last two decades, Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) has been a major construct in the fields of psychology and management; thus, it has received a great deal of attention in the literature (1).
OCB is an important factor that can contribute to the survival of an organization. Researchers have found that employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational justice, career development, age, tenure, personality, motivation, leadership, and leadership behavior all impact and affect citizenship behavior within an organization. Despite the growing interest in OCB, most research has focused on a limited range of possible antecedents. For instance, Organ and Ryan conducted a meta-analytic review of 55 studies of OCB. Their review focused on job attitudes such as fairness, organizational commitment, leadership consideration, and personality variables. Some studies have concluded that one aspect of job attitude, job satisfaction, is a good predictor of employee performance. Unfortunately, industrial and organizational psychologists have not found strong empirical evidence to support a satisfaction-productivity relationship. Although job satisfaction has been examined by researchers interested in task performance, little is known about how both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction variables influence OCB.
Therefore, this study is designed to measure the two dimensions of OCB (OCBI and OCBO) and to examine how OCB is related to the two facets of job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic). Historically, work has been an important part in the life of human beings (2).
Today, Quality of Work Life (QWL) is viewed as an essential dimension of the quality of life. Furthermore, a high QWL is crucial for organizations to attract and retain workers (3). QWL is a philosophy, a set of principles, which holds that people are the most important resource in the organization as they are trustworthy, responsible, and capable of making valuable contributions, and they should be treated with dignity and respect (4). QWL is essentially a multidimensional concept and is a way of reasoning about people, work and its organization. QWL is important to organizational performance, and it is an essential factor that affects employee motivation at work (5). Although studies on QWL have been conducted since the early 20th century, there is no consensus about the real meaning of this term. There is, however, an agreement among researchers in this specific field that refers to it as a subjective and dynamic construct. Over the last years, QWL has been understood as the dynamic and comprehensive management of physical, technological, social, and psychological factors that affect culture and renew the organizational environment. Sometimes, it is considered regarding the effect it has on the worker’s well-being as well as on the productivity of the company. Furthermore, it is sometimes associated with the intimate characteristic of the technologies introduced into the companies and their impact and to the economic elements like salary, incentives, bonuses, or even to the factors connected to one’s physical and mental health, safety, and in general, to the workers’ well-being(4).
Today, most of the empirical research that has been conducted on QWL and job satisfaction implies a new vision and concepts related to the profession, (6).
Although some texts of quality of work life and job satisfaction are considered as synonymous, but many experts believe that the quality of management science and industrial psychologists work life and job satisfaction are conceptually different. Job satisfaction is a result of the quality of life (7). General attitude of people towards their job's objective is a behavioral phenomenon that job satisfaction is a part of it. Job satisfaction, like many of the other variables, is a phenomenon that is formed by various factors, and is affected by various factors. Undoubtedly, employees are more satisfied, are more effective and better able to assist organizations in achieving organizational goals.
Understanding job satisfaction can play a direct role in the realization of the vision, goals and tasks of daily life of employees (8). It is commonly accepted that job satisfaction is a contributing factor to the physical and mental well-being of the employees; therefore, it has significant influence on job-related behaviors such as productivity, absenteeism, turnover rates and employee relations (9). It also plays an important role in improving the financial standing of organizations (10).
Thus, understanding job satisfaction of employees is an important organizational goal. Job satisfaction has been an important focal point for organizational and industrial psychology. In defining job satisfaction the reference is often made to Locke’s (1) description of job satisfaction as a “pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences”. The appraisal involves various elements related to the job such as salary, working conditions, colleagues and boss, career prospects and, of course, the intrinsic aspects of the job itself (11).
Occupational stress is a pattern of emotional, cognitive, behavioral and physiological reactions to adverse and noxious aspects of work content, work organization and work environment. Occupational stress was the stress that is related to the workplace (12). The stress may have to do with the responsibilities associated with the work itself. Occupational stress can affect both physical and emotional wellbeing if not managed efficiently and effectively. It has been linked to absenteeism, decreased productivity, increased health care costs and illness. Occupational stress can be both positive and negative and is a very subjective concept, affecting every individual differently (13).
There are four major reasons for organizations to be concerned about occupational stress: general concern for the health of employees, financial impact of health care, organizational effectiveness, and legal compliance with worker compensation programs. Organizations have become concerned about more than just monetary profit. Employee satisfaction, health, accidents on the job, employee turnover, absenteeism, and productivity have been included in a broader evaluation of success and return of investment of the organization.
The effects of job stress on productivity and performance of the employees, such as hospitalization, compensation, loss of passion for work, missing datelines, and reduced quality and quantity of work (14). Therefore, it is crucial to understand the variables that significantly and positively aid in creating this favorable behavior within the organization. The present study was performed aimed at investigating the relationship between quality of work life, job stress, job satisfaction, and citizenship behavior in Oshnaviyeh Hospital's staff.
Materials and Methods
This was a descriptive and correlational survey. For the purpose of achieving the research objectives, a random sampling was used in this study. 158 staffs were selected according Morgan table. There were 56 women and 102 men. The researchers distributed 158 standard questionnaires among all the staff of Oshnaviyeh Hospital. The research instruments consisted of four questionnaires, which included: Walton quality of work life, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and hospital job stress. This study used Walton quality of work life questionnaire.
This questionnaire has 19 items: work organization (five items), the social relevance of work life (three items), total life space (four items), social integration in the work organization (four items), and human progress capabilities (three items). This questionnaire, too, uses a one to five point scale to examine the quality of work life. The reliability of this questionnaire has been reported to be 0.926 (15). Before the questionnaire was administered, participants were provided with an explanation of the purpose of the study and assured that the results are solely for research purposes and will be treated as confidential. Each questionnaire was supposed to take ten minutes to fill out. Participants were also encouraged to ask questions and seek clarifications if needed. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB): This 24-item scale was developed by Podsakoff et al (1). There are five dimensions in the scale: altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue. The scale for conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and altruism has five items; but civic virtue has four items.
Only five items are negatively keyed (2, 7, 12, 17, 22). Responses to the items are based on a six-point Likert scale. High scores indicate high organizational citizenship behavior and low scores indicate low organizational citizenship behavior. For each dimension a score will be obtained (the mean of the items in the scale) and the overall mean will be considered as overall score for general organizational citizenship behavior. Reported internal consistency reliabilities for each dimension that ranged from 0.70 for civic virtue to 0.85 for sportsmanship, courtesy, and altruism. The current study found the internal consistency reliability ranged from 0.50 (conscientiousness) to 0.80 (altruism) (11). Instrument of Job stress survey questionnaire was used to assess the level of Job stress among hospital’s nurses according to six sub-scales (change, relationship, support, control, demand and role). This questionnaire had 39 items devised by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) UK. Each statement included a five-point Likert
Scale (from strongly disagree= one to strongly
agree= five) (16). Job Satisfaction Scale (Warr et al., 1979): a five-point Likert type scale (1 ¼ very dissatisfied, 5 ¼ very satisfied) with 15 items.
0/85-0/88 and test–retest correlation.
Results
According to the tables and a confidence level lower than 0/05, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the original research hypothesis will be confirmed.
According to the t test table with a level of significance under Criterion P=0/000 (P<0/05), the average difference between the two groups (men and women staffs) is significant.
So, there is a significant difference between male and female employees' job satisfaction. In other words, as the above information shows the job satisfaction of female employees is higher than male employees.
The following table presents the main results of the multivariate regression.
According to the Beta coefficients in the above table, the effect of independent variables on citizenship behavior shows the quality of work life factors: Beta 0.271 is more important than other variables, and other variables are listed in order of importance.
Discussion
In this study, Considering the Literature Review, the questions examined in the paper include:
1- Were the quality of work life, job stress, job satisfaction, and citizenship behavior related?
2- Were the quality of work life, job satisfaction, and job stress related?
3- Were the job satisfaction of men and women different?
4- Can employee citizenship behavior be predicted by the variables: quality of work life, job stress, and job satisfaction?
Pearson correlation, independent t-test, analysis of variance, multiple regression and path analysis methods were used. According to the tables and a confidence level lower than 0/05, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the original research hypothesis will be confirmed.
So there is a significant relationship between the quality of work life, job stress, job satisfaction, and citizenship behavior. It should be noted that there is inverse correlation between job stress and quality of work life, means that by increasing staff stress, the quality of life decreases and vice versa. Multivariate regression includes several methods, the most common method of which is a step by step, which was used in this research. In this way, the independent variables are entered in order of importance in the equation.
However, every time after entering the variables, variables that have already been imported are re-examined by their significance if the level of the model are reduced. The Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is an important variable in the study of organization management.
It has a part to build relationships and performance within the organization. Compared with another organizational behavior present by the employees, OCB is the employees’ personal behavior that is difficult to identify by the employer because it was personally applied by the employer. Occupational stress (stressor), organizational commitment, and job satisfaction are variable predictors to the Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). All the variables are useful to the organization to avoid the employees from making problems, and if the variables are not applied, the company will be faced by the employee problems such as low productivity and low performance. The employers should provide a conducive working environment to reduce or to overcome the employee’s problem within the organization. Furthermore, the findings show that only one component of organizational commitment has a positive direct effect on OCB. In addition, the study indicates that occupational stress, quality of work life, and job satisfaction have a relationship on OCB. According to Organ's (1988) definition, OCB represents "individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization". Organizational citizenship behavior is not part of the employee’s informal job requirement, but it’s more on effective functioning of the organization. It focuses more on the personal discretion itself and the matter of personal choice, such as attitude of the employees, conscientious, good manners helpfulness and cooperation.
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