Khurram Aziz1, Muhammad
Awais2, Syed Shahbaz ul Hasnain3, Muhammad Arslan4,
Qadeer Rahat5
1PhD Scholar, University of the Punjab Gujranwala, Pakistan, 2MBA,
University of the Punjab Gujranwala, Pakistan, 3MPhil Scholar, Quaid-e-Azam
University Islamabad Pakistan, 4PhD Scholar, University of the
Punjab Lahore, Pakistan, 5The
University of Northampton, United Kingdom
Abstract
The purpose of this
study is to analyze the impact of perceived contract violation (PCV), abusive
supervision (AS) and servant leadership (SL) on organizational citizenship behavior
(OCB) and mediating role of employee cynicism (EC). A survey was conducted and
data was collected from 212 respondents from service sector of Pakistan.
Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques were
used to analyze data. The findings of this research shows that PCV, AS and SL
has significant impact on OCB directly and indirectly. Employee cynicism also
played a significant mediating role between independent and dependent
variables. This study indicated the antecedents and outcome of employee
cynicism and provided guidance to organizations in the related area.
Key Words
Organizational
citizenship behavior, Servant leadership, Employee cynicism, Leader’s abusive
supervision.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
Employees expect from their organization that their
contribution or efforts should be valued. Employees who feel that their
contribution is not valued by the organization are likely to develop the feelings
of distrust or disloyalty. It means they are likely to have cynicism towards the
organization. Employee cynicism is a negative attitude in which an employee
becomes hopeless, frustrated and disappointed from the individuals, groups,
ideologies, norms as a whole or any combination of these (Lynne M Andersson & Bateman, 1997; Dean, Brandes, & Dharwadkar, 1998; Thundiyil, Chiaburu, Banks, & Peng, 2014). According to Dean et al. (1998), this negative behavior have
three forms. Firstly, in cognitive dimensions employees may form believe that
organization doesn’t have integrity. Secondly, frustrated employees may start
giving negative influence to the business. Lastly, behavioral situation that,
employees may start showing critical behaviors towards an organization.
The cognitive dimension asserts that employees are inconsistent
in their work. It shows that employee lacks the ability to follow the rules and
regulations and also reveals that there is an absence of honesty (Abraham, 2000; Brandes
& Das, 2006; Dean et al., 1998). The affective dimension asserts
the cynical attitude of individuals and their emotional response towards
organization. This is followed by behavioral aspect. It is perceived that most
of these behavioral responses are in the form of affirmation criticizing the
organization that it lacks sincerity and honor. In this aspect, employee
strongly criticizes the company and makes doubtful estimation (Kutaniş & Çetinel, 2009). This shows that organization
cynicism has negative behavior in accomplishing goals of the organization. Due
to this importance, there is a need to conduct further research on antecedents
and consequences of employee’s cynicism.
1.2. Problem Statement
Organization is made up of different elements like leaders,
employees, groups, norms etc. These elements work collectively to accomplish
organization’s goals. Leaders who put their interest beyond the concern of
others are servant leaders. According to R. Greenleaf (1969), leader must fulfill the
demands of others. The focus of servant leader is on colleagues instead of
self. Such leaders understand the role of leader as a servant and exhibit it (Robert K Greenleaf & Pownell, 1985). When employees interpret that
organization is working for its own interest rather than the concern of
employees, they develop the perception of trustworthiness. These perceptions
lead towards employee cynicism. Employees working in an organization have some
expectations, when these anticipations are not fulfilled, they develop feelings
of distrust and betrayal. It is known as employee cynicism. Organizational
citizenship behavior is the beneficial behavioral of colleagues towards each
other. This conduct is not advised by anyone rather it occurred freely to help
in achieving organization’s goals. This study will explore the relationship of perceived
contract violation, abusive supervision and servant leadership with OCB in
service sector organizations of Pakistan. Researcher asserts that this research
is first of its kind as the proposed relationship was not tested earlier in the
selected context (service sector of Pakistan). This study will use employees’ cynicism
as a mediating variable. In previous studies, it was tested as a dependent
variable.
1.3. Research Aim
The
purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of perceived contract
violation (PCV), abusive supervision (AS) and servant leadership (SL) on
organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and mediating role of organization
cynicism (EC) in the banking and other service sector organizations of
Pakistan. In our study, we will also examine the antecedents and consequences
of employee cynicism. This study will contribute to literature and helpful for
the managers to avoid negative consequences of EC.
1.4. Scope of Research
This study
examined PCV, AS, SL, EC and OCB in service sector of Pakistan. The respondents
were from banking, education, couriers and other service sectors of Pakistan.
This study investigated the particular relationship of EC in service sector
organizations using it as a mediator of three antecedents (PCV, AS and SL) and
its effect on OCB. The data was collected from service sector organizations and
respondents were from different cities of Pakistan.
2.0. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Perceived Contract Violation
According
to D. Rousseau (1995), perceived contract is the
trust of an individual about conditions of exchange between that particular
person and organization. Perceived contract is actually the perception of persons
about what they are indebted to organization and what organization is indebted
to them (Robinson, 1996). The clarification of perceived
contract may not be shared between the persons and organization because it is
extremely personal. Researchers believe that having no or negative explanation
of perceived contract can generate belief of one of both parties that the other
party is violating the contract. As the tenure of employees increase, their expectations
also increase. They expect more obligation from their employer towards them whereas
their own commitments towards organization decreases (Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994). According to Robinson (1996), PCV is a sensitive state that
predicts belief of an individual that organization remains unsuccessful to keep
its promise of obligation. When employees work together, they are not only
affected by others but also affect others (Milgrom & Roberts, 1988; Ramlall, 2004). During working in an
organization, employees develop some expectations, if those expectations are fulfilled,
they get motivated and their level of commitment increases. These employees
work in a better way and due to their improved performance, sales and profits
of the organization increase. However, if their expectations are not fulfilled,
they become hopeless and lose their trust in organization (Rayton & Yalabik, 2014). Perceived contract violation
can lead towards employee cynicism, low commitment and lack of organizational
citizenship behavior.
2.2. Abusive Supervision
Abusive supervision (AS) defines as up to what extent
leaders and supervisors are involved in antagonistic verbal and nonverbal
behaviors (Bennett J. Tepper, 2000). Verbal may include smashing door, shouting at
employees, using rough language and threatening employees about their job
security and promotion. Non-verbal antagonistic behaviors may include ignoring
and hostile eye-contact. AS is a personal assessment that an individual make
according to their own observation. Therefore, this perception may be changed
with changing of environment and personality. Moreover, abusive supervision is
a behavior of continuous aggression. A supervisor with a bad day due to any
personal reason may has bad behavior with their employees. Therefore, this
cannot be considered abusive supervision unless it became a permanent part of
the personality of supervisor. Besides this, some supervisors may use this type
of behavior to accomplish objectives of the organization. It means it is
willful and the purpose is to achieve the goals of the organization, not to
cause harm to employees. For example, a supervisor may misbehave with his
employees to compel them to increase their productivity or to make employees
realize their mistakes (Bennett J Tepper, 2007). According to Deluga (1998), AS can also be
clarified through leader member exchange theory. This theory asserts on a two-sided
relationship between employee and employer. The quality of leader-member
exchange can have effect on decisions, thinking of employees, their obligation,
performance and behaviors. Abusive supervision can create a sense of disruption
and frustration between employees, therefore, according to this theory, AS can
be related to employee cynicism.
2.3. Servant Leadership
Servant
leadership is a concept that was provided much before in Bible and there were
seven words to denote servant like pais, sundoulos, oitketes, therapon,
huperetes, doulos, and diakonos. From these seven words, not even a single word
propose negative meaning (Getz, 1984). According to Sendjaya and Sarros
(2002), the main difference between SL
and traditional leadership is the intentions of SL regarding serving
subordinates. There are many models about servant leadership, presented in last
15 to 20 years (Barbuto Jr & Wheeler, 2006; Farling, Stone, & Winston, 1999; Liden, Wayne, Zhao, & Henderson, 2008; Page & Wong, 2000; Patterson,
2003; Russell & Gregory Stone, 2002; Sendjaya & Sarros, 2002; Sendjaya, Sarros, & Santora, 2008). The concept of servant
leadership is developed on a belief to inspire followers so that they can
perform to their full potential. Leaders should communicate one-by-one to each
follower so that they can understand their needs, objectives and potential.
This
knowledge would help the leader to motivate and support their followers by
providing them information, resources, and guidance. In this way, servant
leader can build their self-confidence and trust. Most importantly, he should
perform as a role model for his followers (R. G. Lord & Brown, 2001). The concept behind servant
leadership is putting interests of others above self interests (Joseph & Winston, 2005). According to Dennis and Winston
(2003), if leader provides service to a
follower, it would result in follower service back to the leader. According to Gregory Stone,
Russell, and Patterson (2004), the purpose of a servant
leader is not to direct supporters but to motivate and to become a role model
for them and they will provide services further.
2.4. Employee Cynicism
Cynicism is a kind of belief that
people only think about themselves regardless of others and the individual who
holds this faith is called a cynic. The main point about cynicism is that cynic
people believe that authenticity, trustworthiness, and impartiality are lost
for personal benefits. Cynicism is the discontent, disenchantment, and
attitudes of individual or group of people. This definition provides guidance
that attitude is an important element of employee cynicism (Delken, 2004). According to Nair and Kamalanabhan (2010),
cynicism is a kind of attitude that people keep aloofness and unfriendliness
with an organization by considering that employer always go for making fool
their employees. Özler and Atalay (2011),
suggested that it is a feeling of dissatisfaction, distrustful, desperate and
disruption. Cynical employees may harm their organization and may hinder the
organization from achieving its objectives. These people believe that their
colleagues are self-seeking (Barefoot, Dodge, Peterson, Dahlstrom,
& Williams Jr, 1989).
This type of attitude has three forms.
First of all, employees may believe that their employer is not truthfulness.
Secondly, there are chances that employees start influencing their organization
negatively. Thirdly, they may start
critical behavior and expression of withering (Dean et al., 1998). There are
also some researchers who believe that cynicism is not an attitude and a
feature of character, but it is a lifestyle (Ozgener, 2008). Employee Cynicism
(EC) may be the result of extended working hours, unsuccessful leadership, and
work strengthening. After continuous ineffective leadership and unpleasant
working environment, employees may tend to start negative expressions about
their organization (Wanous, Reichers, & Austin, 1994). Employees
having cynicism beliefs may engage in negative feelings about management
policies and they may think that their voices are not in consideration of top
management that would lead towards worst performance (Wanous, Reichers, & Austin, 2000).
2.5. Organizational Citizenship Behavior
OCB has long been discussed and
evaluated in previous studies (Borman & Motowidlo, 1993; Organ,
1988, 1990). Organizational
citizenship behaviors have optional nature and not of the part of employees’
duties (Murphy, Athanasou, & King, 2002; Organ,
1988). According to Williams, Pitre, and Zainuba (2002),
employees more affianced in organizational citizenship behavior when they have a
perception about fair treatment of organization. When employees feel about
employer’s failure in fulfillment of employment obligations, they less engross
in civic (Robinson & Morrison, 2000). However, it
is a thought that OCB is related to job satisfaction, leader cooperation, and
impartiality (Chiu & Tsai, 2006; LePine,
Erez, & Johnson, 2002). Satisfied
employees tend to have more chances of involvement in extra role performance,
help others at workplace and look forward beyond their sanctioned obligations.
Moving towards more detail, it is also an important belief that when employees
are more committed and dedicated to their work, they are more engaged in
activities, which are moral, philanthropic, and meticulous.
From an organizational perspective, OCB
is advantageous, but managers feel difficulty in their occurrence or grueling
their absence through prescribed activities and rewards due to voluntary
behaviors of employees (Moorman & Blakely, 1995). According to Chiang and Birtch (2008),
voluntary behaviors provoked due to non-financial rewards. Satisfaction cannot
lead towards OCB when organizational justice is meticulous (Konovsky & Organ, 1996; LePine
et al., 2002; Moorman, 1991). Central to
all definitions, organizational citizenship behavior involves offering help to
others without expecting instant exchange in return. Researchers studies OCB as
an international perception (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ,
1988; Organ &
Konovsky, 1989; Smith, Organ, &
Near, 1983).
2.6. Perceived Contract violation and Employee Cynicism
Employees
who feel that their work has no value for the organization, it’s possible that they
generate a feeling of distrust or betrayal. Research suggested that PCV influence
EC. Such employees who feel the violation of contract from the organization are
more cynical (Byrne & Hochwarter, 2008; Treadway et al., 2004). Employees become frustrated
and hopeless when they feel violation. It will lead to poor behaviors of
employees, and they will show their negative feelings for the organization.
They will not show productivity and performance. It may lead towards no commitment
and workers will not support their colleagues. These factors may generate
employee cynicism. It means PCV and EC
are directly correlated. By increasing PCV, EC will also increase that will
affect the whole organization and employees will not tend to involve in extra
role activities. Thus,
H1: Perceived
contract violation predicts EC.
H2: EC mediates
between PCV and OCB.
2.7. Perceived Contract Violation and OCB
Organization
consists of interdependent elements, which work together to achieve a desired
outcome. These elements should be predicted and controlled for organizational
success. Employees create a transactional relationship with the organization by
proving their productivity and performance in respect of gaining a reward in
return. Some employees also develop emotional relationships by expressing good
behavior and loyalty for their organization. If employees treated according to
their expectation, they will be highly motivated, dedicated and their
performance will increase. Besides this, there is a high chance of their
involvement in organizational citizenship behavior (Rayton & Yalabik, 2014). It means, perceived contract
violation is negatively related to OCB. If employees feel that organization is fulfilling
its obligations regarding employees, they will be motivated and tend to involve
in extra role activities. Thus,
H3: There is an
influence of perceived contract violation on the OCB.
2.8. Abusive supervision and EC
When employees face abusive supervision, they may develop a negative
perception about their supervisors and organization. It means it can create
employee cynicism, which affects an organization. Zellars, Tepper, and Duffy (2002) found that due to
abusive supervision, employees may spread negativity about their organization
and may also stop societal behaviors at work. Due to AS, employees feel their
insult, and as a result, they lose their loyalty and commitment to the
organization. If supervisors appreciate their employees rather than using abusive
behavior, employees work hard and tend to perform better. It means abusive
supervision and employee cynicism has a direct correlation with each other.
Thus,
H4: Abusive supervision predicts EC.
H5: EC plays a
mediating role between AS and OCB.
2.9. Abusive supervision and OCB
Abusive supervision can negatively affect organizational
citizenship behavior (Zellars et al., 2002). Due to AS, employees may develop
a negative perception about their organization. The employees may lose their
concentration as a whole, and they will not involve in extra-role activities.
Previous studies show that there is a significant relationship between
threatening of employees about their job security and their behavior related to
organizational citizenship behavior (Brehm, 1966; Wright & Brehm, 1982). According to Saks and Ashforth (1997), as a result of abusive
supervision, employees react against their expectation. It means, they do not
involve in extra role activities. But employees may not go against powerful
abuser (V. B. Lord, 1998). Thus,
H6: Abusive
supervision has a significant impact on OCB.
2.10. Employee Cynicism and OCB
Employee
cynicism is a negative feeling of employees in which employees become hopeless
from individual, groups or organizational norms and they tend to develop continuous
negative believe about their organization. OCB represents the beneficial
behavior of workers. This behavior is not contractually advised and occurs
freely to help others to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Actually,
OCB is performing duties beyond the limitations of official duties, e.g., assisting
colleagues, attending a meeting which is not a part of duty, etc. If the
employee cynicism is high, there are fewer chances of OCB (Evans, Goodman, & Davis, 2010). Cynicism and OCB have a
negative correlation with each other. Lynne M Andersson and
Bateman (1997) found a negative correlation
between cynicism and organizational citizenship behavior. According to Stanley, Meyer, and
Topolnytsky (2005), employees with a higher level
of cynicism may be doubtful about manager’s strategies and the logics behind
those strategies. This distrustfulness may lead towards no commitment and no
OCB. Therefore, by increasing cynicism, OCB will decrease. Thus,
H7: Employee cynicism
has a significant impact on OCB.
2.11. Servant Leadership and EC
Previous
studies suggest that servant leadership is an inclination towards taking
opportunities irrespective nature, time and follower (Blanchard, 2003; Foster,
1989; Spady & Marshall, 1991; Wilkes, 1998). Servant leaders are not like
those leaders who assist others only when they need some benefits or when it is
easy to serve (Foster, 1989). According to Gregory Stone et al.
(2004) servant leaders are those who
don’t put their self-interest before the interest of others. These leaders
emphasize the development of followers rather than the glorification of
leaders. Robert K. Greenleaf
(1977), suggested that primarily
servant leader linked with meeting the needs and wants of others. When servant
leader will fulfill the needs and wants of his followers, they will not think
negatively about their organization. It would lead towards less cynicism, and
lower cynicism would lead towards higher organizational citizenship behavior. Thus,
H8: Servant leader
has a significant impact on employee cynicism.
H9: EC plays a
mediating role between SL and OCB.
2.12. Servant leadership and OCB
In
servant leadership, it’s not the self-interest of the leaders, which is
important rather primary objective of such leaders, is to serve others in a way
that they can fulfill the needs and wants of others (Spears, 1998). Servant leader helps others in
accomplishing their tasks. When he works by looking at the desires of followers,
he can better provide information and resources to them so that they can
perform efficiently. Many researchers propose that servant leadership is
favorable to OCB because servant leader focuses on the development of followers,
their motivation, and their trust (Graham, 1991; Laub,
2003; Sendjaya et al., 2008). According to Liden et al. (2008), servant leader helps his
subordinates in generating worth for community and are related to public
citizenship behavior. When servant leader assists his subordinates, he provides
guidance and a route for followers to act accordingly and perform OCB (Ehrhart, 2004). There is a belief that
prediction of follower’s OCB is built on servant leader. According to Robert K. Greenleaf
(1977), servant leader provides
services to a follower who will provide services to others. It is the nature of
person that he learns by seeing others. When people see other people of serving
others, they may tend to copy that behavior. If servant leader provides
easiness to his supporters, it may create a strong commitment of followers
towards their organization, which ultimately would lead towards OCB. Thus,
H10: Servant leadership
has a significant impact on OCB.
2.13. Theoretical Framework
Research
framework given below (Figure 1) indicates proposed relationship between
variables and basis of development of ten hypothesis.. In this research,
perceived contract violation, abusive supervision and servant leadership are
independent variables. Employee cynicism mediates relationship between
perceived contract violation, abusive supervision and servant leadership and
organizational citizenship behavior (dependent variable). Employee cynicism is
considered an important variable in this research because this study
investigates its three antecedents in the form of PCV, AS and SL and its effect
on OCB as a consequence of employee cynicism.
OCB
|
PCV
|
AS
|
SL
|
EC
|
Figure 1: Theoretical
Framework
H2,
H5 and H9 hypothesis are built to test this
mediating relationship. This study also tests the direct association of PCV,
AS, and SL with EC and with OCB. Seven hypotheses H1, H3, H4
H6, H7, H8, and H10 were
made in this regard.
3.0. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Population and Sampling Design
Population
of this study was employees from service sector of Pakistan. The reason behind this
selection was that service sector was contributing over 31.1% of GDP of
Pakistan (Finance, 2016-17) so it’s important to know the
organizational behavior of employees working in particular sector. It includes
organizations who were providing services in education, transport, telecom,
banking, auditing, consultancy, etc. In this study, positivism, philosophy was
adopted and data was collected using self-administered questionnaire. In this
study, we explored the relationship of employee cynicism with perceived
contract violation, abusive supervision, servant leadership and organizational
citizenship behavior. A simple random, sampling technique was used to collect
primary data. Time dimension of the research was cross sectional study.
3.2. Instrument
The questionnaire
of this study consisted of two sections. The first section consisted of
demographical questions asking about respondent related to gender, age, the level
of employee, experience, and organization industry. The second part of
questionnaire comprised of scale of variables. This research has five variables
including perceived contract violation, abusive supervision, and servant
leadership as independent variables, employees cynicism as mediating variable
and organizational citizenship behavior as the dependent variable. To measure
these variables, 5 points Likert scale was used (ranging from 1 strongly
disagree to 5 strongly agree). Perceived contract violation scale, developed by
(Robinson, 1996; D.
M. Rousseau, 1989) was used. It consisted of 8
items. OCB was measured by using scale developed by Podsakoff
& MacKenzie (1989).
This scale consisted of 14 items, and it’s a modified version of Podsakoff, MacKenzie,
Moorman, and Fetter (1990). It’s a widely used measure in previous
studies related to OCB like (Moorman, 1991, 1993). Servant leadership was
measured by using 25 items scale constructed by R.S. Dennis & Bocarnea
(2005). To measure employee cynicism, a scale of Dean et al. (1998), Brandes, Dharwadkar,
and Dean (1999) and Kalağan
(2009) consisted of ten items was
used. Abusive supervision was measured using 14 items scale constructed by Bennett J. Tepper (2000).
3.3. Data Collection
The
data for this research was collected through online and field survey. Data collection
process took four months. In an online survey, 273 questionnaires were sent to
respondents, out of which 207 responses were received and out of 207, researchers
obtained 151 correctly filled questionnaires. In field survey, 81
questionnaires were given to employees out of which 61 were correctly filled.
To ensure, samples representativeness questionnaire were sent to employees of
the different organizations in service sectors. Out of 212 respondents, 156
(73.6%) were male and 56 (26.4%) were female. Likewise, out of 212 respondents
57 (26.89) were managers, 63 (29.7%) were supervisors, and 92 (43.39%) were
low-level employees. 75 (35.4%) respondents had working experience less than
one year and employees having experience between 1-2 years were 49 (23.1%).
Moreover, there was only one respondent who had experience between 2-3 years
and there were 32 employees (15.1%) who had experience between 3-4 years. Moreover,
91 (42.9%) respondents were from education industries, 41 were from banking industry
15 (7.15) were from telecom respondents 65 (30.66%) were from other industries
like consultancy, audit, transport, etc.
Table.1 Level of employees
Designation
|
Frequencies
|
Percentage
|
Managers
|
57
|
26.89
|
Supervisors
|
63
|
29.7
|
Low-level
employees
|
92
|
43.39
|
3.4. Data Analysis
In this
study, first descriptive statistics analysis was performed to obtain measures
of central tendency and dispersion. This was followed by correlational
analysis. This study had 73 items under five variables. Factor analysis was
carried out to get representatives of each variable that can better explain
variability among the variables. KMO test (Table 2) values of each
variable were higher than 0.89 that showed sampling adequacy of variables in
the model and variables were suitable for factor analysis. In factor analysis,
we have extracted 3 to 5 aspects of each variables whose Eigen values were
greater than 1. Eigen values represented the variance of observed variable
explained by the factor. The cumulative variance of PCV items was 59.8%, AS
59.79%, EC 64.97%, OCB 65.28%, and SL 68.53%.
Table.2 KMO and
Bartlett's Test
|
||
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
Measure of Sampling Adequacy.
|
.900
|
|
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
|
Approx. Chi-Square
|
912.274
|
Df
|
28
|
|
Sig.
|
.000
|
When
these objects extracted, a composite factor was developed to perform Structural
equation modeling (SEM) to test the mediating relationship of employee cynicism
with other variables either it has full mediation or partial mediation.
3.5. Research Ethics
In this study, while conducting research and collecting data,
ethics were kept in consideration. First of all, the questionnaire was administered
in a way that it did not include any question in both parts, which violate the privacy
of respondent. In questionnaire, to maintain privacy, the name of person and
organization was also not asked so that respondent feels easiness and respond without
biases or any threat of from the job. In data collection process, managers of the
organization asked for prior permission for getting responses from the employee.
After getting permission data is collected. We did not collect data from
organizations that did not allow employees to respond to these questionnaires and
information.
4.0. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The descriptive statistics and reliability of the variables are
given in (table 3). Cronbach’s
alpha was calculated to measure the consistency of items used to measure
variables. The alpha is used to know that whether all the objects of scale
represent the variable or not. Correlations between variables given in (table 5) shows relationships
among variables. PCV is positively correlated with AS (r=0.782, p<0.001), EC
(r=0.801, p<0.001) and negatively correlated with OCB (r=-0.127, p<0.01),
SL (r=-0.510, p<0.001). AS is positively correlated with EC (r=0.759,
p<0.001) and negatively correlated with OCB (r=-0.85, p<0.05), SL
(r=-0.510, p<0.001). Talking about SL, it has negative correlation with EC
(r=-0.481, p<0.001) and positively correlated with OCB (r=0.278,
p<0.001). These all variables show significant relationships with each
other.
Table.3 Mean, St. Deviations and alpha
Variables
|
N
|
α
|
Mean
|
Std. Deviation
|
PCV
|
212
|
0.899
|
2.4245
|
.83177
|
AS
|
212
|
0.925
|
2.2675
|
.74886
|
EC
|
212
|
0.896
|
2.6538
|
.81760
|
OCB
|
212
|
0.883
|
3.7093
|
.59212
|
SL
|
212
|
0.932
|
3.2345
|
.67078
|
4.1. Reliability and Validity
SPSS 22
and AMOS 18 were used for data analysis. The composite reliabilities (Table 4)
of variables were OCB=0.885, PCV=0.896, AS=0.927, EC=0.893 and SL=0.929. All
the values of composite reliability were higher than 0.75 which showed that all
the items of scale were explaining a homogeneous structure (Fornell & Larker, 1981). The average variance extracted
(AVE) of all variables were OCB=0.575, PCV=0.744, AS=0.733, EC=0.14 and
SL=0.32. The AVE was used to determine convergent validity.
Table.4 Validity Analysis
Variables
|
Composite Reliability
|
OCB
|
PCV
|
AS
|
EC
|
SL
|
1. OCB
|
0.885
|
0.575
|
||||
2. PCV
|
0.896
|
-0.122
|
0.744
|
|||
3. AS
|
0.927
|
-0.073
|
0.521
|
0.733
|
||
4. EC
|
0.893
|
-0.031
|
0.611
|
0.869
|
0.614
|
|
5. SL
|
0.929
|
0.318
|
-0.556
|
-0.556
|
-0.543
|
0.532
|
This validity occurs at construct level and its preferred
values are >0.5. In this study, all the values in the diagonal of above
table were greater than 0.5 which were satisfactory (Fornell & Larker, 1981) . In this research, sampling
validity was also considered by getting data from different firms of different
industries of the service sector.
4.2. Analysis of model fitness
Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to check the
model fitness. AMOS was used to test model
fitness and goodness-of-fit values were obtained. Preferred criteria of RMSEA
is <0.08, IFI, CFI, NFI and GFI >0.9 and CMIN/DF should be less than 3. Table
5 shows that observed values conformed to the level of required values as suggested
by Hair, Black, Babin,
Anderson, and Tatham (1998) which shows that model is fit
for study (see table 6).
4.3. Analysis of the hypothesis
CMIN/DF
|
GFI
|
IFI
|
CFI
|
RMSEA
|
NFI
|
|
Theoretical Model
|
2.674
|
.968
|
.966
|
.962
|
.79
|
.955
|
The analysis of hypothesis was done using Structural
equation modeling (SEM). Figure 2 shows results. It shows that perceived
contract violation has negative (21%) direct effect on OCB. While on the other
hand, the indirect effect through EC is 27%. Abusive supervision has less
direct impact on OCB as compared to the indirect effect. It means, AS has not
enough effect on OCB directly. It predicts EC, and then EC leads towards less
OCB. Servant leadership has a very less negative effect on employee cynicism,
that is -5%. All independent variables together have 69% effect on employee
cynicism
Table.6 Model fitness
but all independent variables have 11% direct effect on OCB.
It means these variables mostly predict employee cynicism and EC then resulted
in low OCB.
4.4. Discussion and Findings
This study evaluated mediating relationship of employees’
cynicism with perceived contract violation, abusive supervision, servant
leadership with organizational citizenship behavior. Cynicism is a behavior of
employees to be frustrated and hopeless when they feel that organization is not
appreciating their efforts, doing against expectations, the supervisor is not
behaving well or due to lack of servant leadership (Lynne M. Andersson, 1996; Cole, Bruch, &
Vogel, 2006).
Table.5 Correlations (N=212)
Variables
|
PCV
|
AS
|
EC
|
OCB
|
SL
|
PCV
|
|
|
|
|
|
AS
|
.782***
|
|
|
|
|
EC
|
.801***
|
.759***
|
|
|
|
OCB
|
-.127**
|
-.085*
|
-.230**
|
|
|
SL
|
-.510***
|
-.502***
|
-.481***
|
.278***
|
|
*P<0.05;
**P<0.01; ***P<0.001
This study revealed that in a workplace if abusive
supervision increase, the perceived contract violation will also increase with
greater effect. But abusive supervision does not have a much bigger effect
directly upon organizational citizenship behavior. It means, due to abusive
supervision, they will feel frustrated and hopeless, but their extra role
activities will get a short affect only when an abusive supervisor has less
power. But if the power of abusive supervisor is greater, employees will not
decrease their OCB because it will again increase abusive behavior (V. B. Lord, 1998).
This study shows a strongly significant impact of 78.2% of
abusive supervision on perceived contract violation.
SL
|
AS
|
PCV
|
.11
|
.03
|
-.05
|
OCB
|
Figure 2: SEM analysis
The study shows a strongly negative relationship between
perceived contract violation and servant leadership. It means, in an
organization where the leader performs the role of servant leadership,
employees will not generate a perception about contract violation (Turnley & Feldman, 1998). A servant leader will always prefer to
communicate one by one with each follower so that he can understand their
needs, wants, preferences, objectives, and potentials. This knowledge may help
the leader to motivate and support his supporters by providing them
information, resources, and guidance. In this way, servant leader can build
their self-confidence and trust. By keeping in mind this behavior of the leader,
employees cannot think about contract violation. Most importantly, he always
performs as a role model for his followers (R. G. Lord & Brown, 2001).
Similar
to previous studies (Kuo,
Chang, Quinton, Lu, & Lee, 2015; Whitman,
Halbesleben, & Holmes, 2014), this study revealed that abusive
supervision always predicts employee cynicism. Some employees develop an emotional
relationship with the organization. When they observe abusive behavior from a
supervisor, they get disappointed and lose their commitment (Rayton & Yalabik, 2014). It means, ultimately abusive supervision
has an indirect effect on organizational citizenship behavior. Employees who
bear abusive behavior will not involve in extra role activities. Leaders can
avoid such situation if they develop two-sided communication and decrease
abusive behavior. It means servant leadership is the best solution of abusive
supervision. If a leader develops leader-member exchange, he will come to know
even the small problems of his employees and he can restrict abusive supervisor
and can develop an efficient environment in the organization (Schyns & Hansbrough, 2010).
This study
revealed that employee cynicism has significant negative impact on OCB. According
to Evans et al. (2010), employees who have a high
level of cynicism, they rarely involve in OCB. They decrease their commitment to
the organization which ultimately affect the whole business. According to Stanley et al. (2005), employees with a higher level
of cynicism may be doubtful about manager’s strategies and the logics behind
those strategies. This distrustfulness may lead towards the lack of commitment
and OCB. Therefore, by increasing cynicism, OCB will decrease as having a negative
relationship. Lynne M Andersson and Bateman
(1997), also found a correlation
between cynicism and organizational citizenship behavior. Besides this, the
study also affirmed a strong association between servant leadership and OCB.
According to Walumbwa, Hartnell,
and Oke (2010), servant leader develops a
relationship with his followers by looking towards their needs and preferences.
He develops a two-way communication which benefitted to whole business as
employees get a chance to approach leader to tell him their problems (Vondey, 2010). It ultimately increases their
loyalty and commitment to the organization that leads towards a greater level
of organizational citizenship behavior (Graham, 1991; Laub,
2003; Sendjaya et al., 2008).
5.0. CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH AREAS
5.1. Conclusion
Employee
cynicism is an important construct and aim of this study was to know
antecedents and consequences of cynicism. Cynicism is a feeling of betrayal
that is developed in the employee when his/her expectations from the employer
were not fulfilled. It is of three forms cognitive, behavioral and affective.
Cognitive cynicism states that employee is not suitable to work in the
organization or he/she does not possess the abilities to follow the rules and
regulations of the firm. In cynicism employee shows its distrust and in
behavioral dimension employee criticize the organization that it lacks honor.
This cynical behavioral of employees can become a barrier to achieve organizational
goals.
In this
research, servant leadership, perceived contract violation and abusive
supervision were used as antecedents and organization citizenship behavior was used
as outcome of employee cynicism. Servant leadership is a concept in which leader
do irrespective of what he is. In servant leadership, leader tries to fulfill
the needs of others and prefer their needs upon his/her needs. Servant
leadership is the best way to motivate others so that they help others and
perform at their full potential. Leaders adopt this leadership style because by
helping others they get their support and can maintain their position.
Perceived contract is an element of trust between the individual and organization.
These are the expectations of individuals towards organization when their
expectations are fulfilled, employees work with more zeal and zest and if they
were not fulfilled employees may develop feelings of distrust or betrayal which
is cynicism. When employees are satisfied then they help others employees that
create a supporting environment which is OCB. Abusive supervision is the
antipathetic behavior of supervisors or managers with their subordinates. This
behavioral include shouting at employees, using rough language, threatening
employees about the job, ignoring and hostile eye contact.
In this
study, we observed that abusive supervision affected OCB. When managers have
abusive behavior towards their subordinates, the participative or supportive
behavior of employees towards others will reduce. PCV and OCB had a negative
relationship. It was because when expectations of employees towards
organization are not fulfilled their behavior towards their colleagues will be
negatively affected. Servant leadership influenced OCB. This leadership style
motivates others to help their coworkers. Negative relationship of employee
cynicism were also observed in this study, which suggested that when betrayal
feelings increases, it reduces supportive behavior of the employee. The positive
association between PCV and EC indicated that when needs of employees were not
fulfilled, it became a cause of increasing distrust feelings. Servant
leadership and EC had negative relationship which asserted that supportive
attitude of leader reduce the cynical behavior. Abusive supervision and EC had
the direct relation. It showed that abusive behavior of leader became a cause
of negative attitude towards the organization. Employee cynicism had
significant mediating role between PCV, SL, AS and OCB. In this study, all ten alternative
hypothesis were accepted.
5.2. Recommendations
Following
are some suggestions that a manager, supervisor or leader should follow to
avoid employee cynicism and to increase the likelihood of personnel’s
involvement in organizational citizenship behavior:
·
Managers
should stop abusive supervision and PCV because these have stronger positive effect
on EC. These lead to higher employee cynicism and lower OCB.
·
Instead
of abusive supervision, managers should follow servant leadership skills to get
closer to their employees. It will lead towards less cynicism and more OCB.
·
It
is recommended to develop two-way communication system between leader and
followers to get into their minds and to know their needs and problems. In this
way, the perception of employees will not get distorted regarding contract
violation that will ultimately predict less cynicism and more involvement in
extra role activities.
·
Managers
should develop a system of appreciation, whether financial or non-financial, to
make employees feel good. The level of satisfaction of some employees depends
upon appreciation of their efforts rather than salaries.
·
PCV,
AS and SL are the antecedents of EC that predict EC, and as a result, employees
lose their commitment and performance.
5.3: Future Research Areas
In this
research, there are few limitations that future researchers can cover. First, the
sample size is small that can be increased in the future studies so that result
will be more generalized and authentic. This research is based on service
sector in Pakistan, but future researchers can do this research on both service
and manufacturing areas and compare their results. The findings of this study was
based on Pakistan’s service sector, therefore, it cannot be generalized on
other countries. It is recommended to select another country and make a comparison.
The data is collected only once. Future researchers can conduct time-series
research and evaluate whether such perceptions change over time or not. It is
also recommended to conduct interviews to gather data. Therefore, future
researchers can do this research in a qualitative way. This study conducted used
employee cynicism as a mediating variable between PCV, AS, SL (as independent
variables) and OCB (as the dependent variable). It is recommended to use EC as
a moderator in the same theoretical framework or use it as a dependent variable
in a new model. Job-related and non-job related gossip can be the part of
antecedents of employee cynicism. It is
also suggested to use some control variables to make it more efficient.
6.0. REFERENCES
Ehrhart,
M. G. (2004). Leadership and procedural justice climate as antecedents of unit‐level
organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel
psychology, 57(1), 61-94.
Moorman,
R. H., & Blakely, G. L. (1995). Individualism‐collectivism
as an individual difference predictor of organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of organizational Behavior, 16(2),
127-142.