Effects of Workgroup and Organizational Commitment on Discretionary Behavior

Abstract

Today, it is important for many organizations to use workgroups for solving complex problems and tasks. The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare how commitment among workgroup members, directed towards the workgroup and organization respectively, influences discretionary work behavior. A deductive and quantitative method is used that was translated into a descriptive cross-sectional study of 138 individuals in 33 different workgroups operating in a professional environment. Various statistical methods including regression analysis was used to test the drafted hypotheses. The results indicated commitment among workgroup participants, both directed towards the organization and workgroup appears to be positively related to organization citizenship behavior. Also, Commitment directed towards the workgroup is observed to be a stronger predictor of organization citizenship behavior, and in turn discretionary behaviors, than commitment focused towards the organization. This study is one of very few studies which have investigated effects of workgroup and organizational commitment on discretionary behavior based on the comprehensive literature review in the area of firms industry.