SHORT REPORT
Lack of control over work and organizational citizenship behavior: overwork climate as a suppressor variable
| 1 | Institute of Psychology, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland |
Submission date: 2020-06-10
Final revision date: 2020-07-24
Acceptance date: 2020-07-24
Online publication date: 2020-09-02
Publication date: 2020-09-02
Health Psychology Report 2021;9(1):31–38
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
health attitudes and behaviorquality of life and well beingresearch methodology, measurement, and statistics in health psychology
ABSTRACT
Background:
This study investigates a suppressor effect in the relationship between lack of control over work and organiza-tional citizenship behavior (OCB). Suppressor effects operate when the addition of a predictor (in our study it is an overwork climate) increases the predictive power of another variable (lack of control over work) in predicting an outcome variable (OCB). Suppressor effects can play a valuable role in explicating the meaning of exam-ined variables by bringing into clearer focus opposing elements that are inherent – but largely hidden – in the measurement of these variables.
Participants and procedure:
Data were collected through online questionnaires in a cross-sectional study. Using a sample of Polish em-ployees (N = 580) we performed structural equation modelling (SEM) with robust maximum likelihood estima-tion to test our hypotheses.
Results:
Confirming our hypothesis, we found that overwork climate, as a suppressor variable, in isolation is not corre-lated with OCB, but is strongly associated with lack of control over work, which is a significant predictor of OCB.
Conclusions:
In our study, we demonstrated that both lack of control over work and organizational citizenship behaviors en-compass two dimensions simultaneously. The first, namely dedication to work (which they both share), consti-tutes the positive correlation between these two variables. The second dimension (which separates the two variables), which constitutes the negative correlation between them, is an attitude. Lack of control over work is rooted in the negative attitude and stems from the overwork climate, while organizational citizenship behaviors can be more widely associated with the positive attitude which generally stems from positive evaluation of the working environment.
This study investigates a suppressor effect in the relationship between lack of control over work and organiza-tional citizenship behavior (OCB). Suppressor effects operate when the addition of a predictor (in our study it is an overwork climate) increases the predictive power of another variable (lack of control over work) in predicting an outcome variable (OCB). Suppressor effects can play a valuable role in explicating the meaning of exam-ined variables by bringing into clearer focus opposing elements that are inherent – but largely hidden – in the measurement of these variables.
Participants and procedure:
Data were collected through online questionnaires in a cross-sectional study. Using a sample of Polish em-ployees (N = 580) we performed structural equation modelling (SEM) with robust maximum likelihood estima-tion to test our hypotheses.
Results:
Confirming our hypothesis, we found that overwork climate, as a suppressor variable, in isolation is not corre-lated with OCB, but is strongly associated with lack of control over work, which is a significant predictor of OCB.
Conclusions:
In our study, we demonstrated that both lack of control over work and organizational citizenship behaviors en-compass two dimensions simultaneously. The first, namely dedication to work (which they both share), consti-tutes the positive correlation between these two variables. The second dimension (which separates the two variables), which constitutes the negative correlation between them, is an attitude. Lack of control over work is rooted in the negative attitude and stems from the overwork climate, while organizational citizenship behaviors can be more widely associated with the positive attitude which generally stems from positive evaluation of the working environment.
REFERENCES (35)
1.
Arvola, R., & Kristjuhan, Ü. (2015). Workload and health of older academic personnel using telework. Agronomy Research, 13, 741–749.
2.
Bae, K. B., Lee, D., & Sohn, H. (2019). How to increase participation in telework programs in U.S. federal agencies: Examining the effects of being a female supervisor, supportive leadership, and diversity management. Public Personnel Management, 48, 565–583. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102....
3.
Barnes, C. M., Hollenbeck, J. R., Wagner, D. T., DeRue, D. S., Nahrgang, J. D., & Schwind, K. M. (2008). Harmful help: The costs of backing-up behavior in teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 529–539. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9....
4.
Becton, J. B., Giles, W. F., & Schraeder, M. (2007). Evaluating and rewarding OCBs: Potential conse-quences of formally incorporating organizational citizenship behaviour in performance appraisal and reward systems. Employee Relations, 30, 494–514. https://doi.org/10.1108/014254....
5.
Bergeron, D. M. (2007). The potential paradox of organizational citizenship behavior: Good citizens at what cost? Academy of Management Review, 32, 1078–1095. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.20....
6.
Bolino, M. C., & Turnley, W. H. (2005). The personal costs of citizenship behavior: The relationship between individual initiative and role overload, job stress, and work-family conflict. Journal of Ap-plied Psychology, 90, 740–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9....
7.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1975). Applied multiple correlation/regression analysis for the social sciences. Wiley.
8.
Costa, G., Sartori, S., & Åkerstedt, T. (2006). Influence of flexibility and variability of working hours on health and well-being. Chronobiology International, 23, 1125–1137. https://doi.org/10.1080/074205....
9.
Day, A., Barber, L. K., & Tonet, J. (2019). Information communication technology and employee well-being: Understanding the “iParadox Triad” at work. In R. N. Landers (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of technology and employee behavior (pp. 580–607). Cambridge University Press.
10.
Ferrand, C., Courtois, R., Martinent, G., Rivière, M., & Rusch, E. (2017). Relationships between work-related characteristics, needs satisfaction, motivation and mental health in midwifery students. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 22, 711–718. https://doi.org/10.1080/135485....
11.
Ghiselli, E. E. (1972). Comment on the use of moderator variables. Journal of Applied Psychology, 56, 270. https://doi.org/10.1037/h00330....
12.
Gutek, B., Searle, S., & Klepa, L. (1991). Rational versus gender role explanations for work-family conflict. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 560–568. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9....
13.
Halbesleben, J. R., & Wheeler, A. R. (2015). To invest or not? The role of coworker support and trust in daily reciprocal gain spirals of helping behavior. Journal of Management, 41, 1628–1650. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920....
14.
Horst, P. (1941). The role of predictor variables which are independent of the criterion. Social Science Research Council, 48, 431–436.
15.
Kline, R. B. (2016). Principles and practice of structural equation modelling (4th ed.). The Guilford Press.
16.
Koopman, J., Lanaj, K., & Scott, B. (2016). Integrating the bright and dark sides of OCB: a daily in-vestigation of the benefits and costs of helping others. Academy of Management Journal, 59, 414–435. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.20....
17.
Kopelman, R. E., Brief, A. P., & Guzzo, R. A. (1990). The role of climate and culture in productivity. In B. Schneider (Ed.), Organizational climate and culture (pp. 282–318). Jossey-Bass Publishers.
18.
Lee, K., & Allen, N. J. (2002). Organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance: The role of affect and cognition. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9....
19.
Lynam, D. R., Hoyle, R. H., & Newman, J. P. (2006). The perils of partialling: Cautionary tales from aggression and psychopathy. Assessment, 13, 328–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/107319....
20.
Mazzetti, G., Schaufeli, W. B., & Guglielmi, D. (2014). Are workaholics born or made? Relations of workaholism with person characteristics and overwork climate. International Journal of Stress Man-agement, 21, 227–254. https://doi.org/10.1037/a00357....
21.
Mazzetti, G., Schaufeli, W. B., Guglielmi, D., & Depolo, M. (2016). Overwork climate scale: Psycho-metric properties and relationships with working hard. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31, 880–896. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-03....
22.
Organ, D. W., Podsakoff, P. M., & MacKenzie, S. B. (2006). Organizational citizenship behavior: Its nature, antecedents, and consequences. Sage Publications.
23.
Organ, D. W., & Ryan, K. (1995). A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel Psychology, 48, 775–802. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744....
24.
Paluchowski, W. J., Hornowska, E., Haładziński, P., & Kaczmarek, L. (2013). Causes and conse-quences of lack of control over work – analyzing correlates of the LCWS of the Working Exces-sively Questionnaire (WEQ). Polish Journal of Applied Psychology, 11, 7–29.
25.
Paluchowski, W. J., Hornowska, E., Haładziński, P., & Kaczmarek, L. (2014). Czy praca szkodzi? Wy-niki badań nad kwestionariuszem nadmiernego obciążania się pracą [Can work be detrimental? The results of the research on the Working Excessively Questionnaire]. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Schol-ar.
26.
Pandey, S., & Elliott, W. (2010). Suppressor variables in social work research: Ways to identify in multiple regression models. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 1, 28-40. https://doi.org/10.5243/jsswr.....
27.
Paulhus, D. L., Robins, R. W., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Tracy, J. L. (2004). Two replicable suppressor effects in personality research. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39, 303–328. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327....
28.
Pérez-Zapata, O. (2020). Overwork, boundaryless work and the autonomy paradox. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.....
29.
Piotrowski, A., & Jurek, P. (2019). A preliminary adaptation and validation of the Overwork Climate Scale by Mazzetti, Schaufeli, Guglielmi and Depolo. Medycyna Pracy, 70, 177–188. https://doi.org/10.13075/mp.58....
30.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Paine, J. B., & Bachrach, D. G. (2000). Organizational citizenship behaviors: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future re-search. Journal of Management, 26, 513–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-....
31.
Qiu, Y., Lou, M., Zhang, L., & Wang, Y. (2020). Organizational citizenship behavior motives and thriv-ing at work: Mediating role of citizenship fatigue. Sustainability, 12, 2231. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1206....
32.
R Core Team (2019). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from http://www.R-project.org/.
33.
Rosseel, Y. (2012). lavaan: an R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Soft-ware, 48, 1–36. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v....
34.
Van Wijhe, C. I., Peeters, M. C. W., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2011). To stop or not to stop, that’s the ques-tion: About persistence and mood of workaholics and work engaged employees. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 18, 361–372. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529....
35.
Williams, M., Zhou, Y., Zou, M., & Gifford, J. (2020). CIPD Good Work Index. Retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowled....
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.