Organisational commitment and its consequences for Malaysian employee citizenship behaviour

Abstract

This study aimed to test whether the relationship between Organisational Commitment and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) found in the Western context holds true or whether it could it be different in the non-Western context of Malaysia. This study has two main objectives. The first objective is to assess organisational commitment and its impact on the level of employees' OCB directed at the individual and organisation. The second objective is to determine if the relationship between organisational commitment and OCB found in the Western context can be generalisable to the Malaysia context.

This study used Meyer and Allen's (1991) multidimensional organisational commitment and two dimensions of OCB model developed by Williams and Anderson (1991). The respondents (n=315) from six organisations in Malaysia completed the questionnaire. The results indicate that employees' willingness to engage in organisational citizenship behaviours differs depending on the level of their commitment to the organisation. The findings appear to match other studies conducted in the Western context, suggesting that the relationship between these variables was not very much different across cultures.

Specifically, in our Malaysian sample, we found that normative commitment was the dominant predictor of OCB directed at certain individuals while affective commitment was the dominant predictor of OCB directed at the organisation. Based on these findings, we concluded that the employees who feel a strong obligation to remain in the organisation are more likely to perform OCB that is beneficial for their co-workers and supervisors: In addition, the employees who have a strong emotional attachment are more likely to perform OCB that is beneficial for the organisation. We suggested that these patterns could exist because of the cultural and individual differences of our Malaysian sample.

The findings of this study have several implications from the theoretical and practical point of view. Some limitations and future research suggestions are discussed.