Task-oriented work characteristics, self-efficacy, and service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. A cross-level analysis of the moderating effect of social work characteristics and collective efficacy
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-08-2015-0234 |
| Date | 05 June 2017 |
| Published date | 05 June 2017 |
| Pages | 718-739 |
| Author | Rui-Hsin Kao |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Task-oriented work
characteristics, self-efficacy, and
service-oriented organizational
citizenship behavior
A cross-level analysis of the moderating
effect of social work characteristics and
collective efficacy
Rui-Hsin Kao
Department of Ocean and Border Governance,
National Quemoy University, Kinmen, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –Border management, barring illegal foreign workers, and immigrant counseling are three major
functions of the National Immigration Agency (NIA) of Taiwan. These functions are composed of traditional
“job”as well as social “work”characteristics. In other words, these functions have shifted from a “position”-
based job design to an “overall operation”-based work design that incorporates environmental and situational
factors. The purpose of this paper is to examine frontline immigration workers in Taiwan in order to
determine how the motivational (task-oriented) and social work (social-oriented) characteristics (SWCs) of the
immigration work design model influence immigration workers’organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).
Design/methodology/approach –The authors collected 312 questionnaires, of which 304 were valid, with
230 completed by men and 74 by women.
Findings –The results revealed that SWCs and collective efficacy at the group level had significantly
positive effects on collective efficacy and service-oriented OCB, respectively. Task-oriented work
characteristics had positive effects on self-efficacy and thus on individual level service-oriented OCB, and
self-efficacy also had positive effects on individual service-oriented OCB. Both SWCs and collective efficacy
had a contextual effect on individual-level outcome variables. Furthermore, the combination of SWCs with
self-efficacy had cross-level effects on individuals’service-oriented OCB.
Originality/value –These findings can enhance people’s understanding of how the social and motivational
power of work characteristics can encourage employees to exhibit service-oriented OCB. This implies that the
NIA can stimulate individualself-motivation and affect group-level efficacyand service-oriented OCBthrough
the environmental context and social relationship characteristics of border affairs brigades (branches).
Keywords Self-efficacy, Quantitative, Collective efficacy, Immigration worker,
Service-oriented organizational citizenship, Work characteristics
Paper type Research paper
In their research, Bowen and Schneider (1985) indicated that frontline service workers are
“image producers”of service organizations. Regarding interactionism, service quality is the
experience shared and created by and between customers and service workers participating in
the service process (Gronroos, 1984). Therefore, frontline immigration workers engaging in
frequent contact with citizens is a primary factor for maintaining satisfactory service quality
for the National Immigration Agency (NIA). From the perspective of social exchange theory,
after recognizing an organization’s concerns of their contributions and benefits, employees may
commit to facilitating the attainment of organizational goals (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Apart
from their in-role behavior, employees may demonstrate organizational citizenship behaviors
(OCBs) in their extra-role behavior (Settoon et al., 1996). Border management and immigrant
guidance are the main duties of the NIA; however, in addition to expecting border management
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 4, 2017
pp. 718-739
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-08-2015-0234
Received 30 August 2015
Revised 11 January 2016
18 February 2016
11 March 2016
Accepted 2 April 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
718
PR
46,4
units to implement document examination, identity verification, and entry interviews and
reviews, inbound and outbound travelers as well as immigrants may also request secure,
caring, convenient, and broader services when passing through border control points.
Therefore, to fulfill public expectations, the NIA must issue prompt and appropriate responses
according to the expectations of citizens, encourage immigration workers to demonstrate a
positive work ethic and attitude through various work designs, and promote an ambitious and
unrestrained service-oriented OCB that is favorable to the public. Thus, the approach for
encouraging frontline immigration workers to demonstrate more service-oriented OCBs is an
urgent subject for the NIA.Although it is difficult to specifyOCBs through the organizational
management system, organizations can encourage employees to behave in accordance with the
organizational goal by using indirect or unofficial controls and positive or negative
circumstantial conditions (Bettencourt et al., 2001; Kao, 2015a). Hence, the NIA should stimulate
the service-oriented OCB of employees through reinforcements (e.g. by strengthening the self-
and collective efficacy of employees).
Work design has been a focus in organizational management. Modern work design
concepts have gradually undergone changes, from “position-based”job designs into
overall-work-oriented work designs incorporating the external environment and conditions
(Parker and Wall, 1998) to meet the present management goal of emphasizing flexibility.
By expanding the conceptual framework of the job diagnostic survey ( JDS), Morgeson and
Humphrey (2006) proposed an extended work design model (EWDM) and developed a work
design questionnaire (WDQ) covering different aspects of work. The emphasis on the
contextual effect of social work characteristics (SWCs) is the main feature of the EWDM.
If the individual is the minimum unit of work, the social contextual effect is greater than that
of his or her department, group, or organization. All members in the same department or
organization are affected by the environmental design and respond similarly. However,
the work content may differ between individual members because their knowledge or
objective characteristics vary. Acknowledging this point led to the formation of a
theoretical model for cross-level work design. In this model, the characteristics of the
environmental context and social relations of the organization exist at the overall level, and
the operational characteristics of individual members of the organization exist at the
individual level (Hsieh et al., 2012).
As mentioned, for the border immigration units of the NIA of Taiwan, their border affairs
brigades or branches (the sub-units of the Border Affairs Corps), located in ports and
airports across Taiwan, are the NIA’s frontline organizations, with base-level immigration
workers as the minimum unit within this work organization. Border management, barring
illegal foreign workers, and immigrant counseling are the main objectives of Taiwan’s
immigration duties. In addition to traditional job characteristics, this work includes the
features of social relations because it entails frequent interactions with service recipients
and overall business operations that involve the environmental context.
In addition to adopting a cross-level emphasis, work design studies have determined that
work characteristics affect employees’organizational behaviors and job outc omes
(e.g. performance and OCB) because of the mediating effect of psychological factors
(e.g. intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy; Bogler and Somech, 2004; Torraco, 2005).
Furthermore, variables in this mediating effect chain or the relationship between variables
may produce a moderating effect because of individual differences (gender and scale) in the
observed units, the characteristics of groups and organizations, or time (Fried et al., 2007;
Humphrey et al., 2007). Hence, when researchers attempt to build a cross-level work design
model, aside from considering the mediation of variables at the individual and group levels
and the cross-level moderating effect during conceptual framework construction, they must
apply appropriate analytical strategies for empirical analysis (Kao, 2015a). Because the
positive characteristics of work can effectively improve the attitude, behavior, and job
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