ORGANISATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR
Results reveal (see Table 5.15) that affective commitment is positively and significantly (p= 0.000 < 0.05) related to OCB (β= 0.130) indicating that H3A which assumed that affective commitment is positively related to organisational citizenship behaviour is supported and is consistent with earlier studies that have found a positive and significant association between affective commitment and citizenship behaviour (e.g., Cetin, Gürbüz & Sert, 2015; Feather & Rauter, 2004; Kim, 2014; Van Scotter, 2000). It is consistent with prior research in North
America (Kim, 2012; Lavelle et al., 2009; MacKenzie et al., 2001; Wagner & Rush, 2000) and Nepal (Gautam, van Dick, Wagner, Upadhyay & Davis, 2005).
Generally studies have found that affective and normative commitment are positively related to OCB (e.g., Bogler & Somech, 2005; Chen & Francesco, 2003; Chu, Lee & Hsu, 2006; Podsakoff et al., 2000). However, Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993) stated that certain components of commitment are expected to be associated with OCB. Conversely, other studies have not found any relationship between the dimensions of commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour (Alotaibi, 2001; Tansky, 1993; Williams & Anderson, 1991). However, the results for AC obtained in this study contradict previous studies which have reported that among the components of commitment, affective commitment has a relatively stronger relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour (Cooper-Hakim & Viswesvaran, 2005; Meyer et al., 2002; Riketta, 2002) but, are consistent with other studies that have shown contradictory evidence (Cichy et al., 2009; Meyer et al., 2002). Results also reveal that CC is positively and significantly related to OCB (β= .144, p= 0.000 < 0.05) which is higher than AC (β= .130) indicating that H3C which assumed that CC will be negatively related to OCB is rejected. This finding of continuance commitment positively relating to OCB is inconsistent with earlier studies that have found a negative association.
Generally, the association between CC and OCB is mostly found to be negative (Chen & Fransesco, 2003; Huang, You & Tsai, 2012; Karacaoğlu & Güney 2010; Meyer et al., 1993). However, the positive association observed here can be attributed to the role of Islam generally and IWE particularly in the Kurdish- Islamic contex, where IWE has a positive influence on employee attitudes and behaviour which implies that even employees with high CC have the willingness to engage in OCB which can be considered as a positive advantage contributing to organisational outcomes in particular individual and organisational performance. This also indicates that with presence of IWE a positive relationship occurs which is surprisingly different from most findings in other contexts. This finding of CC and OCB is in accordance with prior studies that have found a positive and significant association between continuance commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour (Bolat & Bolat, 2008; Moorman et al., 1993; Nguni et al., 2006). For instance, Shore and Wayne (1993) suggested that continuance commitment can be related to OCB for two reasons.
First, as Meyer and Allen (1991, pp. 73-74) suggested "Employees who want to belong to the organization (affective commitment) might be more likely than those who need to belong (continuance commitment). . . to exert effort on behalf of the organization".
A negative relationship of continuance commitment with OCB was expected. Due to a tendency for in-role behaviour to be correlated with OCB (Williams & Anderson, 1991) and since continuance commitment is found to cause lower performance (Meyer et al., 1989). This finding also contradicts earlier work that found no correlation between continuance commitment and OCB (Meyer et al., 2002; O'Reilly & Chatman, 1986; Williams & Anderson, 1991). This might imply that employees who have strong tendency to remain with their organisation because of the high costs associated with leaving it irrespective of their levels of affective and normative commitment indicating that employee with high CC tend to engage in citizenship behaviour (Meyer et al., 2002). Hierarchical multiple regression did not reveal any relationship between normative commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour (β= .041, p= 0.238 > 0.05) indicating that H3B is rejected contrary to many previous studies which suggested that normative commitment has a smaller influence on OCB after affective commitment. The association of normative commitment with OCB was weaker than affective and continuance commitment (Benjamin, 2012; Cooper-Hakim & Viswesvaran, 2005; Meyer et al., 2002; Riketta, 2002).
The beta values for affective, continuance and normative commitment in the prediction of OCB were (β=.130, .144, .041) respectively. The association between normative commitment and citizenship behaviour is inconsistent with prior studies which found a positive and significant relationship between them (e.g., Huang, You & Tsai, 2012; Gautam et al., 2005; Kuehn & Al- Busaidi, 2002; Meyer et al., 2002; Nguni et al., 2006). In addition, Morrison (1994) found that normative commitment was related only to one dimension of citizenship behaviour. For employees with high continuance commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour is of no importance (Chen & Fransesco, 2003). However, the current study contradicts the traditional view point of employees with high CC showing low OCB, by showing that high continuance commitment does not necessarily lead to low citizenship behaviour. This finding fits with Cetin, Gürbüz and Sert (2015) who found that the association between continuance commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour was positive and higher than expected.
6.5 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ISLAMIC WORK ETHIC AND DIMENSIONS OF COMMITMENT
Correlation analysis (see Table 5.13) reveals that Islamic work ethic is positively and significantly related to affective and normative commitment (r= 0.227, r= 0.236, p= 0.000 <
0.01) respectively indicating that H4A is supported. This is inconsistent with earlier studies where IWE was more strongly related to affective than normative and continuance commitment (Othman et al., 2004; Yousef, 2000, 2001) and implies that people with high commitment to IWE are more committed to their jobs. Correlations also reveal a positive and significant relationship between IWE and continuance commitment (r= 0.173, P= 0.000 < 0.01) which indicates that H4B is not supported.
The positive relationship between IWE and affective commitment is consistent with previous studies in Islamic contexts (Abdullah, Ali & Jusoh, 2014; Ali & Al-Owaihan, 2008; Yousef, 2001) and those reported in non-Islamic settings (Fu, 2014; Morrow & McElroy, 1987; Pettijohn & Charles, 2008; Randall & Cote, 1991). Consistent with these, an employee’s personal belief in work ethics and ethical conduct directly influences components of organisational commitment and decreases turnover intention (Chusmir & Koberg,1988; Schwepker, 2001; Weeks et al., 2004). A direct and positive impact of IWE on three dimensions of organisational commitment is consistent with previous work (Kidron, 1978; Oliver, 1990; Saks et al., 1996) and IWE on organisational commitment (Ali & Al-Kazemi, 2007; Mohamed, Karim & Hussein, 2010) and PWE (Williams & Sandler, 1995). However, others have found a negative impact (Arifuddin, 2002) and weak impact (Elkins, 2007). Cullen et al. (2003) found a positive impact of ethical climate on organisational commitment. However, Uygur, (2009) did not find any influence of work ethics on organisational commitment. These results indicate that IWE enhances and ecourages people to show more commitment to their organisations and jobs such that even employees with high continuance commitment are committed to their work (Yousef, 2001). The positive link of Islamic work ethics and continuance commitment could be attributed to the difficult financial situation in Kurdistan and lack of alternatives outside public organisations because many companies have declared bankruptcy.
6.6 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ISLAMIC WORK ETHIC AND JOB