In this chapter of the proposal, the introduction about the title of research will be presented in which the significance, aim, objectives and research questions for the forthcoming research will be identified and developed.

1.1.            Title

The title of research will be

“Impact of Organization Citizenship Behavior on performance of Organization: A case of Royal Mail”

1.2.            Background of Research

Organizational citizenship behavior is a behavior which is unrestricted and it is not directly related to the reward system of an organization, in aggregate it helps in promoting the effective operation of an organization (Organ, 1988). OCB is composed of three constructs which are very visible in the definition. The first construct says that it is discretionary. It is not part of employee job responsibilities. Secondly, it is beyond employee job description and lastly, it contributes positively to the effectiveness of an organization. On this concept, many researchers are doing research from last three decades.

In the forthcoming research, the impact of OCB on organizational performance will be studied out in the Royal Mail. Royal mail is the United Kingdom’s postal service which came into being in 1516. This is a government owned organization and is listed in LSE (London Stock Exchange). In public sector organizations, due to strict rules and regulations, OCB has not been found significantly (Bandura, 2000). When the employees do not have morale, comply with organization rules, altruism, the sense of belongingness, team spirit and cohesiveness, and then they do not add to the effectiveness and performance of an organization. This is the reason this research topic has been selected so as to study and identify the reason behind a low performance of employees.

1.3.            Significance of Research

The significance of research extends in two directions one is the implication of research in the Royal Mail while the second one is research will add to literature. Through this research, the relationship between both the variables will be identified at an elevated and more transparent manner such that it can add to the literature for academics and can also help the organization to develop organizational citizenship behavior to increase the performance so that it can compete with the privately owned mail services.

1.4.            Research Aim

The aim of research will be to analyze and study the impact which OCB has on the performance of organization in the selected organization (Royal Mail).

1.5.            Research Objectives

The objectives which will be covered up in research are

Ø  To unveil the concept of Organization citizenship behavior

Ø  To review and analyze the impact of OCB in the shaping up or elevating the performance organization

Ø  To study the impact of Organization Citizenship Behavior on the performance of Royal Mail

1.6.            Research Questions

The questions which will be answered in the research are

Ø  What is the conceptualization of OCB in the organizational behavior field?

Ø  What are factors, antecedents and dimensions of OCB?

Ø  How OCB can help in elevating the performance of an organization?

Ø  What specific types of antecedents of OCB are present in Royal Mail?

Ø  What is the impact of Organization Citizenship Behavior on performance of Royal Mail?

Ø  What are the recommendations which can be taken out from research to improve the performance of Royal Mail?

 

 

 

 

In this chapter of the proposal, literature related to the variables of research is reviewed in detail. The conceptual framework is also presented at the end of this chapter so as to present a diagrammatic relationship of the variables.

2.1.            Organisation Citizenship Behavior – Definition

There are many forms of OCB such as helping other, loyalty and organizational compliance as according to Podsakoff et al (2000) and the benefit is given to those people by the organizations who willingly contribute their abilities and efforts even they are not rewarded. This behavior has gained increased recognition in the business area as according to Todd (2003). From that time, there had been significant research which is going on this area so as to bring more understanding to this concept (Podsakoff et al., 2000; Joireman et al., 2006; Bukhari et al., 2009).

In the performance analysis, OCB is relatively a new concept. However, it presents a conduct of the human which involves mutual aid and voluntary action with no demand of return. The concept was first introduced by Dennis Organ (1988). The definition provided by Organ (1988) states that OCB is the behavior of an individual which is discretionary and it is not related explicitly with the formal reward system. In an aggregated form it helps in the promotion of effective working of the organization.

2.2.            Antecedents of Organisational Citizenship Behavior

OCB is an extra effort of the employee which is not required by an organization (Organ, 1988) and it is the explicit act of employees (Kohan and Mazmanian, 2003). Two main components of organization citizenship behavior are

·         Compliance – employee intention to comply with the rules and regulations of organization (Organ and Ryan, 1995)

·         Altruism – employee voluntary behavior to help others and to work without reward (Williams and Anderson, 1991)

Till now there are many factors or the antecedents which have been identified for OCB and these are justice, job satisfaction, support of organization and leadership (Ackfeldt and Coote, 2000). Out of the above – mentioned antecedents, justice is the most widely used antecedent. Justice in the procedures (Procedural justice) tend to have more effect on OCB that distributive justice. In OCB, procedural justice is an independent variable (Robinson and Morrision, 2002), and it is related to perceived fairness in the decision making (Muhammad, 2004). The leadership also have an impact on OCB (Bass and Riggio, 2010; Rai and Sinha, 2000; Purvanova et al 2006; Rickards et al., 2001; Robbins, 2002). The last antecedent of OCB is job satisfaction and there is an effect of this antecedent on OCB (Ko, 2008; Chang and Chang, 2010). Hence, these are the antecedents of OCB.

2.3.            Organizational Citizenship Behavior Enhances Organizational Performance

According to the research work of many authors it has been found out that OCB enhances the performance of an organization by the reduction of the need to purely devote the rare resources to maintenance functions (Organ, 1988). It also helps in coordinating the group activities (Smith et al 1983, Kararnbayya, 1990). The by-product of organizational citizenship behavior is that it helps in improvement of morale, team spirit, cohesiveness which ultimately helps in the reduction of the need for maintenance functions.

Through OCB an improvement in the organizational ability to retain as well as attract people (Organ, 1988; George & Bettenhausen, 1990). Employees or the job candidates working in the market are attracted to the organizations where there is positive working environment. The helping behavior helps in the contributions towards the environment which enhances morale, the sense of belongingness, team spirit and cohesiveness. It ultimately makes an organization an attractive place to work.

The reduction in the variability of the organizational performance can be done with the help of OCB. The reduction in the variability helps managers to plan and assign rare resources. Several things can be done by employees to reduce the variability such as

·         Helping out the people on work with their work

·         Performing tasks of other people when they are not on job

·         Conscientiousness

All the above-mentioned tasks are unimportant individually but when this is done in a group or in collective manner, then it can effect significantly on the organization performance. In addition to this, OCB can help an organization in adapting to different and changing environments (Schimnke et al 2000). In a nutshell, OCB helps in the success of an organization by enhancing

·         Coworker productivity

·         Manager productivity

·         Use of resources for the production purposes

·         Reduction of the need to purely devote the rare resources to the maintenance functions

·         Coordination of work within and across group

·         Improvement in the organizational ability to retain as well as attract people

·         Stabilizing the performance of organization

·         Adapting the change in the environment

2.4.            A Different Source identifying the interrelationship between OCB and Organization Performance

There are many researches which have been conducted to find the interrelationship between OCB and organizational performance but in these studies two groups of employees that are best performing and the worst performers. In these researches, researchers have tried to understand the rating of the managers which they give to the best performers on the basis of certain characteristics may be because of the extra work they perform or they might be contributing to the overall organizational performance. In 1990 Organ found out that OCB adds to the performance, but it also influences the manager’s evaluation of the employees. Managers believe that the organizational citizenship behavior adds to the performance and it is suggested that they should be analyzed in mind as according to Katzell and Yankelovich (1975). From two decades OCB is included in the performance evaluations (Werner, 1994). There can be bias of managers while considering some employees as the best performing and the worst performers. Some employees in organization use “impression management” style so as to create a positive image as according to Bolino and Turnley (2003). For OCB to directly affect the performance, such types of behaviors must be readdressed headed for endorsing organizational effectiveness. According to the research work of Organ (1988) it has been pointed out that for OCB to directly affect performance, the contributions of individuals must be aggregated all through the firm. It has also been argued that employees help co – workers with their work or provide advice to the new employees, this does not affect the performance of the company.

The research work of Turnipseed and Rassuli (2005) has found out some of the basics which complement performance are altruism, social capital, problem solving, time saving, morale, team spirit, cohesiveness. The research of Walz and Niehoff (1996) has considered citizenship behavior to be directly linked to the performance whereas Karambayya (1990) has suggested that there are more elements found in high-performing groups in comparison to low-performing work groups.

2.5.            Conceptual Framework

From the analysis of the preliminary literature, a framework has been developed, which is shown as below

 

Organizational Citizenship Behavior – OCB (IDV)

Organization Performance (DV)

·         Coworker/Manager productivity ·         The use of resources for production purposes ·         The reduction of the need to purely devote the rare resources to the maintenance functions ·         Coordination of work within and across the group ·         Improvement in the organizational ability to retain as well as attract people ·         Stabilizing the performance of organization ·         Adapting the change in the environment

·         Compliance ·         Altruism ·         Increasing Morale ·         Sense of belongingness ·         Team spirit ·         Cohesiveness

 

Figure: Conceptual Framework (Self-made)

*IDV = independent variable

**DV = Dependent variable

OCB is an independent variable because it is not dependent on any of the organizational factor which shapes it. There are some dimensions identified for this variable. Organizational performance is dependent variable, and it is mentioned with its dimensions as identified from the literature review done in the start of this section.

2.6.            Hypotheses

The hypotheses for research are

H1: OCB impacts positively on organization performance

H2: OCB impacts positively on organization performance

H0: OCB impacts significantly on organization performance

 

 

 

In this section of the proposal, the research design and methodology which will be followed to collect data from the organization will be discussed in detail so as to reduce the complications of data collection in the future.

3.1.            Type of Investigation

Investigations are of three types namely descriptive, which is more inclined to stating what is done previously and reviewing the problem in details. Exploratory is a type of investigation in which the problem is fully explored and the data is collected and then analyzed. The last type is hypotheses testing research in which hypotheses are tested. In current research, both exploration and hypotheses testing will be used because the problem will be explored in Royal Mail and then the devised hypotheses will be tested as whether there is a positive, negative or neutral relationship of variables in Royal Mail.

3.2.            Data Collection Method

There are two types of data collection methods. The primary method is a method in which the researcher collected the data for the research being conducted whereas secondary is a method in which the data from existing sources is gathered. For this research, data will be taken from employees of Royal Mail on the close ended questionnaire and researcher will personally collect this data. Secondary sources such as journal articles, books, blogs and internet sources will be used to develop the theoretical underpinnings of the problem which will researched out.

3.3.            Sample and Sampling Method

The sample of the research will be 200 employees currently working in Royal Mail. The sampling strategy which will be used is convenience sampling method. The strategy has been selected because with this time can be saved and there are no budget constraints in it.

3.4.            Accessibility Issues

During the collection of the data, some of the issues that can hinder the process of data collection are discussed in this heading. In order to get data from the company an authorized letter from the university will be taken to the organization. The consent form from the respondents will be signed up so as to ensure the smooth collection of data.

3.5.            Ethical Issues

The ethics will be followed in research. The anonymity of participants will be kept into consideration and the information will not be given to the third party or disclosed to the company. Through this research no harm will be done to company name and good will. The researcher will not misinterpret and deceive the respondents or company.

3.6.            Data Analysis Plan

The data will be collected with the close ended questionnaire from 200 respondents selected from Royal Mail. This data will then be analysed in the form of charts, graphs and tables. The average formula will be applied to the result and then it will be analysed and interpreted by matching it to the previous researches. The data will be quantitative in nature.

3.7.            Research Limitation

The research is focused on one company and OCB is taken into consideration. In other companies, the scenario of OCB and its link to organizational performance can be different and different parts of the world can elucidate different outcomes. The research is quantitative in nature, but if mixed methods are used reliable results can be obtained. In addition to this, there are budget and time constraints too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the completion of research, the conceptualization of Organisational citizenship behavior for the public sector organization will be identified as there will be some determinants which will be marked as high and some will be marked as low in the results. The research will help the Royal Mail to improvise the strategies through which the employees can feel an ownership of organization.

The forthcoming research will contain five chapters which is a typical design of a research thesis or dissertation. This has been followed because it provides a very smooth direction to the researcher and it in step by step manner identifies and unveils the research process.

The timetable of research is as follows

Tasks	1st Month	Second Month	Third Month	Fourth Month
Introduction
Gathering Secondary data
Writing Literature review
Devising methodology
Collecting data
Presenting data and analyzing results
Conclusion
Submitting the final dissertation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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