عوامل تعیین کننده رفتار شهروندی سازمانی (OCB) با رهبری تحول گرا و توانمندسازی روانشناختی

ABSTRACT Transformational leadership and psychological empowerment : Determinants of organizational citizenship behavior

In recent years the traditional, autocratic, superior-subordinate model followed by management professionals has given way to a more democratic approach in which leadership, decision making, responsibility, and authority are shared. The core concepts of this new approach fall within the realm of transformational leadership (Burns, 1978; Bass, 1985; Bass and Avolio, 1993), psychological empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995; Kanter, 1979, 1983), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Organ, 1990). The OCB construct emphasizes the extra-role behavior (Organ, 1990) that an employee plays in executing responsibility. Numerous researchers have studied OCB in order to identify the positive outcomes it offers to individuals, such as enhanced performance and effective goal realization (Bolino and Turnley, 2003; Bowler, 2006). Psychological empowerment gives employees increased feelings of competence, resilience, and responsibility for their work (Spreitzer, 1995; Kanter, 1979, 1983). Transformational leadership facilitates the behavioral changes that are required to make individuals perform better (Bass, 1985; Bolino and Turnley, 2003; Bowler, 2006). In accordance with this, the role of leaders has shifted from control toward guidance and the coordination of organizational work processes. Previous research on transformational leadership has considered the positive impact it has on followers’ thought processes, while directing them toward making appropriate decisions.

According to Prabhakar (2005), “Good leaders do inspire confidence in themselves, but a truly great leader inspires confidence within the people they lead to exceed their normal performance level.” This can be interpreted as the way in which the concept of OCB emerges in the presence of transformational leadership. Transformational leaders empower others to modify their ways of working (Bowler, 2006). They bring about moral, attitudinal, and process change in individuals and as a consequence in the organization as whole (Pearce et al., 2003; Sims and Manz, 1996).

The current study proposes that transformational leadership modifies employees’ citizenship behavior and psychological empowerment in the context of the service sector, and puts forward three arguments.

The first point argues for OCB can be linked to social exchange theory (Blau, 1964; Aselage and Eisenberger, 2003). This theory suggests that citizenship behavior will appear when an employee experiences positive feelings and an affinity toward the organization. Thus, the individual is motivated to respond to organizational demand, resulting in positive experiences. Researchers have discussed the fact that transformational leadership creates positive feeling and higher motivation among employees (Bass, 1985; Bass and Avolio, 1993; Gebert et al., 2011). Thus, the relationship between OCB and transformational leadership merits further exploration.

The second argument proposes that empowering employees is not about telling them that they are empowered or issuing fancy organizational statements announcing empowerment. An organization that wishes to truly empower its employees must change its policies, practices, and structures. This occurs when a company abandons the traditional top-down, control-oriented management model and replaces it with a highly participative or high-performance approach. Organizations with high involvement approaches use multiple management systems to create work environments in which all employees are encouraged to think strategically about their jobs and to assume personal responsibility for the quality of their work (Lawler, 1986). Transformational leadership encourages employees to make independent decisions regarding the various challenges they face and to make their work more personally meaningful (Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Empowered employees do not hesitate to respond to the organization’s needs. As a social construct, empowerment integrates perceptions of personal control, a proactive approach that includes instant decision making and task initiatives (Boudrias et al., 2009). Therefore, the relationship between psychological empowerment and OCB is worth further examination.

This study’s third view reveals differences in the organizational decision-making practices of the service and manufacturing sectors (Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Jackson et al., 1989). Researchers have noted that service industries’ work outcomes are intangible by nature (Bowen and Schneider, 1988), and that their employees’ competencies are different from those in manufacturing organizations (Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Jackson et al., 1989). Service industry employees are expected to have a higher level of commitment to their work. They are required to meet customers’ demands on a regular basis and they need to have the discretion to handle customer issues (Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Jackson et al., 1989). Given the nature of work in the services sector, employees should be empowered to take instant decisions. Further, the organization expects them to move into extra-role behavior or to demonstrate OCB (Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Jackson et al., 1989). High-power distance (respect for authority and hierarchy) is common in Indian culture (Hofstede, 2001), meaning that employees have little autonomy and do not feel psychologically empowered (Spreitzer, 1995), as they need to seek approval from their superiors for all decisions. It is, therefore, interesting to study how managers with transformational leadership styles and psychological empowerment influences OCB among employees in the Indian context, where power distance is high but service sector organizations are given particular importance due to their contribution to economy.

Therefore, the purpose of this research is to study transformational leadership and psychological empowerment as antecedents for the occurrence of OCB in service sector. This research also examines the moderating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. This study was conducted on frontline employees in the Indian hospitality industry.