Covid-19 furlough on employee organisational citizenship behaviour

The role of psychological contract breach, job insecurity, and personal attributes

Abstract

This study examined psychological contract breach, job insecurity and personal attributes influences on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Three hundred and twenty-two (n =322) purposively selected furloughed employees (females = 36.6%; Mean age = 33.21; SD = 6.51) were surveyed. They completed a self-applied questionnaire that measured scales of psychological contract breach, job insecurity, and organisational citizenship behaviour. Participants’ provided their socio-demographic information. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that psychological contract breach significantly and negatively predicted OCB, explaining 4% of the variance in OCB. Job insecurity significantly and negatively predicted OCB. It explained 25% of the variance in OCB. Personal attributes (gender, marital status, education and organisational tenure) did not contribute to the variance in OCB. This study demonstrated that placing employees on furlough would reduce their level of OCB. It recommends managing employee expectations and deliberately addressing their fears about job loss during uncertain times (such as the COVID-19 pandemic era) to encourage their participation in organisational citizenship behaviour.