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This article was downloaded by: [University of Florida]On: 26 June 2012, At: 00:00Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Educational Psychology: AnInternational Journal of ExperimentalEducational Psychology Publication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cedp20 Impact of satisfaction and commitmenton teachers’ organizational citizenship Harun Sesen a & Nejat H. Basim ba Department of Business Management, Turkish Military Academy,Ankara, Turkey b Department of Economic and Administrative Sciences, BaskentUniversity, Ankara, TurkeyAvailable online: 15 Mar 2012 To cite this article: Harun Sesen & Nejat H. Basim (2012): Impact of satisfaction and commitmenton teachers’ organizational citizenship, Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology, 32:4, 475-491 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2012.670900 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLEFull terms and conditions of use:http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditionsThis article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representationthat the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of anyinstructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primarysources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Impact of satisfaction and commitment on teachers ’ organizational citizenship Harun Sesen a * and Nejat H. Basim b a Department of Business Management, Turkish Military Academy, Ankara, Turkey; b Department of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey ( Received 13 June 2011; fi nal version received 26 February 2012 )This study examined the impact of job satisfaction and organizationalcommitment on teachers ’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a struc-tural equation model. The study was employed to a group of teachers and their supervisors. The results indicated that job satisfaction and commitment to theschool had an impact on OCBs of the teachers and organizational commitment mediated the relation between job satisfaction and OCB. Keywords: job satisfaction; organizational commitment; organizational citizen-ship behavior; structural equation modeling 1. Introduction Along with all other organizations, schools have recently entered an era of transfor-mation (Blasé & Blasé, 1996; Clement & Vandenberghe, 2000) during which per-formance can be achieved not only through in-role requirements but also throughextra-role behaviors (Bogler & Somech, 2004). As a result, schools must haveteachers who are willing to venture beyond their formal roles and exhibit moreorganizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (DiPaola & Tschannen-Moran, 2001;George & Brief, 1992; Somech & Drach-Zahavy, 2000).OCB has become a widespread component of organizational literature in recent years (Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). The term OCB was con-ceived by Bateman and Organ (1983), Smith, Organ, and Near (1983) anddescribed as ‘ individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly rec-ognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the ef fi cient and effective functioning of the organization ’ (Organ, 1988, p. 8). These behaviorsare not compulsory in job de fi nitions, not rewarded or punished by organizationmanagement, and are voluntary (Greenberg & Baron, 2002; Podsakoff, Mackenzie,Paine, & Bachrach, 2000; Tang & Ibrahim, 1998).Although there has been considerable interest in the subject of OCB in businessstudies, there is a serious gap in OCB research among teachers (Oplatka, 2006).Recent years have witnessed incremental attention to the OCB construct in schools, but it is, as yet, still unsatisfactory. Since teachers ’ roles have extended to includenew responsibilities and tasks in the transition period (Hargreaves & Evans, 1997; *Corresponding author. Email:
[email protected] Educational Psychology Vol. 32, No. 4, July 2012, 475 – 491 ISSN 0144-3410 print/ISSN 1469-5820 online Ó 2012 Taylor & Francishttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2012.670900http://www.tandfonline.com D o w n l o a d e d b y [ U n i v e r s i t y o f F l o r i d a ] a t 0 0 : 0 0 2 6 J u n e 2 0 1 2 Oplatka, 2006), OCBs are essential because schools cannot attain high performancevia formal in-role behaviors alone (George & Brief, 1992).Previous research has indicated that OCBs can in fl uence organizational perfor-mance. According to the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), aggregate citizenship behaviors can improve group performance because they help people to work together (Organ, 1988; Podsakoff, Ahearne, & Mackenzie, 1997). Podsakoff and Mackenzie(1994) suggested that civic virtue and sportsmanship were positively correlated withunit performance. In addition, DiPaola and Hoy (2005) found that OCBs of teachersdelivered an independent effect on the school ’ s achievement. They pointed out that schools with a high degree of organizational citizenship also freed administratorsfrom routine monitoring and checking, enabling them to engage in more productiveactivities in support of teaching and learning and to make schools more productive.Many antecedents of OCBs have been studied in previous research, but Organand Ryan ’ s (1995) meta-analysis showed that employees ’ job attitudes – especially job satisfaction and organizational commitment – predicted OCBs better than dispo-sitional factors. Preliminary studies in the business sector found that OCBs wererelated to employees ’ job satisfaction (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Feather & Rauter,2004; Organ & Lingl, 1995) and organizational commitment (Chang & Chelladurai,2003; Feather & Rauter, 2004; Kent & Chelladurai, 2001; Schappe, 1998), but welack research on these variables in schools.Thus, taking into account the aforementioned studies, the primary aim of thisstudy is to try to fi ll the gap in the literature by exploring the relationship betweenOCB, job satisfaction, and the organizational commitment of teachers in highschools in a mediating model. To examine the relation between these variables, weshall test a model of job satisfaction to OCB in which organizational commitment is the mediator. As Whetten (1989) suggested, exploring the psychological process between a predictor and outcome variables in a relational construct is important inextending the theory; therefore, the hypothesis is that teachers ’ job satisfactionaffects their OCBs and, as a contextual state, organizational commitment mediatesthe relation between job satisfaction and OCB. 2. Organizational citizenship behavior Discretional behaviors that further the effectiveness of the organization differ fromformal role behaviors. These informal behaviors have been termed ‘ prosocial orga-nizational behavior ’ (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986), ‘ extrarole behavior ’ (Van Dyne,Graham, & Dienesch, 1994), ‘ the good soldier syndrome ’ (Turnipseed & Murkison,1996), and ‘ OCB ’ (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ, 1988). OCB includes social behaviors, such as sensitivity to the mistakes of others, discussing colleagues ’ prob-lems, completing work on time, innovativeness, helping others with heavy work-loads, and acting voluntarily (Kidwell, Mossholder, & Benneth, 1997; Podsakoff,Mackenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000).Organ (1988), the fi rst scholar to use the term ‘ organizational citizenship, ’ pro- posed fi ve OCB dimensions that included altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy,civic virtue, and sportsmanship. Subsequent to Organ ’ s (1988) fi ve-dimensionmodel, many authors de fi ned different OCB dimensions, arguing that these dimen-sions were related to each other. For instance, Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch(1994), Van Dyne and LePine (1998), Coleman and Borman (2000) de fi ned threedimensions by combining some of Organ ’ s (1988) dimensions with one another. 476 H. Sesen and N.H. Basim D o w n l o a d e d b y [ U n i v e r s i t y o f F l o r i d a ] a t 0 0 : 0 0 2 6 J u n e 2 0 1 2 Additionally, in an educational context, Williams and Anderson (1991) describedOCB as a two-dimensional construct in which the altruism and courtesy OCBdimensions served as the indicators of OCB-I (OCBs toward individuals), while theconscientiousness, civic virtue, and sportsmanship dimensions served as the indica-tors of OCB-O (OCBs toward organizations). In many following research, this two-dimensional construct was preferred (e.g. Ertürk, 2007; Jimmieson, Hannam & Yeo,2010; Karriker & Williams, 2009; Lavelle et al., 2009). OCBs toward individuals inschools include teachers ’ behaviors toward colleagues, students, and students ’ fami-lies. These teachers help their new colleagues, go out of their way to introducethemselves, help students on their own time, stay after school voluntarily to conduct special assignments for higher- or lower-level students, and volunteer for schoolcommittees (Bogler & Somech, 2004; DiPaola & Hoy, 2005). The other kind of OCB, OCB toward the organization, includes the teachers ’ behaviors that relate tothe organizational goals and well-being. Teachers with OCB-O organize specialsocial activities for the school, provide innovative solutions to the problems of theschool, establish close contact with the students ’ parents, use school time ef fi ciently,defend the positive image of the school, and are rarely absent (Bogler & Somech,2005; DiPaola & Hoy, 2005; Oplatka, 2006).Through years, some research has been conducted on OCB in educational con-text and they introduced important implications for schools. For instance, Cohenand Keren (2010) studied the relation between organizational climate and OCB.They found a strong impact of climate, especially the principal ’ s leadership style,on OCB of teachers. In another study, Nguni, Sleegers, and Denessen (2006) inves-tigated the impacts of transformational and transactional leadership on OCB andfound that transformational leadership had a strong effect on OCB of teachers.Moreover, they found a signi fi cant relation between job satisfaction and OCB of teachers and noted that job satisfaction mediated the relation between transforma-tional leadership and OCB. In a more recent study, Zeinabadi (2010) tested manydifferent structural models to investigate the casual relationships between job satis-faction, organizational commitment, and OCB in an educational context and foundthat intrinsic job satisfaction was a dominant variable which in fl uenced OCBdirectly and indirectly where value commitment played a partial mediating role.As can be seen, past research has studied several relationships between OCBand its antecedents and introduced that job satisfaction and organizational commit-ment fi gured as perhaps the most examined correlates in OCB studies (Organ &Ryan, 1995; Williams & Anderson, 1991). Studies conducted to date have initiatedthe theory that OCB relates to job satisfaction (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Schappe,1998; Williams & Anderson, 1991) and organizational commitment (O ’ Reilly &Chatman, 1986; Schappe, 1998; Schaubroeck & Ganster, 1991) within organiza-tional life. Therefore, the current study seeks to enhance our understanding of OCBin schools by focusing on the relation between OCB, job satisfaction, and organiza-tional commitment. 3. Job satisfaction and OCB Job satisfaction, de fi ned as the degree to which an individual enjoys his or her work (Brewer, 1998), constitutes possibly the most often examined factor in the literatureof organizational behavior. Previous studies have shown that job satisfaction may be created by certain organizational and individual factors (Balkar, 2009; Bogler, Educational Psychology 477 D o w n l o a d e d b y [ U n i v e r s i t y o f F l o r i d a ] a t 0 0 : 0 0 2 6 J u n e 2 0 1 2 2001; Caprara, Barbaranelli, Borgogni, & Steca, 2003; Klassen, Usher, & Bong,2010; Tillman & Tillman, 2008) and it may affect many employee traits, attitudes,and behaviors in an organization (Ghazzawi, 2008; Platsidou, 2010; Udechukwu,2007).With the conceptualization of OCB, job satisfaction became one of the primefactors that both affect and are affected by OCB. In previous studies, many authorscon fi rmed the relation between job satisfaction and OCB. For instance, Organ andKonovsky (1989) tried to determine the contribution of job satisfaction in predictingOCB performance. They found that, in a group of 369 individuals from two hospi-tals, pay cognition was a signi fi cant predictor of altruistic and compliance dimen-sions of OCB. The results of numerous subsequent studies mostly supported theearlier fi ndings of research on the relation between job satisfaction and OCB.Konovsky and Organ (1996), Organ and Ryan (1995), Organ and Lingl (1995),Kuehn and Al-Busaidi (2002) found a strong relation between job satisfaction andOCB. In a more recent study, Lapierre and Hackett (2007) found a strong relation between job satisfaction and OCB in a structural equation model study. In their study, they tested a looping model, at the end of which job satisfaction affectedOCB. They found strong evidence to support the proposed model.Studies on the relation between job satisfaction and OCB in school settings arescarce, but have yielded important fi ndings. For instance, Zeinabadi (2010) exploredthe OCB-job satisfaction relationship of 652 teachers and 131 principals and foundthat both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction had a positive relationship withOCB. Moreover, Oplatka (2006) indicated that a school ’ s climate has a signi fi cant impact on teachers ’ OCBs and, in more favorable, sharing, and empowered cli-mates; teachers ’ OCBs might increase as a result of higher job satisfaction. Withinthe framework of these studies, the following hypothesis was proposed: Hypothesis 1: The job satisfaction of teachers will relate positively to their OCB . 4. Organizational commitment and job satisfaction The concept of organizational commitment has become a popular topic in the litera-ture of organizational behavior in the past decade. Organizational commitment rep-resents the attachment that individuals form to their employing organizations(Ketchand & Strawser, 2001). An organization bene fi ts from its employees ’ com-mitment in terms of lower rates of job movement, higher productivity or work qual-ity (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990), and lower absenteeism and turnover rates (Jernigan,Beggs, & Kohut, 2002; Joiner & Bakalis, 2006).The most commonly investigated type of organizational commitment is attitudi-nal and describes a state in which an individual identi fi es with a particular organiza-tion and its goals and wishes to maintain membership to help it reach these goals(Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982). Meyer and Allen (1991) suggested three distinct components of organizational commitment to maintain membership in an organiza-tion: a desire (affective commitment), a need (continuance commitment), and anobligation (normative commitment). They noted that all three forms of organiza-tional commitment are dependent upon the opportunity that the organization provides employees to feel motivated toward growth and to achieve some self-actualization. 478 H. Sesen and N.H. Basim D o w n l o a d e d b y [ U n i v e r s i t y o f F l o r i d a ] a t 0 0 : 0 0 2 6 J u n e 2 0 1 2
