This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Vigoda-Gadot, E. Articles by Somech, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Group-Level Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Education System: A Scale Reconstruction and Validation

School of Political Sciences

Itai Beeri

Department of Management & Marketing and Department of Government, National University of Ireland, Cork, Cork, Ireland

Taly Birman-Shemesh

Division of Public Administration and Policy, School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Anit Somech

Educational Administration Department at the University of Haifa, Israel

Purpose: Most writings on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) to date have focused on analysis at the individual level and paid less attention to other analytical frameworks at the group level (i.e., team, unit, or organization). This article approaches OCB from the less conventional perspective of group-level activities and uses it to develop and validate a scale of Group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior (GOCB) in the education system.

Data Collection: Data were collected from a survey of 206 Israeli teachers and their principals at 13 schools.

Findings: The scores were found to be statistically valid and demonstrated a high degree of reliability. In addition, two intra-factors (GOCB-I [group-level OCB toward individuals] and GOCB-O [group-level OCB toward the organization]) that are quite similar to those suggested in previous OCB literature emerged as key components.

Conclusions: The advantages of the group-level scale over other individual-level scales are explored and discussed in detail. The article ends with theoretical and practical implications for future studies that may focus on the "good platoon syndrome" of educational and other administrative systems rather than merely on the "good soldier syndrome." The authors elaborate on the potential reconstruction of group-level measures of OCB that can enrich studies on organizational climate, culture, and social norms. Finally, the authors argue that their results as well as those suggested in previous research may direct future studies to develop the idea of "organizational citizenship climate" in the educational system and beyond.

Key Words: Organizational Citizenship Behavior • group-level OCB • schools • validation • climate and culture

Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 4, 462-493 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0013161X07299435


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?