Volunteerism and organisational culture: Relationship to organizational commitment and citizenship behaviors in India

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of motives for volunteerism and organizational culture on organizational commitment (OC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in Indian work context.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from 248 middle and senior managers of a public sector organization in India. The self and other reported questionnaires were used to collect the data.

Findings

Results of hierarchical regression analysis have shown that personal development dimension of volunteerism was found to be the positive predictor of OC and OCB both. However, career enhancement, empathy and community concern dimensions of volunteerism had mixed effects on both the criterion variables. Furthermore, culture had not shown a significant impact on OCB; however, it had a positive influence on affective and continuance commitment. Moreover, demographic variables (age, education and tenure) had strong impact on OC than OCB.

Practical implications

OC and OCB are highly desirable forms of employees’ behavior in which motivation for volunteerism and organizational culture can play a significant role. However, both OC and OCB are differentially predicted by these antecedent variables.

Originality/value

This is the first study which has explored the impact of motives for volunteerism on OC and OCB in the field of organizational behavior in a non-western work context such as India.

Citation

Jain, A.K. (2015), "Volunteerism and organisational culture: Relationship to organizational commitment and citizenship behaviors in India", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 116-144. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCM-11-2013-0167