The relationship between transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior through the perception of justice in Gilan University of Medical Sciences

Dissertation for Master's Degree (M.A.)

Public Administration Major with Human Resources Orientation

Abstract

One of the reasons for the success of large organizations is that they have employees who strive beyond their official duties; That is, they have employees who show organizational citizenship behaviors. The current research is descriptive and aims to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior through the understanding of justice. This research was based on two hypotheses, which are: 1- There is a relationship between transformational leadership (with the dimensions of individual consideration, ideal influence, inspirational motivation and mental persuasion) and leader-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. 2- The perception of interpersonal justice mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and leader-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. In this regard, the standard questionnaires of transformational leadership by Bess and Olive (2004), organizational citizenship behavior by Williams and Anderson, interpersonal justice by Mags Bays (1986) have been used. The sample size is 234 people and the non-probability sampling method is available. The research method is based on the structural equation model and SPSS and Lisrel software are used to test the hypotheses. The research results show that the relationship between transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior through the perception of justice is significant. In addition, the first hypothesis was confirmed with the components of individual consideration, ideal influence and mental persuasion, and the component of inspirational motivation was rejected. And the second hypothesis, the understanding of interpersonal justice mediates the relationship between the individual considerations of the transformational leader and the organizational citizenship behaviors of the leader, has also been confirmed. Among the components of transformational leadership, mental motivation has had the greatest impact on organizational citizenship behavior. Key words: organizational citizenship behavior [1], transformational leadership [2], interpersonal justice [3] individual considerations [4]

Introduction

         In today's world, most managers want employees who do more than their job description duties. They are looking for employees who go beyond expectations, willingly engage in behaviors that are not part of their official job duties. In general, those occupational behaviors of employees that have a great impact on the effectiveness of the organization's operations have attracted the attention of many researchers and managers. In the past, researchers mostly paid attention to the in-role performance of employees in their studies to investigate the relationship between job behaviors and organizational effectiveness. But the organizational citizenship behavior includes voluntary behaviors of employees that are not part of their official duties and are not directly considered by the official reward system and increase the overall effectiveness of the organization. (Tabarsa et al.; 1389, p. 104) Fair behavior is a demand that all employees who spend their time and energy in an organization expect from the organization.  These expectations make leaders more inclined to emphasize fairness. The question is, what can happen when managers do not pay attention to these expectations. Greenberg 1 concluded that managers who violate these norms through unfair behavior cause their employees to react negatively to this behavior. Therefore, the reflection of justice in the behavior of managers will create good conditions for both the organization and the employees. (Greenberge, 1993, p:85) In this chapter, a general picture of the research is presented. In this way, first the main question of the research is raised in the form of statement of the problem, and then the importance and necessity of the discussion regarding the subject of the research, research objectives, research assumptions and other matters will be discussed. In line with this serious goal, managers are seeking to identify and make optimal use of resources and funds that require a lot of effort and expense to acquire. So, the winners of this field are the managers who use the said funds in the most effective, efficient and productive ways possible. Most of the resources of any organization are directed to its human, financial and technical resources, which is certainly the human capital that determines the direction of the other capital, because it is the human force that has recruited other resources with its ability and planning.Batman and Organ1 (1983) used the term organizational citizenship behavior for the first time and consider it as a part of employees to improve productivity and solidarity and cohesion in the work environment, which is beyond the organizational requirements. (Hodson, 2006 p:70).  Organizations cannot develop the effectiveness of their collective wisdom without the voluntary willingness of individuals to cooperate. The difference between voluntary and forced cooperation is very important. In mandatory mode, a person performs his duties in accordance with the regulations and acceptable standards of an organization and only to the extent of meeting the requirements. But in voluntary cooperation, this category is beyond duty and people express their efforts, energy and insight to flourish their abilities for the benefit of the organization. In this case, people usually ignore their personal interests and prioritize being responsible for the interests of others. In this way, the way to achieve the goals of the organization is facilitated, in this case, trust and commitment are very important, but in the absence of voluntary cooperation behaviors, it is rarely achieved. (Tabarsa et al.; 13:102, 1989) Organizational citizenship behavior is a set of behaviors that are outside the scope of the mandatory behaviors of people in the environment, but they play a fundamental and pivotal role in creating a favorable psychological and social atmosphere in the work environment. These behaviors have become a wide field in management and organizational research at least during the last 25 years. These behaviors are introduced in the initial definitions as behaviors that are completely optional and there is no place for them in the salary and reward system in organizations and industries. However, these behaviors play a fundamental role in organizational effectiveness due to the role they play in the organizational atmosphere. Examples of this type of behavior can be seen in helping the cooperation that is absent, volunteering for extra work when needed, introducing the organization enthusiastically to the public, acting in a way that boosts the morale and vitality of oneself and colleagues, and resolving interpersonal conflicts. (Golperor et al.; 2018: 29) Researchers have mentioned relatively many individual and organizational consequences for organizational citizenship behaviors. At the organizational level, what is mainly discussed is the increase in performance and effectiveness. Another issue that some researchers point to as an important consequence of organizational citizenship behavior is increasing the organization's ability to attract and maintain expert and efficient personnel. The high level of citizenship behavior in an organization makes the organization an attractive environment for work and activity, and therefore, organizations with a high level of citizenship behavior will perform better by attracting more efficient personnel. (Tabarsa et al.; 1389: 105) The existence of a positive relationship between interpersonal justice and leader-oriented organizational citizenship behavior shows that a person tends to participate in organizational citizenship behavior for a specific identity that is considered as a source of justice. Because the leader is considered as a respectable and considerate person based on his supportive behaviors, he is also considered as a source of interpersonal justice. In this case, the emphasis on subordinate citizenship behaviors is focused directly on the leader who works with him. As a result, subordinates probably make more efforts to show their cooperation behaviors for the interests of the leader (Jewon Cho et al, 2010, p: 411). There is a meaningful relationship between transformative behaviors and organizational citizenship behavior of employees. (Yaquobi et al.; 1389: 81) One of the concerns of organizations and researchers in the past four decades has been leadership, and attempts have been made to explain this phenomenon with implement a series of academic criteria (Dulewicz et al, 2005, p:406) Transformational leadership is a process based on which the leader creates the highest level of motivation, ethics, commitment and connection with the goals of the organization (Zinabadi; 1389: 141) based on the theory of transformational leadership, a leader needs to use internal actors to perform the necessary tasks for the organization. in order to achieve its desired goals. In this regard, the goal of transformational leadership is to ensure that the path to the goal is clearly understood by the internal actors, and it removes the potential obstacles in the system and encourages the actors to achieve the predetermined goals. (Boenke, 2003, p: 5-6)