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A Study of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and its Antecedents in an Indian Police Agency

Qureshi, Hanif
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7922-5645
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445342158

Abstract Details

2015, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice.
Concerns have been raised that discretion available to police officers leads to its abuse. This work focuses on those officers who use discretion to enhance achievement of organizational objectives, even though these acts may not be role prescribed. In this first study of OCB among police officers in India, we determine the antecedents of these voluntary, pro-social behaviors (also called organizational citizenship behavior, or OCB) which help achieve legitimate work objectives and promote effective functioning of the organization. Positive psychology is an emerging discipline which focuses on what is good about human psychology in an effort to make life meaningful for a majority of people. The linkage of positive psychology with organizational behavior in police is used to drive home the point that there is much to be gained by focusing on positive workplace factors, though reducing the stressors is also important. We compare OCB research findings from US based studies in business organizations and also some studies from the criminal justice system, especially the police and corrections. The present study utilizes a survey of 829 police officers from two districts (Rohtak and Sonepat) conducted in 2013 in the state of Haryana in the Republic of India. The findings indicate that organizational justice, job satisfaction, task variables, and organizational commitment are strongly related to OCB. These findings relating to Indian police officers are similar to the findings related to Western officers. This suggests that these antecedents may be universally important predictors of OCB among police officers across cross-national contexts. However, some of the findings were unexpected. For instance, task routinization had a significant and positive relationship with OCB. The significance of these findings is discussed. Theory is developed to explain why measurement of OCB in police agencies should not necessarily be the same as the measurement of OCB in business organizations. An analysis of police roles is presented which indicates that various roles are played by the police in different situations. Therefore there may not be one omnibus OCB suitable for all police roles, but specific forms of OCB should be considered for different roles. The study found that the dimensions of OCB examined in this study have different antecedents, though affective commitment was a common antecedent across all OCB dimensions. This study supports the conclusion of LePine et al. (2002) who cautioned against simply combining the dimensions of OCB to create a composite OCB index, and argues that theories should be developed at the individual OCB dimension level and not at the aggregate OCB level. In an emerging economy like India, roles of police are rapidly expanding and there are many areas where ground rules are not yet set in place. In such a situation, it is important for police officers to take the initiative to go beyond their prescribed duties and take actions that can meet challenges successfully. Organizational citizenship behaviors by police officers can help achieve these tremendous challenges. The implications of increased OCB in police are discussed.
James Frank, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Eric G. Lambert, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Lawrence Travis, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Pamela Wilcox, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
150 p.
Criminology
Organizational Citizenship Behavior; India; Police; Positive Psychology; Haryana; Criminal Justice

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Qureshi, H. (2015). A Study of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and its Antecedents in an Indian Police Agency [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445342158

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Qureshi, Hanif. A Study of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and its Antecedents in an Indian Police Agency. 2015. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445342158.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Qureshi, Hanif. "A Study of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and its Antecedents in an Indian Police Agency." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1445342158

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1445342158
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© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License A Study of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and its Antecedents in an Indian Police Agency by Hanif Qureshi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.