An integrative model for understanding team organizational citizenship behavior. Its antecedents and consequences for educational teams
| Date | 04 September 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-09-2016-0104 |
| Pages | 671-685 |
| Published date | 04 September 2017 |
| Author | Anit Somech,Soha Khotaba |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
An integrative model
for understanding
team organizational
citizenship behavior
Its antecedents and consequences for
educational teams
Anit Somech and Soha Khotaba
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Haifa,
Haifa, Israel
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to use a model to broadenthe understanding of the organizational
citizenship behavior (OCB) phenomenon in educational teams and examines team OCB’smediating
role in the relation of the contextual variables of team justice climate (distributive justice,
procedural justice, interpersonal justice) to team psychological capital (PsyCap) and team
innovation.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected through a survey consisting of validated scales.
The sample covered 78 disciplinary teams, 78 coordinators and 13 school principals at 13 junior-high schools.
Findings –The PROCESS test confirmed the mediating role of team OCB, showing positive relations
between team procedural justice and team PsyCap and team OCB, and also between team OCB and
team innovation.
Research limitations/implications –By taking a team perspective, the findings offer evidence that
despite the usual approach treating OCB as an individual phenomenon; it may be regarded as shared norms
of behaviors at the team level.
Practical implications –The team-level approach may urge principals and other educational leaders to
realize that teachers’willingness to invest extra effort in school is mainly the result of an appropriate team
context, which can be shaped and developed.
Originality/value –The present study explored team OCB by from a context perspective. This is important
because to date most studies on OCB in schools have focused on teacher OCB as an individual phenomenon,
disregarding its contextual nature.
Keywords OCB, Educational teams, Team innovation
Paper type Research paper
Today schools operate in dynamic environment, each struggling to gain a competitive edge
(Orr and Orphanos,2011). This environmentreinforces the understandingthat schools should
strive to employ teachers who are willing to go the extra mile, namely to engage in
organizationalcitizenship behavior(OCB). OCBs are behaviors and actionsthat go beyond the
formal role and what is laid down in the teacher’s job description, and contribute to the
achievement of the school’s objectives (Oplatka, 2006). OCB in schools is commonly taken to
be an individual phenomenon, namely a personality trait or a social response to the behavior
or attitude ofsuperiors or to other motivation-based mechanismsin the workplace (Zeinabadi,
2010). This individual approach seemswanting: teachers perform orfail to perform OCBs not
in a vacuum but in an organizational context, which most probably serves to encourage or
discourage them (Somech and Drach-Zahavy, 2004). Only in the last two decades have some
scholars studied OCB as a team or organizational-level concept (e.g. Ehrhart, 2004).
Put otherwise, the individual approach probes the possibility that teacher OCB can be better
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 55 No. 6, 2017
pp. 671-685
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-09-2016-0104
Received 22 September 2016
Revised 7 May 2017
Accepted 16 May 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
671
Integrative
model for
understanding
team OCB
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