Improving Organizational Citizenship Behavior based on Flow Experience

)mproving Organizational Citizenship

Behavior based on Flow Experience

Alecxandrina Deaconu

Cătălina Radu

Alexandra Mihaela Popescu

amihaela.popescu@yahoo.com Bucharest University Economic Studies

Building on previous research on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and its influence on the performance of SMEs, this article intends to expand the investigation area to the concept of Flow and its relationship with OCB. In this paper we performed an analysis of the two theoretical constructs, we highlighted similarities and complementarities and we formulated arguments supporting the need to implement strategies that promote a state of flow. Our study points out that through these strategies, employees are encouraged to perform an extra role, beyond their formal duties, which generates an increase of OCB and favorable conditions for sustainable development.

Keywords: organizational citizenship behavior, flow, intrinsic motivation, engagement, organizational performance

JEL Codes: M , M

Introduction

Both literature review and business practice show that it is hard to predict employees behavior. (owever, it is clear that organizational performance could be significantly improved through a better understanding of the mechanisms that influence human resources in our organizations.

Our interest in understanding the soft component of human resources made us analyze the concept of organizational behavior and especially its informal part, referring to that voluntary behavior

that could be extremely important in creating an organizational climate aimed at sustaining the organizational performance. Our studies made us observe that the prerequisites for a positive voluntary behavior, mainly for the organizational citizenship behavior OCB are directly linked to employees motivation.

This paper aims to analyze two theoretical concepts - organizational citizenship behavior and flow -, to highlight similarities and complementarities, and to formulate arguments supporting the need to implement strategies promoting the state of flow in organizations. Through these strategies, employees are encouraged to perform an extra role, which is beyond their formal duties and leads to an increase of OCB and to the creation of favorable conditions for sustainable development.

The paper is structured as follows: in the first section we analyzed the organizational citizenship behavior and its influence on organizational performance; in the second part, we clarified the concept of flow; in the third section we focused on the relationship between flow and OCB. At the end we expressed our conclusions, by highlighting some ideas that could be integrated into the managerial approach of modern organizations.

1. Organizational Citizenship Behavior: - Definition, Evolution, Components

people whose psychological profile is very well suited to the job profile, which conditions are needed in order to have maximum individual performances and what should be done in order to influence employees behavior, by making them work at a higher intensity and with better results.

Organizational behavior refers to studying and understanding the individual and group

behavior at the organizational level Keith and Scott, ; Cole, ; Colquitt, Lepine and Wesson,

; Newstrom, . The continuous interest into increasing the organizational performance

Keith and Scott, ; Robbins, Judge, Milett and Boyle, ; Luthans, led to deeper analyses

of the impact of the organizational models and structures on the human behavior Mullins, , to

trials to predict and control the human behavior at all the organizational levels Kreitner and Kinicki,

; Robbins, Judge, Milett and Boyle, , and to various studies on the evolution of the

organization s internal and external environment McShane and Von Glinow, . The behavior of

the members of the organizations is crucial not only for the efficiency of the organization, but also for

its existence Katz, .

According to some authors Griffin and Moorehead, , research on organizational

behavior allows us: a to have a description of the human behavior in order to be able to find a common code for manager and employee when talking about the behavior at the workplace; b to understand the reasons why people behave and act in a particular way and have a particular behavior and particular reactions in given contexts; c to make predictions regarding the behavior of the employees and thus to avoid discontinuities in the activities; d to influence the employees behavior towards the desired directions in order to attain the organizational goals.

The complexity of organizational behavior is increased by its informal component. The influence of the informal organizational behavior on the organizational performances can be assessed by looking at the degree in which the individuals have a balance between organizational objectives and

individual interests Simon, .

The concept related to the informal component of the organizational behavior that can be seen as a behavioral indicator reflecting the way in which employees respond to the organization s conditions is known as organizational citizenship behavior OCB . This concept first appeared in the work of Dennis W. Organ, professor of management and organizational behavior at )ndiana University. Organ studied the relationship between work satisfaction and people s performances and discovered two main behavioral drivers of performance – the cognitive determinant, which determines the actual work of an employee, whose results can be measured through productivity, and the affective determinant, which can be seen as a mutual help among colleagues and personal initiatives, with

effects hard to be measured, but very important in attaining the organizational goals Organ, .

OCB appears as a consequence, as a reaction to a variety of psycho-social stimuluses existing at the organizational level. Therefore, studying these stimuluses and their effects on OCB constitutes a

major analysis direction in this field Greenberg, .

Organizational citizenship behavior was defined as a positive individual behavior that is voluntary. OCB is not directly and explicitly required through organizational rules and contributes to

the proper functioning of an organization Organ, . This concept takes into account the informal

interpersonal relationships that can have a decisive influence on the individual and organizational performances.

The following four criteria apply for OCB: a it should be an act that is not part of job requirements and it is not rewarded, nor penalized; b the employee should voluntary have this type of behavior; c the behavior should be positive for the one who initiates it and to also be perceived as a positive one by the person who benefits from it; d the behavior should lead to the benefit of another person and not to the own benefit.

The interest for studying OCB is not new; it actually has strong roots in the works of many

researchers in psychology and economics M“nsterberg, ; Follet, ; Barnard, ;

Roethlisberger and Dickson, .

Most of the studies on OCB use the five dimensions defined by Organ - altruism,

conscientiousness, civic virtue, courtesy, and sportsmanship. These components contribute to a positive atmosphere at the workplace, by encouraging the development of strong interpersonal relationships, as people help their colleagues, avoid putting the others in uncomfortable situations, accept and conform to existing rules within the organization and voluntarily involve themselves into various activities.

relationships between employees is valuable, as these relationships are difficult to develop and to imitate, thus leading to a sustained competitive advantage. Managers should better understand the factors that make employees go beyond their job requirements. All these explain the interest into further studying OCB and its driving factors: a individual characteristics of the employee; b characteristics of the job; c organizational characteristics and d leadership behavior Podsakoff,

MacKenzie, Paine and Bachrach, .

2. Flow: Nature and Conditions of a Motivational Concept

The concept of flow comprises a complex content. We retained some ideas that are significant in terms of content and influence on people and organizations.

Csikszentmihalyi first defined flow as a holistic sensation felt when people act with total involvement. Therefore people work at their full capacity, seemingly without any effort, but with high engagement, by matching their personal skills to a series of challenges. People enjoy what they are

doing and are intrinsically motivated for their daily activities Csikszentmihalyi, , as opposed to

extrinsic rewards Bakker, . )t is interesting that flow has positive effects on people in general, as

they are happier and more satisfied with their lives and protect them against potential negative effects

in late adulthood Collins, Sarkisian and Winner, ; Kasa and (assan, ; Rowe and Kahn, .

)f, at the beginning, the concept of flow was developed with a focus only on the balance between

challenges and skills Csikszentmihalyi, , in time it was characterized by nine components

Csikszentmihalyi, ; Csikszentmihalyi and Rathunde, ; Fullagar and Kelloway, :

. Balance between challenges and skills; of course, challenges without the matching skills

lead to frustration, while skills without challenges imply boredom; moreover, these challenges and skills should exceed a particular level of complexity and difficulty, in order to avoid apathy;

. Right merging of action and awareness; staying focused in the task implies an automatic

reply and quite little awareness of anything other than the task itself; . Clarity of goals; people understand what they have to do very well;

. Clarity of feedback; the progress with achieving goals should be clear and the feedback

should come immediately and without any ambiguity; . Concentration on the task; no distractions are present;

. Paradox of control; when experiencing flow, people do feel they have control without

doing anything in particular for achieving this; however, when being aware of the need to control the process, they lose the sense of flow;

. Loss of self-consciousness; people do not pay attention to their daily concerns anymore, as

they become one with the task performed;

. Loss of time awareness; the perception of time changes a lot as time seems to pass very

fast, when people are doing something they really enjoy;

. Autotelic experience; it is considered that these experiences become a goal by themselves,

a state of mind and spirit that should be attained again and again.

The importance of the concept of flow made specialists interested into finding some ways to

measure it. For sure, this concept cannot be measured easily Csikszentmihalyi and LeFevre, .

Most of the researchers studied the ratio between challenges and skills and opinions are different.

Some specialists Voelkl and Ellis, considered that challenges and skills should be rated quite

equally; on the other hand, there were authors who considered that the condition for flow in older adults consists in challenges slightly higher than the skills people possess. Csikszentmihalyi and

LeFevre pointed out that challenges and skills should be above average.

Although relying on people in general is more subjective, it could be a better approach, since flow by itself is a matter of perception.

3. The Relationship between OCB and Flow

Studying the two concepts was for us an occasion to reflect and look for new ways of integrating them into the managerial theory and practice. We wanted to understand the relationship between OCB and flow, the similarities and differences between them and the influence they have on the organizational performance.

Our literature review showed there are only a few studies that make a connection between the two

concepts as, for example, Collins, Sarkisian and Winner, . Based on these studies and also on a

debate we initiated with colleagues from Department of Management in our university, we could find some useful theoretical and practical ideas.

Our methodology followed three main steps: Step . Documentation about the two concepts.

Step . Organizing a series of debates on the content and role of each concept in the managerial practice. Discussions were held with experts in human resource management in large companies operating in Bucharest, with people occupying positions of middle management in various companies and with colleagues from the Department of Management who are doing research on management, human resource management and/or organizational behavior.

Step . )nterpretation of the information obtained from the previous two steps.

The activities of the second step took place in March-April . We initiated and moderated

workshops with participants (R specialists, general managers and experts from the

academic field . Each participant received bibliography on OCB and flow two weeks prior the meeting and participated at a workshop organized in two parts. )n the first part facilitators briefly presented the goal of the meeting, the maximum duration and a series of rules in order to properly conduct the discussions. )n the second part participants came with a series of ideas.

At the end of the meeting, each facilitator completed a discussion form structured on three chapters: Chapter – Current knowledge and application of the two concepts, Chapter – Usefulness of the two concepts in increasing the organizational performance and Chapter – Proposals to integrate these concepts in the managerial processes in order to enhance the organizational performance. At the end of the document there was a place for further comments, in which we included other ideas arising from the discussion that could not be properly framed in the previously given chapters.

By analyzing the discussion forms, we could highlight the following main ideas:

9 The two concepts are not consistently approached in the management literature in our

country, but parts of them or similar concepts are part of the current studies and are also found in business practice. There are obvious concerns to work on the management message, to cultivate values, beliefs and behaviors that support civic virtue, motivation, intrinsic motivation, involvement, team spirit, conscientiousness, sense of affiliation, working properly with conflicts, cooperation, fair play in business, etc.

9 Cultivating these concepts in the Romanian business environment is something desirable

if we want our managers to think about the future of their companies, to build a stronger relationship with their employees, to create a climate aimed at attracting and retaining the best employees, to stimulate initiative, creativity and responsibility.

9 _{Both managerial literature and business practice offer good arguments for sustaining the}

relationship between the two concepts and organizational performance. )t can be seen that many studies were aimed at increasing the organizational performance. )n most of the cases, the relationship between OCB as a form of organizational behavior and motivation with its specific component, intrinsic motivation , on the one hand, and performance, on the other hand, is not an exclusivist one, but contains also other influence

factors.

9 Both concepts are strongly related to motivation. OCB, as an informal not-imposed

behavior, can be observed only in employees with a high level of motivation and work satisfaction. We cannot omit the fact that one of its components, civic virtue, refers

explicitly to the desire to belong to the organization you are working with, and this for sure means involvement, something more than motivation in work. Flow is associated with concepts like involvement, engagement, experience of working at full capacity, concepts that reflect a deeper level of employees involvement.

9 The two concepts are strongly related to each other, in the sense that an employee with a

high level of OCB will surely have a high level of flow and vice-versa. This finding suggests that, by building a higher level of flow, we create the conditions to raise the level of OCB and to improve the conditions for increasing the organizational performance. (owever, effects do not produce automatically. On the contrary, the process should be well monitored and managed in order to benefit from better managerial results.

9 The integration of these concepts into the managerial theory is quite easy, as it depends

existing courses, such as Management when presenting the influencing function, in the chapters of Motivation, Organizational Culture or even as a separate chapter , (uman Resource Management in chapters referring to recruitment, training, career and rewarding systems or Organizational Behavior when defining organizational behavior or in the chapters referring to team management, time management or conflict management .

9 The integration of these concepts into the business practice needs a conscious action of

the general manager and / or of the (R manager. The general manager plays a very important role, because, by directly integrating them into his/her own behavior, he/she will stimulate through the power of personal example, which is a practice extremely convincing and contagious for employees. )t is also the general manager the one who can ask for formulating and implementing adequate policies and procedures aimed at increasing the level of OCB and flow for the members of the organization. The role of the (R manager is extremely important and refers to including the information referring to OCB and flow in the decisions of selection, assessment, promotion, training and rewarding employees. )t is very important to have correct and clear criteria for selecting new employees and assessing the current employees, criteria that include high standards for the two concepts. These represent favorable conditions for significant positive changes of the employees behavior.

9 _{The description of the characteristics of the flow balance between challenges and skills,}

right merging of action and awareness, clarity of goals, clarity of feedback, concentration on the task, paradox of control, loss of self-consciousness, loss of time awareness and autotelic experience show a series of dimensions of the intrinsic motivation that have a high impact on organizational performance, but which are still not fully exploited by management.

9 An authentic integration of these concepts into the organizational practice will be hardly

done or will not be done at all unless adequate strategies are developed in order to encourage employees to perform an extra role, beyond their formal duties, thus leading to an increase in the OCB level and to favorable conditions for sustainable organizational development. Such a strategy would unquestionably affirm the manager s option for an organization in which employees are considered crucial factors, conscious and work-dedicated, and would guarantee the consistent formulation and implementation of (R policies aimed at changing mentalities and behavior into the desired direction.

9 The influence of the new behavior created through conscious and sustained managerial

action should be reflected also beyond the business space, in society, by being a milestone and a real support for other people as well.

Conclusions

The present changes in society and especially in the Romanian business environment are indisputable. The so many plans in which these changes have been developed and their rhythm decreased the level in which the soft component of general management or (R management were taken into consideration. )n this context, our intention was to bring to discussion two qualitative concepts that are not so well-know OCB and flow , to contribute to explaining their content, to identify the relationship between them, to highlight the positive impact they can have on the organizational performance and to advocate for the real need to create strategies through which employees are encouraged to go beyond their roles expressed in their job description and formal rapports and to be self-aware of the benefits of flow and civic behavior.

)n order to reduce the subjectivity of our approach, we chose to debate these concepts in environments potentially-interested into the research on and/or into the implementation in the managerial practice. This approach encourages us to consider that we identified a niche with exploitable potential and we will continue our research through other related studies. We are also encouraged to believe that managers will be increasingly interested into promoting OCB and the state of flow in order to create conditions for sustainable development of their companies. We will continue

our work on OCB Popescu, ; Popescu and Deaconu, by investigating the level of flow in

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