The relationship of organizational citizenship behavior of teachers and satisfaction of professional activities

Organizations in every sector work hard to achieve success and meet the goals and objectives they have set as part of their organizational vision. Today’s dynamic and ever-changing environment has led to the wide-spread awareness that human resources (employees) should be invested in and encouraged to develop positive attitudes towards the organization for which they are employed, which affects their performance and inclination to go beyond what is officially required of them [8].

This study aims to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior in general, and the variations in this relationship in the private sector versus the public sector in particular. This is based on the assumptions that organizational culture shapes the way employees operate, manage, and execute tasks in their organization [2], and that organizational citizenship behavior, as a component of this culture, has direct implications on organizational ‘success’ [1].

The study poses three central hypotheses: the first assumes the correlation between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior. The second assumes a difference in the correlation between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior in the public sector versus the private sector. The third assumes a more significant correlation between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior among veteran employees compared to those with limited seniority.

The first hypothesis was indeed confirmed, as a positive, significant correlation was discovered between "job satisfaction" and "organizational citizenship behavior ", such that the higher the degree of employees’ job satisfaction, the more organizational citizenship behavior they will demonstrate. This hypothesis was supported in all three study conducted.

This finding supports the study conducted by Smith, Organ, and Near [1], which investigated the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction. According to this study, job satisfaction is a significant indicator of organizational citizenship behavior, i.e., job satisfaction and contentment are still the primary indicators of organizational citizenship behavior [5].

In fact, some behavioral researchers even claimed that satisfaction is the only indicator of organizational citizenship behavior. According to Penner, Midili, and Kegelmeyer [2], however, job satisfaction is only one indicator of this behavior.

The following job satisfaction variables were found to be significant to the prevalence of organizational citizenship behavior (noted in order of significance):

• a.     "The way in which my place of employment enforces its

policy";

• b.     "The opportunity to be constantly busy";

• c.     "The relationships among my colleagues";

• d.     "The opportunity to do things for others".

All these items were expressed in the intervention program. Regarding to " The way in which my place of employment enforces its policy", intervention program included group activities in which teachers were asked to give examples how their school enforced the policy of Ministry of Education and also improving school climate. Regarding to the item "The opportunity to be constantly busy", in the intervention teachers were asked to write a diary of all the activities they do at school everyday. Regarding to the item " The relationships among my colleagues", teachers were asked to evaluate their peers and also themselves in educational missions. Finally, regarding "The opportunity to do things for others", teachers were instructed to conduct social interactions with peers in order to enhance cooperation.

Presumably, the cause of the positive correlation between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior is the fact that these are both expressions of individuals’ positive disposition toward their organization. These variables are logically sequenced, such that employees who have a high level of job satisfaction will exhibit more organizational citizenship behavior, and vice versa (employees with low satisfaction will exhibit less citizenship behavior). The items selected to test the level of satisfaction are similar to, and sometimes overlap with, the items that examine organizational citizenship behavior.

Furthermore, we can assume that the cause for satisfaction variables’ level of significance to organizational citizenship behavior, is the importance of employees’ identification with the organizational culture, values, transparency, and employee involvement in organizational strategy (‘the way in which my place of employment enforces its policy’) [2]; the employee’s need to feel that their work is challenging and interesting (‘the opportunity to be constantly busy’) [9]; the organizational climate in terms of internal conduct among its members (‘the relationships among my colleagues’) [13]; employees’ hope that the work will give impetus for organizational citizenship behavior (‘the opportunity to do things for others’) [6].

The second hypothesis tested in the course of this study, concerns the difference in the quality and strength of the relationship between the ‘satisfaction’ variable and the ‘organizational citizenship behavior’ variable in the private and public sectors. Before we examined the difference in the strength of this relationship between the two sectors, however, we examined which sector exhibited a higher average value of the variables. Meaning, which sector generally had higher values of overall job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior averages. Research findings revealed a significant difference, as the public sector exhibited higher values of average job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior compared to the private sector.

This finding helped confirm the second research hypothesis: A significant difference was found in the relationship between ‘job satisfaction’ and ‘organizational citizenship behavior’ in the public sector versus the private sector; such that in the public sector the correlation appeared to be slightly stronger than in the private sector. This finding supports the research conducted by Barrick and Mount [12], which found that employees in the public sector exhibit more ‘willingness’ than employees in the private sector. Employees that possessed willingness exhibited more organizational citizenship behavior [13] [14]. The study conducted by Sharma, Bajpai, and Holani [4] proved a significant difference between the private and the public sector, as the public sector showed distinctly higher values of ‘satisfaction’ and ‘organizational citizenship behavior’ among employees. The study carried out by Chaudhry et al. [10] found that public sector employees were more satisfied than private sector employees.

Exploring teachers' job satisfaction and OCB in this study showed that teachers tend to perform beyond their required duties. It seems that the more they feel supervisors and peers create an enhancing and empowering climate at school, the more teachers are more willing to perform higher OCB. On the other hand, when teachers feel they are 'alone' and have no support, then they tend to be with lower satisfaction and also to perform lower OCB. This finding is important since it could assist supervsiors to decrease burnout among teachers. The study traced teachers, principals, and supervisors’ perception of this organizational phenomenon and the meaning they attach to it. The subjective connections between this phenomenon and personal, organizational, and leadership-related variables were investigated as well.

The research findings provide a conceptual framework for understanding teachers' citizenship behavior in Israeli schools. This behavior in schools is comprised of four primary components, three of which were identified in scholarly literature on the phenomenon in industrial and service organizations, and the last of which has proven to be unique to the teaching profession [15]. However, while these components were named in one way or another in literature from the field, the specific expression of these citizenship behaviors is unique to teachers and sheds a new light on the teaching profession. The qualitative research applied in this study is valuable for its ability to identify these unique, subjective expressions mentioned by respondents under the title “organizational citizenship behavior”. As aforementioned, the components of teachers’ citizenship behavior in schools are:

• A.    Helping students and colleagues : This component includes voluntarily helping students (tutoring and assistance with personal problems outside of school hours, listening and attending to students, showing compassion and empathy for struggling students), and new teachers or peers with various matters. This component is referred to as an aspect of organizational citizenship behavior in previous studies as well [20].

• B.    Development and implementation of educational and organizational changes and innovations: Initiating changes in teaching methods, introducing curriculum innovations, and organizing school projects=, are part of teachers’ citizenship behavior, as they are not directly rewarded for these initiatives even though they require time and effort. The lack of compensation is particularly evident in changes enforced by the Ministry of Education. Later works on organizational citizenship behavior include this component in their definition of the phenomenon [3] [18].

• C.    Organizational orientation : This component, referred to as “civic integrity” in related literature, regards the teacher's commitment to the school as

an organization and not strictly to their own class. Participation in school activities, such as ad-hoc committees, or voluntarily taking part in organizational aspects of the school – which is unique to teachers – are included in this component.

• D.    Professional commitment: This component refers to teachers’ commitment to do everything in their power for the success of their students. Using a variety of teaching methods, adjusting teaching methods to suit the students, and providing comprehensive and in-depth assessments, are perceived as behaviors for which teachers are not directly compensated, which are aimed at cultivating success among students. They depend on the teacher’s personal discretion and their willingness to invest many hours of their free time.

Two components of the phenomenon named by Podsakoff and others [18]— “integrity” and “organizational participation”—were not perceived by respondents as organizational citizenship behavior. It is likely that these components are considered part of teachers’ official job requirements. For instance, many would agree that punctuality and being regularly present in class are an integral part of the teacher's duties and not a component that depends on the teacher’s personal will and discretion. Similarly, “organizational loyalty”, i.e. the employee’s promotion of the school in their environment, was not mentioned in the research, although parent-selection reforms indirectly encourage schools to engage in marketing their image, and incorporate teachers in recruiting new students for the school [9]. The components of organizational citizenship behavior at the school mentioned by respondents are not directly compensated for by the Ministry of Education, are not subject to sanctions, depend on the discretion and good will of the teacher, and in most cases the teacher receives no training or guidance for their implementation. These are all characteristics of organizational citizenship behavior identified in research literature, which were perceived by respondents to go beyond the obligatory and official requirements related to the teaching profession [3] [5] [13].

It is important to note that the teachers, principals, and supervisors included in the study expressed similar views on what constitutes teachers' organizational citizenship behavior, and no significant contradictions or variations were uncovered among them. One possible explanation for this is the common professional and educational background shared by different professionals in the educational system, which stems, among other factors, from the institutional demand for five year seniority prior to being referred for educational management or supervision. It is possible that this demand generates a shared professional culture between current and former teachers, which leads to the relative uniformity among research respondents with regards to the components of teachers’ citizenship behavior and its origins