Business success through organisational citizenship behaviour

Business success depends on employee behaviour and employee performance 

The nature of the present business scenario is much more unpredictable and complex than ever before. The introduction of privatisation, liberalisation as well as globalisation in the business environment has increased the competition. This has resulted in organisations demanding more from the employees to perform beyond the requirement of their duties to achieve the organisational goals in the shortest time. 

Organisational employees, therefore, have to possess discretionary behaviours to ensure that they can achieve the organisational goals within the shortest time. Discretionary behaviour also referred to as organisational citizenship behaviour refers to an instance where an employee performs his duties beyond the requirements of their duties without expecting any form of compensation or reward. 

Discretionary behaviour is a core construct in organisational behaviour (Chiang & Hsieh 2012). Recently organisations have begun acknowledging and attributing their success to the role played by their employees. Organisations are incapable of achieving success in the absence of dedicated and hardworking employees. In addition, the failure of an organisations employee to carry out their assigned duties beyond the expectation of their employers only results in normal organisational growth as opposed to organisational success.

Organisational behaviour is one of the various factors that contribute to the success of a business firm. It is important to consider the behaviour of the people inside the organisation because employees play a significant role in the day-to-day operations of the business. 

In the past years, Dennis Organ and his colleagues coined the word ‘Organisational Citizenship Behaviour’ (OCB). Organ (1988) defined OCB as individual behaviours of the employees that are outside of their required tasks and does not directly influence the formal reward system. Moreover, these behaviours could collectively contribute to the effective functioning of the organisation. OCB is considered as an important factor that greatly contributes to the survival of an organisation in the long run. Many organisations though considered OCB as small voluntary acts of the employees which sometimes do not matter at all. They have underestimated these simple actions of the employees in the organisation, and they are not valued by many organisations. 

Many organisations that engaged in this kind of practice became successful because employees who do tasks which are not formally required have a great effect on the organisation. Behind the success of an organisation are employees working in it. Sometimes, employees are hesitant in doing things which are not their assigned tasks because organisations pay less attention to this. 

On the other hand, employees who are very committed in their job and those who are satisfied lead them to do things which are beyond their duty. These small voluntary acts of the employees have a greater contribution to the overall business performance of the organisation. 

Employees are not anymore driven by mere compensations that they could receive but of the happiness and satisfaction that they get from their work. Organisational citizenship behaviour or the informal acts of employees is therefore necessary. This could help the organisation in survival and of course, their image and their acceptance in the society. 

Many successful organisations mostly engaged in OCB because it has contributed greatly to the higher work productivity of the employees. The importance of OCB is now recognised and given attention by most organisations. Having the competition in the business world, it is necessary to think differently and get employees involved in an energetic manner. 

Changing the organisational culture is important when setting up organisational citizenship behaviour within the organisations. Employees should feel that their organisations are looking after them with giving more attention. 

When employees are feeling that they are secure with the current employer, they will give their maximum output, which may be beyond their assigned tasks. Business success depends on employee behaviour and employee performance. Organisational Citizenship Behaviour indeed helps to boost organisational goals and success. 

[The writer, PhD (Reading), MLHRM, PgD. in HRM, BSc (Business Mgt.) Special, Chartered Member of CIPM, PMHRP, AMITD (SL), is an HRM Consultant and can be reached via [email protected]]