Organizational citizenship behavior in the Greek public sector.

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the construct of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the Greek public sector. OCB accentuates constructive and cooperative employee behaviors that contribute to the organization but yet do not fall within the domain of mandatory in-role behaviors. Despite the extensive body of international research on OCB in the private and public sector there is a lack of extra role behavior research in the Greek context. The significance of this thesis is its contribution to the understanding of how Greek civil servants are engaged in extra role behaviors and consequently, how do they influence the performance of public administration. The extent to which Greek civil servants exhibit OCB is examined and the effects of demographics, education, job status, public service motivation, organizational identification and job satisfaction on OCB are also investigated. Four research hypotheses are tested with the aid of a questionnaire administered to 322 employees of central and regional Greek public service units. To identify the relationships and interactions between explanatory variables and their impact on OCB, mediation and moderation analyses were conducted. Findings indicate that there is a strong relationship between OCB and public service motivation while the interaction of organizational identification and job satisfaction acts as mediator to this relation. Theoretical contributions, managerial implications and future research are also discussed.