Leadership, organisational citizenship and innovative work behaviours in Lesotho: Exploratory evidence

Abstract

Although organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and innovative work behaviour (IWB) have attracted considerable attention in recent years, empirical studies on how leadership relates to each construct within the same research design in non-western environments are limited. Based on a sample of 100 participants in Lesotho, we explored how OCB and IWB related to each other, and how leadership related to each construct. The findings suggested that OCB and IWB were highly correlated, and while transformational leadership related to each concept positively, passive-avoidant dimension of transactional leadership related to each negatively. Furthermore, age, tenure, management level and level of education were all significantly related to both OCB and IWB. We submit that the participants could probably not differentiate between OCB and IWB as the two concepts probably represent a behavioural manifestation of the same latent construct. We recommend that managers who want to influence subordinates to adopt OCB and IWB should apply transformational leadership.

Key words: organisational citizenship behaviour; innovative work behaviour; transformational leadership; transactional leadership