Does organizational formalization facilitate voice and helping organizational citizenship behaviors? It depends on (national) uncertainty norms

Authors

Ronald Fischer, School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn Parade,New zealand
Maria Cristina Ferreira, algado de Oliveira University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nathalie Van Meurs Meurs, International Management & Innovation Department, School of Business, Middlesex University, London, UK
Kubilay Gok, Department of Business Administration, College of Business Administration, Winona State University, Winona, USA
Ding-Yu Jiang, Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan
Johnny RJ Fontaine, Department of Personnel Management, Work and Organizational Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Charles Harb, Department of Psychology, American University of Beirut, Beirut,Lebanon
Jan Cieciuch, University Research Priority Program Social Networks, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Mustapha Achoui, Arab Open University, Kuwait, Al-Ardia Aradia, Kuwait
Ma Socorro D Mendoza, UBHC, Rutgers University, Union, NJ, USA
Arif Hassan, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Donna Achmadi, Canterbury District Health Board, Hillmorton Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand
Andrew A Mogaji, Department of Psychology, Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria
Amina Abubakar, Aga Khan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Department

Institute for Human Development

Abstract

Abstract: Prosocial work behaviors in a globalized environment do not operate in a cultural vacuum. We assess to what extent voice and helping organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) vary across cultures, depending on employees’ perceived level of organizational formalization and national uncertainty. We predict that in contexts of uncertainty, cognitive resources are engaged in coping with this uncertainty. Organizational formalization can provide structure that frees up cognitive resources to engage in OCB. In contrast, in contexts of low uncertainty, organizational formalization is not necessary for providing structure and may increase constraints on discretionary behavior. A three-level hierarchical linear modeling analysis of data from 7,537 employees in 267 organizations across 17 countries provides broad support for our hypothesis: perceived organizational formalization is weakly related to OCB, but where uncertainty is high; formalization facilitates voice significantly, helping OCB to a lesser extent. Our findings contribute to clarifying the dynamics between perceptions of norms at organizational and national levels for understanding when employees may engage in helping and voice behaviors. The key implication is that managers can foster OCB through organizational formalization interventions in uncertain environments that are cognitively demanding.

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.

Publication (Name of Journal)

Journal of International Business Studies

Recommended Citation

Fischer, R., Ferreira, M., Meurs, N., Gok, K., Jiang, D., Fontaine, J., Harb, C., Cieciuch, J., Achoui, M., Mendoza, M., Hassan, A., Achmadi, D., Mogaji, A., Abubakar, A. (2019). Does organizational formalization facilitate voice and helping organizational citizenship behaviors? It depends on (national) uncertainty norms. Journal of International Business Studies, 50(1), 125-134.
Available at: https://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_ihd/60