Change-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Public Administration: the Power of Leadership and the Cost of Organizational Politics
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Advance Access published September 2, 2011
Change-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Public Administration: The Power of Leadership and the Cost of Organizational Politics
Eran Vigoda-Gadot, Itai Beeri
University of Haifa
ABSTRACT Using a well-grounded theory of organizational citizenship behavior, this study attempts to extend the meaning of the good soldier syndrome beyond its common boundaries of the business sector. We follow Bettencourt’s (2004) conceptualization and model of changeoriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) to explain why and how public employees engage in activities targeted at changing and improving the public work environment and its job processes even when no formal rewards are offered in return. We extend Bettencourt’s model and demonstrate its usefulness and contribution to public administration organizations, focusing especially on leadership behavior, leader-member exchange relations, and perceptions of organizational politics in public agencies. A field study of 217 public personnel in a large public health care organization yields interesting findings, demonstrating the uniqueness of OCB over classical OCB measures (individual and organizational), the general positive effect of leadership on OCB and the moderating effect of perceptions of politics in this relationship. Implications of the findings are developed and discussed in the context of modern public administration. INTRODUCTION
Downloaded from jpart.oxfordjournals.org at University of Haifa Library on September 4, 2011
A growing challenge facing most public services in modern democracies is the quest for creativity, innovation, and change-oriented behaviors among employees. Doctrines of market-driven management developed in recent decades have placed this challenge at the forefront of the discipline’s theoretical and empirical efforts. It has become clear that global governmental reforms
Change-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Public Administration: The Power of Leadership and the Cost of Organizational Politics
Eran Vigoda-Gadot, Itai Beeri
University of Haifa
ABSTRACT Using a well-grounded theory of organizational citizenship behavior, this study attempts to extend the meaning of the good soldier syndrome beyond its common boundaries of the business sector. We follow Bettencourt’s (2004) conceptualization and model of changeoriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) to explain why and how public employees engage in activities targeted at changing and improving the public work environment and its job processes even when no formal rewards are offered in return. We extend Bettencourt’s model and demonstrate its usefulness and contribution to public administration organizations, focusing especially on leadership behavior, leader-member exchange relations, and perceptions of organizational politics in public agencies. A field study of 217 public personnel in a large public health care organization yields interesting findings, demonstrating the uniqueness of OCB over classical OCB measures (individual and organizational), the general positive effect of leadership on OCB and the moderating effect of perceptions of politics in this relationship. Implications of the findings are developed and discussed in the context of modern public administration. INTRODUCTION
Downloaded from jpart.oxfordjournals.org at University of Haifa Library on September 4, 2011
A growing challenge facing most public services in modern democracies is the quest for creativity, innovation, and change-oriented behaviors among employees. Doctrines of market-driven management developed in recent decades have placed this challenge at the forefront of the discipline’s theoretical and empirical efforts. It has become clear that global governmental reforms