This chapter is an overview of the study which offers an introduction, insights on the background for the study, the problem the research is addressing, the purpose of the study, the questions the researcher will be attempting to answer and the significance of the study.
Background of the Study
In the western countries, the use of temporary employment is seen as part of the most significant and noteworthy evolution in their working life (De Cuyper et al., 2008).
Organizations, in their imperative need to be more flexible, have adopted different kind of employments in order to reach their goals such as increasingly relying on non-permanent staff to carry out their activities (Kalleberg, 2000). Contingent workers are hired by the businesses, the public sector as well as non-profit organizations (NPO). The NPOs surely differ from the other sectors with their main values but they indeed need flexibility in order to keep running. The non-profit organizations (NPO), the nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and the International Organizations (IO) and other non-profit actors, also rely on such workers for carrying out their mission throughout the world.
Because of the increasing use of contingent workers, non-standard work arrangements like part-time work, contract work and temporary employment consequently have been subjected to behavioral and economic studies aimed at investigating the impact of such type of employment at both individual and organizational levels (Connelly & Gallagher, 2004; Kalleberg, 2000).
This type of workforce can vary; there are temporary-firm workers, direct hires, consultants as well as independent contractors (Parks, Kidder, & Gallagher, 1998). They have been further identified based on their preference for temporary work as voluntary and involuntary (Marler, Barringer, & Milkovich, 2002).
There have been a number of non-profit operators in Haiti; after the January 2010 earthquake when more than 200,000 people died and 1.5 million were left homeless, these organizations’
presence increased significantly. Because of the weakness of the national institutions and limited capacity of the state, the contributions from the non-profit sector and private contractors have
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come to be of noticeable importance (Ramachandran & Walz, 2012). An overview of one of the widely used job seeking website called jobpaw.com shows a significant number of job offers from various non-profit actors both locals and internationals. The majority of these postings from the non-profit sector are short-term assignments varying from less than three months to sometimes a year. These organizations are renowned for offering better work conditions and job opportunities. About one third of formal employments are provided by this sector in the country.
These types of assignments in the non-profit organizations can be explained by the financial uncertainty these organizations are facing. Therefore, they cannot offer permanent positions to all their employees (McMullen & Schellenberg, 2003).
An emerging topic relating to the contingent workforce is that of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB). By definition, these behaviors are discretionary, not formally included in the employee’s job description nor rewarded but promote the effective functioning of the organization (Organ, 1988; Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983). According to Smith et al. (1983) OCB has two main factors identified as altruism and generalized compliance. The former aims to helping a person directly while the latter does not target any particular individual but contributes to everyone in the system. Literature suggested that OCB is present everywhere, influencing factors may vary from a country to another and that the importance of some factors may vary depending on the standpoint of regular worker or contingent worker (Blatt, 2008; Paine & Organ 2000). Literature has highlighted differences among levels of OCB for temporary workers compared to permanent ones. They often report lower levels from the temporaries (Coyle-Shapiro & Kessler, 2002; Van Dyne & Ang, 1998) whereas Kidder (1995) found no difference between permanent and contingent nurses. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment have also been studied in relation to OCB (Williams & Anderson, 1991) since they have been considered as being the main predictors of such behaviors with job satisfaction being the best predictor (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ, Podsakoff, & Mackenzie, 2005). Other factors like perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support have been studied in relation to OCB of non-standard workers (Wayne, Shore, & Liden, 1997; Zhao & Yu, 2009).
Furthermore, organizational concern, prosocial behaviors, impression management have also been investigated as being motives to engage in OCB (Rioux & Penner, 2001; Rosenfeld, Giacalone, & Riordan, 1995).
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Organizations nowadays are more than ever conscious of their need for people willing to engage in these behaviors for them to be more successful. The non-profit sector in Haiti plays a noticeable role in providing jobs, though mostly temporary, in the country. A good understanding of how to manage their workers, and particularly these workers they hire on short-term contracts in order to motivate the best out of them is critical for this sector to be competitive as the workforce has been identified as key contributors to an organization’s effectiveness. Since the non-profit sector also relies on such workers, OCB indeed represents a very important issue for that sector since the primary mission of these organizations is social profit (Zabihi, Hashemzehi, & Hashemzehi, 2012).
Statement of the Problem
As the use and research about contingent workers is blooming, research on the citizenship behaviors of this segment is still at a moderate level compared to permanent workers (Connelly
& Gallagher, 2004). Research has covered various aspects of citizenship behaviors and explained its connection with many factors such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, perceived organizational support, perceived supervisor support, various motives as predictors and with organizational effectiveness among the outcomes. Considering the importance of these behaviors that have been studied widely in the business sector, none or very limited studies so far have covered organizational citizenship behaviors of paid employees outside of the corporate structure. The current study therefore will help in having a better insight of some influential factors on OCB of contingent workers which have not yet been explored in the current study context which is the non-profit sector according to Zabihi et al. (2012) and as per the researcher’s knowledge from review of literature.
Rationale for the Study
The present study is to address OCB of contingent workers in the non-profit sector by considering the influence of some potentially influential factors already studied but not yet applied to the current sample. A preliminary study from Gay and Yeh (2013) found OCB of
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contingent workers in this sector to be predicted by support perceived from their supervisor and impression management motives. These workers expressed their concerns about not knowing whether their contract would be renewed or not. This showed somehow their willingness to stay in the organization by having their contract renewed. As suggested by Clinton, Bernhard-Oettel, Rigotti and Jong (2011), temporal variables might have an effect on work attitudes and behaviors of non-permanent workers. Since it is important to consider temporal variables when studying contingent workers, the researcher believes the time remaining on contract and expectation of contract continuation could influence the behaviors of the sample with less time remaining and negative expectations bringing more stress. This study examined perceived supervisor support, impression management motives, and contract of choice which also is considered as important when it comes to OCB of contingent workers. Time remaining on contract and expectations of employment continuation are the temporal variables considered in this study. Previous temporary work experience and contract duration were also considered in the demographics for a better understanding of the sample and to see if there would be any correlations with OCB.
As behavioral studies among Haitian workers are scarce, this study is among the first of its kind when it comes to Haitian workers and it will contribute to Haitian literature which is in great need of such research. This research also aimed to fill the gap relating to organizational citizenship behaviors in the non-profit sector which has not yet been explored among paid employees.
Questions of the Study
Citizenship behaviors are very important for organizations, even more in the non-profit sector which main goals and objectives are about alleviating suffering in the world and provide help for development. The nature of these organizations requires them to have people engaging in these behaviors which can help improve their competitiveness in the long run. Therefore the research questions for this study are as follow:
1. How does perceived supervisor support influence OCB of contingent workers in the non-profit sector in Haiti?
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2. How do impression management motives guide the contingent workers engagement in OCB in the non-profit sector in Haiti?
3. How important is choice of contract when it comes to the OCB of contingent workers in the non-profit sector in Haiti?
4. How important are temporal factors such as time remaining on current contract and expectation of contract continuation in understanding the OCB of contingent workers in the non-profit sector in Haiti?
Scope of the Study
A delimitation of this study is that it only focused on three general dimensions of OCB which are altruism, conscientiousness and attendance since most of the behaviors identified by Gay and Yeh’s (2013) study were related to behaviors oriented towards individuals and others towards the organization. Furthermore the researcher only focused on a limited number of factors relating to OCB. Some other important variable not mentioned in this research may influence citizenship behaviors. The purpose of the research was to study organizational citizenship behavior in the Haitian context; the sample was constituted of different contractual Haitian workers in the non-profit sector in Haiti. Only temporary workers are considered for the study and there was no study of permanent employees for comparison. This study focused on OCB of the participants as the outcome behavior, not the productivity or efficacy of such behaviors for the organization.
Due to the size of the sample to be surveyed it might not accurately represent the whole country or the entire sector.
Definition of Terms
Non-Profit Sector- Organizations which are independent from the government and whose course of actions is distinct from the state and the private sector. They are usually exempt from taxes, their profit is reinvested for accomplishing the mission of the organization, and they may be staffed by volunteers as well as paid employees. In our study non-profit sector will be used to refer to NGOs, NPOs as well as International Organizations.
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Non-Governmental Organization -“Private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development" (Operational Directive 14.70 as cited in World Bank and NGOs, 2005)
Organizational Citizenship Behavior- Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) are these behaviors that are individual, discretionary, and not directly or formally recognized by the reward system, but in the aggregate contribute to the effectiveness of the organization. (Organ, 1988; Smith et al., 1983)
Contingent worker- The contingent workers are those who do not have an implicit or explicit contract for ongoing employment (Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangement, 2005) Perceived Supervisor Support- The belief the employee has that the supervisor acknowledges all efforts and cares about the employee wellbeing (Kottke & Sharafinski, 1988)
Impression Management Motives- refer to individuals who are concerned of avoiding to look bad and to gain rewards (Rioux and Penner, 2001).
Choice of Contract – The choice of contract refers to the reasons for working voluntarily or involuntarily under temporary contract
Temporal Factors – refer to variables relating to past temporary work experiences, actual contract duration and future expectations of employment which may influence the contingent worker’s behavioral outcomes.
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