Organizational citizenship behavior in teaching: The consequences for teachers, pupils, and the school

"Same same" but different? Exploring the impact of perceived organizational support at the school and teacher levels on teachers' job engagement and organizational citizenship behavior

All countries in the world are currently trying to implement educational reform, which increases the additional workload of teachers. It is more important to discuss how to inspire teachers' enthusiasm for educational reform from the perspective of organizational support (OS). Previous research on OS was limited to perceived organizational support (POS), but in recent years group-level OS has been considered the most promising. There is no study comparing POS and group-level OS in education, and therefore this study explored the relationships between OS, job engagement (JE) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in an educational context. In particular, OS was examined at the individual-level (POS) and the aggregated group-level (school organizational support, SOS). Analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) at both single and multiple levels. SEM results showed direct and positive relationships of individual-level POS with both JE and OCB. Moreover, JE is directly and positively related to OCB and plays the partial mediating role of the indirect and positive impact of POS on OCB. Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) analysis revealed direct and positive relationships of SOS with teachers' JE, which was directly and positively related to their OCB. While SOS had no significant positive relationship with OCB, it did have a positive impact on OCB through the mediation of JE. Comparison between SEM and MSEM results revealed the change in effect of OS on OCB from significant to insignificant, thus implying full mediation effect of JE when SOS is considered.

Factors to improve job performance and school effectiveness

Purpose

Identify some of the most relevant factors that trigger a private school's workforce to foster a sustainable competitive advantage by reinforcing the intrinsic job satisfaction and the levels of teacher self-efficacy, engagement and job performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Surveys were applied to private school teachers to assess their perception concerning the studied variables, data were tested at a confirmatory level using the partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM).

Findings

Teachers with a high sense of self-efficacy and possessing elevated intrinsic satisfaction tend to be highly productive and results-oriented. Intrinsic job satisfaction is a key factor that influences more than extrinsic job satisfaction in the previously mentioned relationship.

Research limitations/implications

Although the obtained results are constrained and apply to the Mexican context, we suggest that virtual limitation can be overcome by extending the study due to the proposed construct that can be applied in other regions or organizations.

Practical implications

Principals will need to develop mainly the intrinsic job satisfaction in the teaching staff, to improve the job and organizational performance. This should be accompanied, secondly, by factors that encourage extrinsic satisfaction such as fair pay or recognition.

Originality/value

Open up an alternative explanation, based on the evidence of this study, to the theory of social exchange, since the factor that most influences teacher’s citizenship behaviours is not extrinsic but intrinsic satisfaction. That is, it is not what the employee receives from the institution, but what the employee does or gives to the institution the source of satisfaction that will encourage greater job performance.

The components and determinants of preschool teacher organisational citizenship behaviour

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the components and determinants of preschool teacher organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB), i.e. role behaviours that are discretionary, unrewarded and beyond formal‐role expectations.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 12 Israeli kindergarten teachers and four supervisors participated in semi‐structured interviews during 2008‐2009.

Findings

It was found that preschool teacher OCB appears in professional (e.g. instructional innovations, diverse teaching methods, helping colleagues) and in inter‐personal (e.g. the children, the parents, the local community) arenas. Likewise, both personal and organisational determinants may account for the occurrence of this behaviour in preschool teaching.

Research limitations/implications

It is recommended that education districts and superintendents facilitate preschool teacher OCB by promoting greater job autonomy for kindergarten teachers and forms of participative leadership among their supervisors.

Originality/value

Understanding preschool teacher OCB may fill in gaps in the theoretical knowledge about the nature of OCB among a group of employees that tends to work at small educational settings and has a limited scope of interactions with co‐workers and superiors.