Organizational identification, organizational citizenship behavior, and employee silence behavior: A case study of public employees in Vhembe District Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

The performance of any organization is dependent upon the quality of service provided by its human resources. However, organizational stressors are an exception in most organizations. Employees are expected to perform duties exceptionally as organizational stressors hamper employees' ability to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors, the enthusiasm to cling to the organization much longer, and leaving employees with no choice but suppressing their concerns regarding corporate matters. The study sought to determine the association between organizational identification and organizational citizenship behavior and to investigate the moderating role of employee silence of public employees in Vhembe District Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 300 South African Police Services professionals of 4 stations in Vhembe district municipality (Thohoyandou, Sibasa, Malamulele, and Louis Trichardt) in Limpopo province. In this study, IBM-SPSS version 25 was employed to complete descriptive, Factor, inference, and Multiple regression analyses. The Pearson correlation results showed a significant and positive relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and organizational identification (α = 111; p < 0.01) and a negative relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and employee silence behavior (α = -231; p < 0.01). The results further showed that employee silence behavior harms the relationship between organizational identification and organizational citizenship behavior. Therefore, the study recommends transformation in people management and organizational decision-making towards developmental methods that can enhance organizational identification and organizational citizenship behaviors. Lastly, Organizations should focus on creating organizational climates which encourage employees to speak up. When this climate is created, employees will be able to contribute to the development of the organization.