Thesis (PhD (Industrial Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005 / South African organisations have to survive in an increasingly competitive and
globalised environment. Many believe that South African organisations are ill prepared
for these challenges, based on the fact that many organisations are plagued by low
productivity, low levels of trust between employees and employers, as well as low
levels of organisational commitment, effectiveness and efficiency. Solutions must be
found for these problems and the present study offers one such solution.
Organisational citizenship behaviour is essentially pro-social organisational behaviour
that is characterised by going beyond what is expected in role requirements or role
descriptions and is seen as a key driver of individual and organisational performance.
Furthermore, an organisation’s ability to elicit organisational citizenship behaviour is
believed to be a vital asset that is difficult for competitors to imitate and which provides
the organisation with a competitive advantage. Having completed a literature study
concerning possible antecedents of organisational citizenship behaviour, and taking into
account various suggested future directions for organisational citizenship behaviour
research, it was decided that the present study would focus on five variables: three
variables that are characteristic of employees, and two that are characteristic of the
management or leadership in the organisation.
The primary goal of the present study was to design and conduct a scientific
investigation that would attempt to determine the relationships between leader
emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, trust, meaning intention to quit, and
organisational citizenship behaviour, as well as to further determine the role that these
five constructs play in influencing organisational citizenship behaviour. A study of the
available literature was made to learn as much as possible about each of these six
constructs and to determine what is known about the relationships that exist between
them. The knowledge gained from the literature study was used to propose several
hypotheses and a conceptual model explaining the relationships between these
constructs. The relationships and the conceptual model were then empirically tested,
using various (mostly confirmatory) statistical methods. This makes the present study
confirmatory in nature. Existing measuring instruments were used to measure each of the constructs in a South
African sample (n=496). This sample represented a wide range of organisations. Each
of the measuring instruments (excepting the intention to quit scale) was subjected to a
double cross-validation Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis procedure to test
its construct validity. Internal reliability was determined for all of the instruments and
their subscales. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis and internal reliability results were
then compared to those obtained when the original measurement model was studied,
using these same methods (i.e. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and internal reliability)
and the data from the present sample. It was found, in all cases, that the derived factorial
configuration differed, in some to a lesser degree and in others radically, from that
proposed by the original author/s. It was also found that the EFA-derived measurement
models and configurations had a better fit to the data than the original measurement
model and its configuration. Once the criteria for construct validity and internal
reliability were satisfied, the rest of the statistical analyses could be conducted.
The next step was to test the hypotheses concerning the individual relationships that
made up the conceptual model. Pearson correlations and Standard Multiple Regression
was used to study these bivariate relationships. Several indirect or mediating
relationships followed from these direct relationships and these were tested using Path
Analysis. In a similar vein, four prediction hypotheses were formulated from the
conceptual model and these were also tested, using Standard Multiple Regression.
Lastly, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to see to what extent the
conceptual model fitted the data obtained from the sample and to test the relationships
between the constructs when taking the complete conceptual model into account.
Both trust and meaning were found to individually mediate the relationships between
transformational leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour, and leader
emotional intelligence and organisational citizenship behaviour. The relationship
between leader emotional intelligence and organisational citizenship behaviour was
further found to be mediated by transformational leadership and trust, while this
relationship was also found to be mediated by transformational leadership and meaning.
No significant direct relationships could be found between leader emotional intelligence
and organisational citizenship behaviour, or between transformational leadership and
both organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to quit. No significant correlation was found between intention to quit and organisational citizenship behaviour
either. This meant that several postulated mediating hypotheses could not be
corroborated. The SEM result shows that the conceptual model did not fit the data very
well, therefore an alternative model was recommended.
The results in essence show that effective leaders who are emotionally intelligent and
make use of the transformational leadership style can positively influence trust and
meaning among followers. This, in turn, will motivate followers to display
organisational citizenship behaviour and reduce their intention to quit. These are
believed to positively influence organisational effectiveness and performance.
Further conclusions were drawn from the obtained results and recommendations are
made for future studies. New insights were gained through the results and it is believed
that the present study has contributed to the field of organisational psychology and
Industrial Psychology in general, on both the academic and the practioner level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1194 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Schlechter, Anton Francois |
| Contributors | Boshoff, A. B., Engelbrecht, A. S., University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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