Competitive Psychological Climate and Organizational Citizenship Behavior–Model Inventory

Abstract

The Competitive Psychological Climate and Organizational Citizenship Behavior–Model Inventory, developed by Bani-Melhem et al. (2023), is a 29-item measure designed to explore complex relationships within organizational settings. The primary objective of the underlying study was to investigate how a competitive psychological climate influences organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) directed both toward co-workers and customers. The model proposes that this influence is mediated by employee jealousy, drawing theoretically upon Social Comparison Theory to resolve contradictions found in existing literature.

Furthermore, utilizing principles derived from Self-Consistency Theory, the research hypothesized that Organization-Based Self-Esteem (OBSE) acts as a moderator, buffering the negative impact of jealousy (which arises from the competitive environment) on both forms of OCB. The instrument items were adapted from established measures (Fletcher et al., 2008; Han et al., 2020; Bettencourt & Brown, 1997). The final measure was refined from 31 to 29 items after two items (OCBCW2 and OBSE2) were removed due to low factor loadings (below the 0.5 cut-off point). Data was collected dyadically from employees and supervisors in hospitality organizations in the UAE, and the study reported strong psychometric properties for the final inventory.

Keywords

Competitive Psychological Climate, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Organizational Citizenship Behavior toward Customers, Organization-Based Self-Esteem, Jealousy, Organizational Citizenship Behavior toward Co-Workers, Self-Consistency Theory, Social Comparison Theory, Competition, Employee Attitudes, Organizational Climate, Supervisor Employee Interaction.

Authors

Bani-Melhem, Shaker, Shamsudin, Faridahwati Mohd, Abukhait, Rawan, Al-Hawari, Mohd Ahmad.

Purpose

The primary purpose of this measurement model is twofold. First, it rigorously assesses the causal pathway linking a perceived competitive psychological climate within an organization to subsequent employee behaviors, specifically organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) directed toward both colleagues and external customers.

Second, the instrument is designed to test a sophisticated moderated mediation model. This involves confirming the mediating role of employee jealousy in the Competitive Psychological Climate (CPC) to OCB relationship. Additionally, it seeks to determine the moderating influence of Organization-Based Self-Esteem (OBSE) on the jealousy-to-OCB path. The model ultimately seeks to explain the complex, double-edged nature of competitive environments on employee altruism and performance beyond core job requirements.

Construct

The inventory measures five distinct psychological constructs crucial to organizational behavior studies. These constructs were operationalized based on established scales but adapted for the hospitality context and tested relationships:

• Competitive Psychological Climate (CPC): Measures employees’ perceptions of the degree to which the organizational environment encourages inter-employee competition, ranking, and comparison of results by management.

• Organizational Citizenship Behavior toward Customers (OCB-C): Captures discretionary behaviors aimed at helping or satisfying customers that go beyond the formal requirements of the job description.

• Organization-Based Self-Esteem (OBSE): Reflects the extent to which an employee believes they are a significant, capable, and valued member of the organization.

• Jealousy (JLS): Measures the negative emotional response and resentment experienced by employees when supervisors or the organization show favorable attention, recognition, or resources toward co-workers.

• Organizational Citizenship Behavior toward Co-Workers (OCB-CW): Assesses voluntary, helpful behaviors directed specifically at colleagues, such as assisting with heavy workloads or offering personal support.

Validity

The measurement model demonstrated robust evidence of both convergent and discriminant validity, adhering to strict psychometric standards.

Regarding Convergent Validity, all variables successfully met the required threshold, with the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values ranging from 0.741 to 0.830. Since all these values exceeded the recommended 0.5 threshold (Hair, Black, et al., 2010), the constructs were deemed to measure what they were intended to measure effectively.

For Discriminant Validity, two criteria were met: First, the square root of the AVE for each individual construct was found to be higher than its correlation with any other construct in the model. Second, all inter-construct correlations were well below the stringent 0.85 threshold, ranging from -0.280 to 0.454 (Kline, 2010), thereby confirming that the constructs were conceptually and empirically distinct.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the multi-dimensional measure was assessed using Composite Reliability (CR) and Cronbach’s alpha scores, both yielding highly satisfactory results.

The Composite Reliability (CR) values across all scales ranged from 0.940 to 0.978, significantly exceeding the conventional threshold of 0.6 (Hair, Black, et al., 2010). Furthermore, all calculated Cronbach’s alpha values were reported to be above the generally accepted standard of 0.7 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994), reinforcing the reliability and stability of the measurement instrument.

Factor Analysis

Factor analysis was performed to confirm the structural integrity of the model and assess potential bias. Harman’s single factor test was executed to check for Common Method Bias (CMB). The results indicated that the single-factor model accounted for only 28.964% of the total variance, suggesting that common method variance was not a severe problem in the dataset (Hoyle, 1995).

A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to evaluate the overall model fit of the measurement instrument. The fit indices demonstrated a good fit for the model:

• χ2(367) = 426.899 (p < 0.05)

• χ2/df = 1.163

• Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) = 0.839

• Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) = 0.809

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.987

• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.985

• Incremental Fit Index (IFI) = 0.987

• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = 0.041

• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.034

The high values for CFI, TLI, and IFI (all above 0.9), coupled with the low SRMR and RMSEA values, confirm that the measurement model exhibits strong structural validity, meeting established thresholds for a good model fit.

Instrument

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire.

Format: Items are rated using a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from ‘1’ “strongly disagree” to ‘5’ “strongly agree”.

Language Available: Arabic and English.

Population Group: Human; Male; Female.

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older), specifically including Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs), Thirties (30-39 yrs), and Middle Age (40-64 yrs).

Population Details: Dyadic data was collected from customer service employees and their supervisors across various hospitality organizations located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Test Methodology: Test Validity (Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity), Test Reliability (Internal Consistency), and Factor Analysis (Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Measurement Model).

Keywords

Competitive Psychological Climate, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Organizational Citizenship Behavior toward Customers, Organization-Based Self-Esteem, Jealousy, Organizational Citizenship Behavior toward Co-Workers, Social Comparison Theory, Competition, Employee Attitudes, Organizational Climate, Social Comparison, Supervisor Employee Interaction.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Shaker Bani-Melhem: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6137-7691; Mohd Ahmad Al-Hawari: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2166-0572

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (Bani-Melhem); [email protected] (Shamsudin); [email protected] (Abukhait); [email protected] (Al-Hawari)

Correspondence Address: [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: May be used for Research/Teaching purposes.

Commercial Use: No

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

Reference’s

Bani-Melhem, S., Shamsudin, F. M., Abukhait, R., & Al-Hawari, M. A. (2023). Competitive psychological climate as a double-edged sword: A moderated mediation model of organization-based self-esteem, jealousy, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 54, 139–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2022.12.011

Items of the Competitive Psychological Climate and Organizational Citizenship Behavior–Model Inventory

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Competitive Psychological Climate (CPC)

• CPC 1: My manager frequently compares my results with those of other employees.

• CPC 2: The amount of recognition you get in this company depends on how your work rank compared to other people’s work.

• CPC 3: Everybody is concerned with finishing at the top of the work rankings.

• CPC 4: My co-workers frequently compare their results with mine.

OCB toward customers (OCB-C)

• OCB-C 1: This employee voluntarily assists customers even if it means going beyond job requirements.

• OCB-C 2: This employee helps customers with problems beyond what is expected or required.

• OCB-C 3: This employee often goes above and beyond the call of duty when serving customers.

• OCB-C 4: This employee willingly goes out of his/her way to make a customer satisfied.

• OCB-C 5: This employee frequently goes out of the way to help a customer.

Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE)

• OBSE 1: I count around here.

• OBSE 2: I am taken seriously around here.

• OBSE 3: I am important around here.

• OBSE 4: I am trusted around here.

• OBSE 5: There is faith in me around here.

• OBSE 6: I can make a difference around here.

• OBSE 7: I am valuable around here.

• OBSE 8: I am helpful around here.

• OBSE 9: I am efficient around here.

• OBSE 10: I am cooperative around here.

Jealousy (JLS)

• JLS 1: When I see my supervisor praising someone else, my stomach knots up.

• JLS 2: I feel depressed when my supervisor speaks favourably about another employee.

• JLS 3: When my supervisor pays attention to other employees, I feel irritated.

• JLS 4: I would be resentful if my supervisor asked one of my co-workers for help with a problem.

• JLS 5: If my supervisor were to single out another employee for recognition, it would not make me feel good.

• JLS 6: I sometimes worry that my supervisor will feel that another employee is more competent than I.

OCB toward co-workers (OCB-CW)

• OCB-CW 1: I help my co-workers when their workload is heavy.

• OCB-CW 2: I help my co-workers who have been absent to finish their work.

• OCB-CW 3: I take time to listen to my co-workers’ problems and worries.

• OCB-CW 4: I go out of my way to help new co-workers.

• OCB-CW 5: I take personal interest in my co-workers.

• OCB-CW 6: I pass along notices and news to my co-workers.

Note: Participants are asked to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from ‘1’ “strongly disagree” to ‘5’ “strongly agree” on the items asked.