The influence of personality characteristics and gender on organizational citizenship behaviour

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of personality characteristics and gender on Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). One hundred and fifty (150) respondents comprising eighty (80) males and seventy (70) females were randomly drawn from the Ministries of Finance, Health, Lands and Survey; State Government Secretariat, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Their age range was between 20 and 50 years. The respondents were administered with a set of questionnaires comprising two sections (A & B). Section A was the (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire- Adult (EPQ). This section also asked respondents about information relating to their age and gender. Section B was the Organizational Citizenship Behaviour Scale. The independent variables of interest were personality characteristics (introversion vs extroversion) and gender (males vs females). Two hypotheses were tested in the study. The first hypothesis predicting a significant difference between introverts and extroverts on organizational citizenship behaviour was confirmed,[F(146) = 20.04, p< .05]. However the second hypothesis which stated that there would be a significant difference between males and females on organizational citizenship behaviour was not significant,[F(146) = 3.22, p>.05] .It was however recommended among other things that organizations should create policies and strategies that facilitate organizational citizen behaviour.

KEYWORDS: Introversion, Extroversion, Gender, Work related behaviour, Organizational behaviour