Employee perceptions of organisational democracy and its influence on organisational citizenship behaviour (original) (raw)

2018, South African Journal of Business Management

Numerous studies have investigated OCB in manufacturing organisations (Morrison 1994). Service-oriented OCB has been somewhat ignored (Yoon & Suh 2003); however, with the growth of the service industry, the behaviour of service-oriented employees' has come to light. Serviceoriented employees are constantly engaged in direct contact with their customers (Bartel 2004); therefore, the OCB of service-oriented employees can increase their performance and enhance service quality. Even though there is a lack of research on the influence of OD on individual behaviours, research on other organisational practices exists and indicates the influences of these practices on creating positive behaviour, which has been seen to improve organisational performance. The banking sector is a service-oriented sector in which performance is realised through providing superior customer service. However, research on OCB in the banking sector is not very evident in the literature and represents a significant gap. In this sense, the main objective Background: It has been said that organisational democracy influences the improvement of behavioural orientations related to being good organisational citizens. Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence on bank employees' perceptions towards organisational democracy and their organisational citizenship behaviour, in addition to indicating whether a relationship exists between organisational democracy and organisational citizenship behaviour. Method: Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire. The population of the study consisted of bank employees working at branches of a private bank located in the province of Istanbul, Turkey. A total of 240 bank employees took part in the study. Data analysis entailed the computation of descriptive statistics, as well as t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, correlation analysis and regression analysis. Results: The study results indicated that a statistically significant relationship exists between the bank employees' perceptions of organisational democracy and their organisational citizenship behaviour. Conclusion: Through this study, it can be concluded that organisational democracy is an important variable that can be used by managers to facilitate the favourable behaviour of employees and to promote the sense of citizenship that employees feel towards their organisation, which in turn will positively influence organisational performance.