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Impetus for action: a cultural analysis of justice and organizational citizenship behavior in Chinese society

Administrative Science Quarterly, Sept, 1997 by Jiing-Lih Farh, P. Christopher Earley, Shu-Chi Lin

Although an organization may increase its competitiveness through a multitude of means, Western scholars have increasingly emphasized the importance of employee actions that are not specifically designated in their formal job duties, or organizational citizenship behavior. Organ (1988: 4) defined organizational citizenship behavior as "individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization"; it includes actions such as aiding one's coworkers, punctuality and attendance that exceeds company norms, or voluntary assumption of ad hoc duties (Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch, 1994).

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Except for studies devoted to the refinement of an organizational citizenship behavior measure (e.g., Podsakoff et al., 1990; Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch, 1994), the extant literature on citizenship behavior has focused primarily on the various determinants of citizenship behavior and its relationship to variables in a nomological network. Despite the voluminous and fruitful literature stemming from Organ's (1988) seminal work in this area, we know little about citizenship behavior in a global context. Our purpose in this paper is to begin to provide an understanding of citizenship behavior and its relevant correlates for people who vary in their cultural values by exploring whether citizenship behavior has an etic (universal) meaning in cultures in which expectations for employees vary drastically.

Organizational justice appears to be a key determinant of citizenship behavior and related outcomes such as satisfaction and commitment (Folger and Konovsky, 1989; Moorman, 1991), and it reflects both the fairness of outcomes as well as procedures used in their allocation (Lind and Tyler, 1988). The citizenship behavior literature has focused on the fairness of outcomes (e.g., pay) received by an employee and the procedures used to determine those outcomes (Moorman, 1991). Findings suggest that if both job satisfaction organizational justice are used to predict citizenship behavior, justice typically shows a stronger relationship to citizenship behavior than does satisfaction. Although it is not known exactly how justice affects citizenship behavior, trust appears to be an important mediating variable (Konovsky and Pugh, 1994). Organizational justice enhances employee trust, which in turn stimulates the display of citizenship behavior.

The importance of justice in the display of citizenship behavior can be seen in Konovsky and Pugh's (1994) empirical results on trust and Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch's (1994) conceptual work concerning covenantal relationships. Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch argued that a number of individual and contextual factors influence citizenship behavior through the mediating role of a covenantal relationship -- a personal relationship resulting in action being performed without expectations of reciprocity. Over time, the vitality of the relationship itself becomes an important focus for those who have covenantal ties, and citizenship behavior is a way the relationship is maintained and strengthened. Fiske (1991), Foa and Foa (1976), and Van Dyne, Graham, and Dienesch (1994), among others, suggested that this form of relationship is characteristic of people who have a common family structure, shared history, closely linked outcomes, or closely shared cultural perspectives.

Although organizational justice has proven to be an important antecedent of citizenship behavior, the nature of this relationship may differ as a function of individual and contextual attributes. Morrison (1994) found that the concepts of citizenship behavior varied across organizational ranks. What appeared to be citizenship behavior for some supervisors was defined and perceived differently by job incumbents, suggesting that perceptions of citizenship behavior are subjective. If so, then differences in perceptions arising from people's cultural values may have a profound impact on how citizenship behavior is viewed and operates in relation to other constructs.

Further, concepts of justice are known to vary according to people's cultural values. For instance, Bond, Leung, and their colleagues (e.g., Bond, Leung, and Wan, 1982; Leung and Bond, 1984) have examined systematically the distributive aspects of reward allocation in Chinese, Japanese, American, and Korean samples. They found that people from collectivistic cultures used different norms of equity and equality than people in individualistic cultures. Norms of distributive justice appear to differ as a function of cultural background. Similar concerns over the etic nature of procedural justice effects have been raised as well (Lind and Tyler, 1988).

What role, then, do individual differences in cultural values play in determining what citizenship behavior is and how it relates to organizational justice? In Western society, there is an emphasis on individualism and universalism (Triandis, 1989; Markus and Kitayama, 1991) and contractual relationships (Blau, 1964; Williamson, 1975). Relationships are viewed as mutable, and exchanges are regulated instrumentally by specific rules for transactions (Ouchi, 1980). The structure of transactions and expectations of exchanges are universal and not tied to role occupants in these transactions. An employee's background, in terms of race, sex, or ethnicity, for example, is not relevant in matters of compensation -- an employer is expected to provide all employees with a "fair day's wages" for a "fair day's work." In this circumstance, organizational justice, particularly based on a fair distribution of goods, predicts citizenship behavior. Distributive justice based on an equity norm reinforces a person's belief that he or she is being treated fairly. Over time, assuming consistent and fair treatment, this relationship may shift from an instrumental to a relational agreement based on trust and good faith, such as that found in a social exchange or covenantal relationship (Graham and Organ, 1993). Procedural justice influences citizenship behavior similarly, in that it enhances a person's trust in his or her supervisor and organization, which in turn leads to the display of citizenship behavior (Konovsky and Pugh, 1994). Thus, distributive and procedural justice enhance the display of citizenship behavior by creating an environment conducive to a covenantal relationship between an employee and his or her organization. If employees believe that procedures used in allocating organizational outcomes are fair and just, they will be satisfied and more likely to engage in citizenship behavior (Brockner and Adsit, 1986; Konovsky and Pugh, 1994).

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Impetus for action: a cultural analysis of justice and organizational citizenship behavior in Chinese society

Administrative Science Quarterly, Sept, 1997 by Jiing-Lih Farh, P. Christopher Earley, Shu-Chi Lin

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