Exploring Organisational Citizenship Behaviour in the Federal Hospitals in the United Arab Emirates: A Cross-Cultural Research Study

Abstract

The goal of this study was to explore the construct of organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cultural context, particularly in the federal hospitals of the Ministry of Health (MOH). The research answered the recent call by Organ, Podsakoff and MacKenzie (2006:136) for additional research regarding the examination of OCB in non-Western cultural contexts in order to fully understand the impact of cultural characteristics on OCB. The research employed a cross-sectional survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data from 12 federal hospitals in the UAE; 1007 usable survey questionnaire responses were obtained from employees from different nationalities, in different types of occupations, and from a range of hospital sizes. The survey comprised mainly the original OCB scale that was developed and validated by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman and Fetter (1990:134) plus some new components specific to the UAE context. One open-ended question was also included in the survey in order to provide more insights into additional areas of OCB that might be relevant to the UAE cultural context. The study was classified as a predominantly quantitative study. Three major types of quantitative techniques were chosen in order to inform the aim and the objectives of this research; exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Finally, thematically-clustered matrix displays were used to categorise the qualitative data to assist in the production of meaningful themes.