Trust: an antecedent to employee extra‐role behaviour
| Pages | 227-247 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931011039697 |
| Published date | 20 April 2010 |
| Date | 20 April 2010 |
| Author | Iris Reychav,Rob Sharkie |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,HR & organizational behaviour,Information & knowledge management |
Trust: an antecedent to employee
extra-role behaviour
Iris Reychav
Department of Industrial Engineering, Ariel University Center, Ariel, Israel, and
Rob Sharkie
School of Commerce, Charles Sturt University,
Wagga Wagga, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – This study seeks to examine antecedents of perception of trust as a foundation for
extra-role behaviour in the public sector non-profit organisations.
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 1,600 questionnaires were distributed and 329
questionnaires were returned from five different non-profit local government authorities in
Australia.
Findings – It was found that perceptions of trust in management, psychological support,
management values and rewards were strong antecedents of employee perceptions, which in turn were
positively correlated with employee extra-role behaviour. Employee participation in decision making
and contributions from autonomous employees were strong indicators of extra-role behaviour,
whereas intrinsic job motivation and the sharing of knowledge were found to be weaker indicators of
discretionary extra-role behaviour.
Research limitations/implications – The study was based on the voluntary response of
employees of five independent local government authorities in Australia. Thus findings in other
geographical or cultural locations may be significantly different. Beyond the questionnaire findings,
the relevance to private non-profit organisations needs to be studied empirically.
Practical implications – The research makes a significant contribution to management of
governmental public sector non-profit organisations which face continuous pressure to develop
strategies and embrace management practices that ensure organisational effectiveness.
Originality value – The findings highlight the important factors that lead to employee perceptions
about trust which can lead to discretionary employee efforts in public sector organisations that have
great similarity to non-profit organisations.
Keywords Trust, Behaviour,Employee participation, Public sectororganizations,
Non-profit organizations
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The intellectual capital of any organisation is often its most valuable asset and
organisational performance depends on the capture, development and exploitation of
the explicit and implicit knowledge that exists in the organisation. The problem for
organisations in general is that, although they need to access the knowledge of their
employees, this contribution calls for extra role behaviour which is often outside their
explicit job description and therefore discretionary.
One problem facing organisations is that the traditional employment relationship of
long term commitment, reciprocity and job security has declined and been replaced by
higher levels of precariousness (Cappelli, 1999; Sharkie, 2005). This reduction in
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1469-1930.htm
Trust: an
antecedent
227
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 11 No. 2, 2010
pp. 227-247
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/14691931011039697
employer guarantees to employees, and the consequent reduction in commitment by
employees back to the organisation, has highlighted the important need to understand
how employees decide on their level of discretionary extra-role contributions.
McEvily et al. (2003) developed the notion of trust as an organisational principle by
specifying that trust influences organisational outcomes. However, we are still left with
a set of findings that have yet to be integrated in a way that yields a set of generalizable
propositions about the effects of trust on organisations. Dirks and Ferrin (2001) claim
that perceptions of trust in the organisation may be a significant antecedent for
employee extra-role behaviour, because without trust, skills and knowledge are likely
to be withheld instead of being disseminated. A review of empirical studies spanning
40 years by Dirks and Ferrin (2001) suggests that not only does trust moderate
workplace performance, but it also has important effects on attitudinal and
behavioural outcomes such as more positive attitudes to work and higher levels of
cooperation.
Discretionary extra-role behaviour is concerned with behaviour of employees which
is discretionary in that it is outside the specific obligations incorporated in the formal
employment contract. It is also a behaviour which is likely to positively contribute to
the advancement of the collective interests of management or the organisation (Ferrin
et al., 2007) rather than the selfish interests of the individual.
Non-profit organisations, like profit-making and public organisations, are under
continuous pressure to develop strategies and embrace management practices which
ensure organisational effectiveness (Papadimitriou, 2007). This is because many
non-profit organisations around the world, though independent entities, rely heavily on
public funding in order to survive and provide social services (Herman and Renz, 2004).
Considerable similarities were found between public sector and non-profit
organisations in their methods of operation (Berman and West, 1998). One of the
similarities between governmental and non-profit organisations is limited economical
reward for encouraging extra-role behaviour which may lead to employee reluctance to
engage in this type of contribution.
As in the public sector, non-profit organisations are interested in developing
strategic resources which employ human capital and social capital in action
(Weisingera and Black, 2006). Developing and leveraging social capital is critical to
non-profit organisations and the public sector alike for obtaining competitive resources
which can derive from the directed activities of an individual from the organisation
(King, 2004). Thus, it is of great interest to explore the characteristics of various
potential antecedents to extra-role behaviour in the public sector and in non-profit
organisations.
According to Kong (2007a, b) the intellectual capital (IC) management strategic
concept, developed originally for profit making organisations, is suitable also for non
profit ones, and in fact is more suitable for these organisations than a number of other
management strategic concepts. The IC concept treats the behaviour of people within
the organisation (Roos, 1998), and describes the ways by which human capital (HC)
interacts with structural capital (SC) and relational capital (RC) to create value to the
organisation. One of the prime studies depicts the importance of IC social service
non-profit organisations (SSNPO) IC helps organisations avoid goal displacement and
resource diffusion, and assist them in refocusing their objectives on social dimensions
JIC
11,2
228
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