Social Intelligence, Leadership, and Problem Solving

M. Afzalur Rahim

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138514683
• eBook ISBN: 9781351490320
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

In this volume, M. Afzalur Rahim gathers ten contributions covering a diverse range of topics. These include Type III error in medical decision making, a theoretical model of social intelligence, a structural equations model of social intelligence, servant theory of leadership, entrepreneurial motives and orientations, stress and strain among self-employed and organizationally employed employees, a theory of communication nexus, foreign direct investment from emerging markets, operations and strategy of healthcare management, and knowledge recipients and knowledge transfer.international perspectives.

SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CLIMATE AS MODERATORS OF JOB SATISFACTION–ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR RELATIONSHIP

Adnan Ozyilmaz

Mustafa Kemal University, Turkey

Serpil Sofuoglu Cicek

Turkish Halk Bank, Turkey

Drawing on social exchange and social information processing theories, we investigated many moderating effects of servant leadership and psychological climate subdimensions on the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) subdimensions. Using a sample of 284 employees from a variety of companies, we demonstrated that extrinsic job satisfaction affects all organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) subdimensions. Although managerial competence and consistency moderate many job satisfaction–OCB relationships, there was virtually no moderating effect of servant leadership on the job satisfaction–OCB relationship. We discuss implications of these results for future research.

Keywords: Servant leadership, Psychological climate, Job satisfaction, Organizational citizenship behavior

There has been a dramatic surge of academic interest in the role of job satisfaction in organizational settings, especially on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (e.g., Harrison, Newman, & Roth, 2006; Iaffaldano & Muchinsky, 1985; Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001; Locke, 1976; Whitman, Van Rooy, & Viswesvaran, 2010). This extreme endeavor, however, has not engendered sufficient knowledge regarding the true effect of job satisfaction in organizational settings on OCB, in part due to the large variability in correlations across studies (Harrison et al., 2006; Judge et al., 2001). Although academics seem to agree that job satisfaction is critical (e.g., Jones & Schaubroeck, 2004; Lapierre & Hackett, 2007), few studies have addressed on the moderators of the relationship (e.g., Schleicher, Watt, & Greguras, 2004) to reveal the correct nature of the association in hand. Therefore, knowledge is lacking on how moderators may affect the relationship between job satisfaction and OCB (e.g., Harrison et al., 2006; Judge et al., 2001).

To address the above gap, we examined in the present study the moderating effect of servant leadership and psychological climate on the relationship between job satisfaction and OCB. Specifically, we propose and test a model, with servant leadership subdimensions (altruistic calling, emotional leadership, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship) and psychological climate subdimensions (managerial competence and consistency, employee commitment, cooperation and coordination) as the moderators between job satisfaction subdimensions (intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction) and OCB subdimensions (altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy, sportsmanship, civic virtue). Our investigation and analyses will consider the subdimensions of each construct as we intend to trace the roots of the relationships.

Broadening the research streams on psychological climate, servant leadership, job satisfaction, and OCB, we seek to make one principal contribution. That is, we enlarge the research on job satisfaction by specifying its interaction role with leadership and climate on OCB. The contribution represents our response to the calls for greater attention to the moderating effects of different factors (leadership and climate in our present study) in the research on job satisfaction–OCB relationship at subdimensional level (e.g., Harrison et al., 2006; Judge et al., 2001; Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009).

Theory And Hypothesis Development

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership aims to serve other people’s highest priority needs, that is, (1) to have a positive impact on the growth of others as individuals, (2) to help others become “healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous,” and (3), as a result, “to become servants” themselves (Greenleaf, 1977, p. 66). Therefore, servant leadership considers leadership as a way to help followers benefit themselves with the long-term implicit expectation that those who are served by servant leaders will become servant leaders themselves over time, thus enabling their followers to become servant leaders. The highest priority of servant leadership, to serve, is enacted through altruistic calling, emotional leadership, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship behaviors (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006). Altruistic calling describes the extent to which leaders desire to serve the interest of their followers rather than their own personal interest to impact positively the lives of their followers. Emotional leadership describes the extent to which leaders are committed to and skillful in assisting followers to recover from personal trauma and hardship by listening to and creating an environment in which followers are comfortable and free to discuss their personal and professional problems. Wisdom is defined as the leader’s knowledge and awareness of and connections to what is occurring and what is about to occur in an environment. Persuasive mapping refers to the extent to which leaders skillfully apply reasoning to persuade their followers to achieve organizational objectives. Organizational stewardship refers to the extent to which leaders consider the whole organization as a community existing to advance the society in which it operates. Organizational stewardship resembles the characteristics of individuals as indicated in the stewardship theory of management as the self-actualizing man who demonstrates a collective serving behavior, intends to meet higher-order needs, such as growth, achievement, and self-actualization, and exhibits intrinsic motivation (Davis, Schoorman, & Donaldson, 1997). The serving behavior of the leader helps develop strong interpersonal relationships between leaders and followers, which helps followers to become self-motivated individuals wanting to serve others (Manz & Sims, 1987).

Psychological Climate

Psychological climate is defined as an employee’s perception of the psychological effect of the work environment on his/her own well-being (James & James, 1989; Jones & James, 1979). Salancik & Pfeffer (1978) defined climate as “the shared perceptions of what attitudes and needs are appropriate, the shared definitions of jobs and work environments, and the definitions of how people should relate to that environment” (p. 240). These two definitions are complementary in that both indicate that climate is the result of individual perceptions of a job or work environment. This work environment is shaped through three subdimensions of psychological climate (Rogg, Schmidt, Shull, & Schmitt, 2001): (1) managerial competence and consistency, (2) employee commitment, and (3) cooperation and coordination among employees. Managerial competence and consistency include such managerial behaviors as following through on commitments, communicating work objectives and responsibilities among employees, and consistently treating everyone with respect. Employee commitment refers to the pride an employee has in the organization, the sense of value and worth the employee receives from managers and coworkers, and the personal sacrifices the employee is willing to make, when required, to help the organization succeed. Employee cooperation and coordination refer to those areas that reflect the extent to which employees in a department work effectively with the employees in different departments, departments work cooperatively to perform a job efficiently and effectively, and employees work well with their manager(s). Indeed, these three psychological climate subdimensions are more general than the climate subdimensions used in other studies (e.g., Kopelman, Brief, & Guzzo, 1990; Schneider, White, & Paul, 1998).

Job Satisfaction

Although the vast literature on job satisfaction provides varying definitions for the term, job satisfaction has often been considered mainly as an emotional state emanating from the assessment or appraisal of one’s job or experiences (Locke, 1976) or as a psychological state concurrently signified by affective and cognitive indicators (Brief & Weiss, 2002; Hulin & Judge, 2003; Schleicher et al., 2004). In this present study, we refer to job satisfaction as the extent to which an employee reports satisfaction with intrinsic and extrinsic features of the job (Warr, Cook, & Wall, 1979). Intrinsic features are those characteristics of the job that provide employees the independence to choose their own method of working, the recognition they receive for good work, the amount of responsibility they are given, and their opportunities to use their abilities (e.g., Morrison, Cordery, Girardi, & Payne, 2005; Warr et al., 1979; Williams & Anderson, 1991). Extrinsic features include characteristics of the job such as physical work conditions, fellow workers, immediate supervisor, and rate of pay (e.g., Clark, Oswald, & Warr, 1996; Judge, Piccolo, Podsakoff, Shaw, & Rich, 2010; Warr et al., 1979; Williams & Anderson, 1991). Intrinsic features are more likely to lead to higher-order needs such as self-actualization and self-expression, whereas extrinsic features tend to satisfy lower-order requisites such as physiological, security, and affiliation needs (Maslow, 1954). Intrinsic features mainly reflect Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman’s (1959) job factors leading to satisfaction, that is, motivators, and extrinsic features represent job factors leading to dissatisfaction, that is, hygiene factors. Formally, in the present study, we adopt the job satisfaction definitions of Locke (1976) and Warr et al. (1979) and define intrinsic (extrinsic) job satisfaction as a positive emotional state resulting from employees’ assessment or appraisal of intrinsic (extrinsic) job features or experiences with those features. The theoretical dichotomization of job satisfaction into intrinsic and extrinsic domains has received empirical support (e.g., Moorman, 1993; Morrison et al., 2005; Warr et al., 1979; Williams & Anderson, 1991).

Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Organ (1997) defined OCB as “performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes place” (p. 95). In this study, we accepted the OCB definition of Organ (1997). Although OCBs have been conceptualized in a number of different ways (see Podsakoff et al., 2009, for an extensive review for the dimensionality of OCBs), we chose the conceptualization of Vey and Campbell (2004) and Williams and Shiaw (1999), who proposed a five-factor OCB model consisting of altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy, sportsmanship, and civic virtue. These subscales were also previously identified by Organ (1988). Altruism refers to helping a specific individual, such as a supervisor, coworker, subordinate, or customer, to cope with an organizational problem, task, issue, or difficulty. Conscientiousness refers to the desired employee behaviors required to perform well beyond the expected levels in a job. Courtesy describes individual behaviors that are proactive and that aim to prevent the occurrence of an undesired end. Sportsmanship describes behaviors that tolerate trivial matters and do not exaggerate minor annoyances. Civic virtue includes individual behaviors that indicate an active interest in the political life of an organization. We prefer the subdimensional measures of OCB, as Podsakoff et al. (2009) suggested researchers continue to conduct research on OCB at the subdimensional level “because there are not enough studies to conclude that a single-factor model of OCB is a more appropriate way” (p. 133). Many studies support the subdimensional study of OCB (e.g., Ilies, Nahrgang, & Mogeson, 2007; Marinova, Moon, & Van Dyne, 2010; Moorman, 1993; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Bommer, 1996; Podsakoff et al., 2009; Williams & Anderson, 1991).

Social exchange theory (SET) (Blau, 1964) has been extensively used to explain the relationship between job satisfaction and OCB (e.g., Cropanzano, Rupp, & Byrne, 2003; Konovsky & Pugh, 1994; Lester, Meglino, & Korsgaard, 2008). Accordingly, a satisfied worker reciprocates through demonstrating OCBs (e.g., Organ & Ryan, 1995). This logically extends that, for example, when a satisfied worker whose higher-order needs such as self-actualization and self-expression have been met, he/she reciprocates this through helping an organizational constituent to solve a problem directly related to organization (altruism) or does not exaggerate minor annoyances (sportsmanship). Similarly, a worker whose lower-order needs, such as physiological needs, security needs, and affiliation needs, have been met reciprocates by helping a coworker solve an organizationally related problem (altruism) or by becoming involved in the political life of the organization to further contribute to the organization (civic virtue). The effect of job satisfaction on OCB subdimensions has been subject to many empirical studies that have produced mixed results (e.g., Harrison et al., 2006; Jones & Schaubroeck, 2004; Lapierre & Hackett, 2007; Organ & Lingl, 1995). The mixed results regarding the true effect of job satisfaction on OCB require further research on the moderators of the relationship. In so doing, intrinsic- and extrinsic-job satisfaction dichotomization must be performed to understand the true effect of the possible moderators on the relationship because Williams and Anderson (1991) have previously demonstrated that cognitive intrinsic job satisfaction was a significant, positive antecedent to individual OCB and that cognitive extrinsic job satisfaction was a significant, positive antecedent to organizational OCB. Although the relationship between job satisfaction and OCB has been extensively investigated in the literature, we do not propose a hypothesis to test the relationship in this present study. However, we invest...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• fmchapter
• fmchapter
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Medical Decision-Making as Argument: The Role of The Probability of Implication
• Foundations of Social Intelligence: A Conceptual Model with Implications for Business Performance
• A Model of Leaders’ Social Intelligence, Interpersonal Justice, and Creative Performance
• Servant Leadership and Psychological Climate as Moderators of Job Satisfaction–Organizational Citizenship Behavior Relationship
• Entrepreneurship Motives, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Duration of New French Firms
• Relationship Between Job-Related Stressors and Job Burnout: Differences Between Self-Employed and Organization-Employed Professionals
• Communicating In The 21st-Century Workplace: A Theory of Communication Nexus
• Outward Foreign Direct Investment Activities and Strategies by Firms From Emerging Markets: Management Literature Review From 2005 to 2010
• HealtHcare ManageMent: OperatiOns and strategy
• The Relationships of Knowledge Recipients and Knowledge Transfer at Japanese Mncs Based in China
• Book Reviews
• Books Received