Role of organizational citizenship behavior in promoting knowledge sharing

Introduction: Organizational citizenship behavior has been linked to overall organizational effectiveness, thus these types of employee behaviors have important consequences in the workplace. One of the important consequences of these types of behaviors is knowledge sharing. Thus, the current study examined the role of organizational citizenship behavior in promoting knowledge sharing. Method: A descriptive correlation design was employed in this study. We collected the data from Kharazmi University employees in city of Tehran in 2014. The statistical population consisted of 484 Kharazmi University employees from which 210 persons were selected randomly (using simple random sampling) by the Krejcie and Morgan (1978) sample size determination table. Data werecollected through organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire and knowledge sharing questionnaire. To examine the reliability of the questionnaires, Cronbach alpha coefficient was used. These coefficients were 0.80 for attitude toward knowledge sharing and 0.77 for intention to share knowledge. Also, for organizational citizenship behavior it ranged from 0.71 (courtesy) to 0.82 (altruism). To determine the validity, content validity method was applied. All descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson correlation and multiple regression were performed using SPSS 19. Results: The results of t-test indicated that the means of organizational citizenship behavior (mean=2.50) and all its dimensions (altruism: 2.60, conscientiousness: 2.52, sportsmanship: 2.41, courtesy: 2.49, civic virtue: 2.45) among employees were at the moderate level. The results showed that the correlation between organizational citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing was significant (r=0.50, P < 0.001). Other results showed that the correlations between knowledge sharing and organizational citizenship behavior dimensions - Altruism (r=0.35), Conscientiousness (r=0.19), Sportsmanship (r=0.46), Courtesy (r=0.39), Civic virtue (r=0.18) - were significant (p < 0.001). Finally, results of multiple regression analysis showed that organizational citizenship behavior dimensions– Sportsmanship (B= 0.53) - could predict knowledge sharing. Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that with improvement in each of the research variables, other variables will improve. For example, as theresult of improvement in organizational citizenship behavior, knowledge sharing will increase and the organization could use its competitive advantage.