Predicting employee job performance based on empowerment, organizational citizenship behavior and psychological capital

Dissertation for Master's degree (M.A)

Treatment: industrial and organizational

Prediction of employees' job performance based on empowerment, organizational citizenship behavior and psychological capital

Abstract:

The present study aims to investigate the predictive role of empowerment, organizational citizenship behavior and psychological capital on the job performance of telecommunication company employees in a causal way. - A comparison was made. For this purpose, 109 subjects (66 men and 43 women) among the middle managers of the telecommunications company in 2013 were selected by simple random sampling and the samples were evaluated using 16-question Hersey and Goldsmith job performance questionnaires, 19-question Spritzer empowerment questions, 15-question Oregon and Kanoski citizenship behavior questions, and 24-question Luthans psychological capital questionnaires.

The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and Pearson's correlation coefficient) and inferential statistics (multivariate regression and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)) and SPSS software. The results showed that the variables of empowerment and organizational citizenship behavior (P=0.0001) and psychological capital (P=0.001) are able to predict the job performance of employees. It was also found that there is a difference between the job performance of men and women, and by strengthening the capabilities, extra-role behaviors and psychological capital of employees, their job performance can be improved. The results also showed that the desired model can be generalized to the society.

Key words: job performance, empowerment, organizational citizenship behavior, psychological capital, trans-role behaviors.

Introduction

Nowadays, with the significant growth of various aspects of technology, human power is mentioned as the most valuable resource of the organization. The importance of cultivating and developing human resources and the effect of proper management on them has improved their efficiency and ultimately improved the performance of the organization[1] and the emergence of various solutions and approaches to increase the efficiency of human resources. Also, in this century, human resources are mentioned as the main capital of the organization, although it is thought that managing human resources is easier than the rest of the production resources, but without exaggeration, it must be said that attracting, maintaining and protecting this large capital is a very difficult and exhausting task that few managers can easily handle. Organization is an inseparable part of human life. Humans are cared for by organizations before birth and in the mother's womb, they open their eyes to the world in a medical organization, get training in many organizations and work in one organization at the same time, and at the same time have relationships and deals with many organizations, and finally leave the world stage in a special funeral and burial organization (Kaherman Tabrizi, 1384; quoted by Moradi Chalantari, 1387). Therefore, people spend most of their lives in organizations or in relation to organizations, and this shows the importance of the position of organizations in today's world.

In today's competitive world where productivity has increased in all fields, only organizations can remain that use their resources in the best way and have the most productivity. One of the important organizational resources is human resources. Unsuccessful organizations lack the necessary efficiency in improving the productivity of the workforce. Today, more than ever, it is necessary for organizations to differentiate themselves through their intangible assets. Every year, managers may spend weeks or even months formulating their organization's strategies in order to maintain a competitive advantage[2]. They want to know through strategy formulation:

What actions should they take to make their organization excel?

How can they improve the actions and performance of their employees? (Mammali Tafti and Tajuddin, 1387).

The most vital issue in any organization is its job performance[3]. The importance of job performance has made researchers to research more and more about it (Shekarkan et al., 2010).

From a social point of view, organizations are looking for employees who can perform well in their jobs. Good performance increases the productivity of the organization and this also improves the national economy (Wright, 2004; quoted by Abolghasemi et al., 2013).

Performance can only be considered as the results achieved, and from an individual point of view, performance refers to the history of a person's successes (Armstrong [4], 1985, quoted by Askaroghli and Abedi, 2012).

Job performance means knowledge and ability to perform specific tasks, which requires proficiency in the use of special techniques and tools and practical competence in behavior and activity (Saatchi). et al., 2013).

Organizational employees can play an important role in improving the quality of their organization. With altruistic and chivalrous behaviors, along with politeness and kindness, cheerfulness and sense of duty, they will help to increase the quality of the organization. In other words, organizational citizenship behavior is one of the indicators that can improve the performance of employees and lead the organization towards researching its goals (Sohrabizadeh et al., 1389). In other words, by determining and examining the dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior, institutions can create an environment that encourages organizational citizenship behavior and facilitate its occurrence, and in this environment, increase the facilitators of organizational citizenship behavior and reduce its obstacles (Jamali et al., 1388).

The performance of a person in an organization depends on his personality type and the role of the organization he is responsible for, as well as the success and organizational conditions. These conditions have been studied and paid attention to as environment, culture, emotion, communication skills, empowerment and job performance. These structures have a positive effect on the internal quality of the organization, as it is the result of the employees' perceptions of the objective and tangible aspect of the organization, on the perseverance, commitment and conscientiousness of the individual and are of special importance. A sense of empowerment also enables employees to feel that they can perform competently in their work. In addition, empowerment interventions enable employees to feel that they can do their jobs fully. This empowering experience, in turn, as Kanger and Kanungo (1988) stated, is the beginning of job behaviors and increases the persistence of efforts to perform these behaviors. Based on this definition, these two researchers presented a model of organizational conditions, management strategies and types of information that create empowerment and its behavioral effects (Kanger and Kanongo, 1988; quoted by Barzegar and Mohammadi, 2012). Experts believe that without skilled, committed and satisfied human resources, it is impossible to achieve organizational goals. Even though the progress of communication technologies leads the organization to be virtual (characterized by the lack of concentration of human resources in terms of geography and the variable number of employees), in any case, the realization of economic, commercial, cultural, social and political goals, both at the macro and national level and at the level of micro-enterprises, requires the existence of people who work in the form of organizations, offices, companies, institutions and even families (Harabadi Farahani, 2014; quoted by Barzegar and Mohammadi; 1392).

Positive psychology, as a new approach in psychology, focuses on understanding and explaining happiness and the subjective feeling of well-being, as well as accurately predicting the factors that affect them (Bahadri Khosrowshahi et al., 2011).

One of the indicators of positive psychology is psychological capital, which is a person's belief in his abilities to achieve success, persistence in pursuing goals, creating positive documents. It is defined about oneself and tolerating problems (Frohar et al., 2013).

Psychological capital is characterized by these characteristics: 1- automaticity, 2- optimism, 3- hope, and 4- resilience (Lutans et al., 2007). Hope is one of the human characteristics that helps him overcome disappointments, pursue his goals, and feel reduce future tolerability (Bailey and Snyder, 2007). Bandura defines self-efficacy as a person's perception and judgment of his skills and abilities to perform tasks that are needed in special situations (1999). In his opinion, people's previous skills and achievements are not suitable predictors for their future performance; Rather, a person's belief about his abilities to perform them is effective on how he performs. Psychological capital has a direct effect on job performance, positive emotions, organizational citizenship behavior, and psychological well-being (Diant Nasab et al., 2013).