CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The concept of working condition is a global phenomenon in all organizations in the world  .Most organizations in Cameroon has a challenge of ensuring that employees have the best working conditions and  research has showed that working conditions can affect employees attitudes, behaviors and we’ll being.

The relationship between working condition and organizational has been studied by several researchers over the years but however a seminal work on the topic is often attributed to Dennis Organ,who was one of the pioneers in the field of organizational citizenship behaviors research. Dennis W. Organ in 1998 proposed the concept of organizational citizenship behaviors and suggested that working conditions such as Job satisfaction, organizational commitment and perceived fairness were important predictors of organizational citizenship behaviors.

Research has showed that working conditions have a significant impact in the organizational citizenship behaviors.This is because employees for example  those who have a comfortable physical work environment ,good social relationship with colleagues and feel psychological environment ,good social relationships with colleagues and feel psychologically safe are more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (Rhoades and Elsenberger,2002) .

Also, according to Williams and Anderson (1991), working condition can increase job satisfaction and favorable working conditions can increase job satisfaction . Favorable working conditions such as comfortable physical work environment ,good social relationships with colleagues and a sense of psychological safety can increase job satisfaction in turn is positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors.

More to that, working conditions that reduces stress such as flexible working arrangement or support from supervisor and colleagues can also increase organizational citizenship behaviors.This studies have shown that employees who experience high level of stress are less likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors.

To continue, several studies have examined the relationship between working conditions and organizational citizenship behaviors like Podsokoff et al (2000) found that Job stress negatively impacted organizational citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, Lynn Shore and Natalie Allzen (2001) conducted a study on the relationship between working conditions and organizational citizenship behaviors,where they found out that ,employees who had high quality relationship with their supervisors were more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors.

Furthermore, Dhanapal and sankarapandian (2021) found that working conditions including autonomy and social support ,positively impacted organizational citizenship behaviors among employees in the hospitality industry .Also, Kim(2015) examine the impact of job autonomy on organizational citizenship behaviors among Korean employees The found employees who perceived themselves as having greater job autonomy were more likely to engage in OCB similarly a study by Van Dyne, Cummings and parks (1995) found that employees who perceived high level of social support from their colleagues where more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors

1.2 Problems Statement

For a pass number of years now, organizational citizenship behaviors has been an important aspect of many organizations because of it’s relationship with organizational performance (Podsakoff,Machenzie et al 2000).

All organizational success depends on the organizational citizenship behaviors of it’s employees and this has mad many researchers to focus on this study .It has been noticed for the past years by many researchers that there has been a relationship between organizational citizenship behaviors and working conditions as working conditions in an organization has had a  strong impact on organizational citizenship behaviors.

A number of studies have been conducted on the topic such as a study by Williams and Anderson (1991) found that while organizational citizenship behaviors were positively  related to job satisfaction ,they were not related to job satisfaction ,they were not related to turnover or absenteeism.

Additionally, Organ and Ryan (1995) studied on the organizational  citizenship behaviors and found that organizational citizenship behaviors where positively related to various organizational outcomes including productivity , customer satisfaction ,and financial performance . Similarly, Padsakoff et Al (2000) also conducted a meta- analysis and found that organizational citizenship behaviors were positively related to the overall job performance as well as organizational outcomes such as profitability and customer’s satisfaction .

On the hand ,other studies have found  mixed results just like for instance,a study by Bolino and Turnkey (2003) found that while organizational citizenship behaviors were positively related to supervisor-rated performance ,they were not rated to objective measures of performance such as revenue growth or net income.

To continuein the year 2009, indentified four dimensions of working conditions that are positively related to organizational citizenship behaviors (Podsakoff et al ,2009) . Similarly, Ghalamkeri et al (2015) found that social support from colleagues and supervisors had a positive effect on organizational citizenship behaviors

.Most of these studies were carried out in the developed countries ,and in context to Cameroon ,more emphasis has not been really focus on organizational citizenship behaviors and despite the potential importance of organizational citizenship behavior for organizational outcomes,the relationship between the two constructs is not well understood .There is a good need for further research to clarify the nature of this relationship and identify the specific organizational outcomes .This study aims to address this Gap in literature by examining the impact of working conditions on organizational citizenship behaviors.

In  conclusion, this problem highlights the need for further research on the impact of working conditions on organizational citizenship behaviors and despite some evidence suggesting a positive relationship between the two constructs ,the results are mixed ,and the specific working conditions that are most strongly related to organizational citizenship behaviors are not well understood .This study aim to contribute to the literature by examining the impact of working conditions on organizational citizenship behaviors.

1.3 Research questions

1.3.1 Main research question

What is the impact of working conditions on organizational citizenship behaviors in Ngieforbi Bakery Buea?

1.3.2 Specific research questions

1. To what extent does social working conditions influence organizational citizenship behaviors in Ngieforbi Bakery Buea?
2. How do physical working conditions influence organizational citizenship behaviors in Ngieforbi Bakery Buea?
3. What is the effect of psychological working conditions on organizational citizenship behaviors in Ngieforbi Bakery Buea?

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