Enhancing Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Role of Employee Empowerment, Trust and Engagement

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between empowerment, trust, engagement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in two Sub-Saharan African countries. The chapter uses the social exchange theory as a lens to examine empowerment and OCB of employees in SMEs. A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect quantitative data from a representative sample of 376 respondents, selected from a targeted population of 545 in Rwanda and Uganda. A regression analysis run on two levels revealed a significant positive relationship between empowerment and OCB, indicating that empowerment is the most significant predictor of OCB. However, the study also reveals conflicting views among employees and supervisors regarding the relationship between trust and employees' engagement and OCB. While the regression analysis of employees' views indicates a significant positive relationship between their engagement and OCB, the opposite is true when analyzing the supervisors' views on engagement. Further still, a regression analysis of supervisors' views indicates a significant positive relationship between trust and OCB, while the opposite is true for employees' views on trust. The chapter discusses possible reasons for such conflicting views on trust and employee engagement, and recommends that the managements of SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa should continuously monitor the level of empowerment, trust and engagement climate if they want their employees to exhibit OCB hence enabling an environment that fosters efficiency and effectiveness through the facilitation of OCB. The chapter has two main contributions: first, it contributes to literature on the challenges of SME management in developing countries. Second, its findings can help management practitioners to enhance OCB in SMEs in the Sub-Saharan region.