Citizenship and the Organisation

 

Before beginning an in-depth discussion of the meaning and implications of this exclusive behaviour, the philosophy underlying the components of this term 'citizenship' must be understood.

A definition of 'citizenship' in general, and the meanings of 'OCB' in particular, is a complex and dynamic matter which is principally discussed at present by sociologists, political scientists and those concerned with political philosophy. The question to be asked is what is the source of, or what are the worlds of content contained in, the concept 'OCB'.

This behaviour apparently includes two concepts borrowed from two completely different worlds. The first, 'organisational behaviour', constitutes a scientific area in social sciences, an area which developed from industrial sociology and industrial psychology, company economics and other fields in management science and behavioural science, during the period prior to the Second World War, and in particular after the war (Bar-Haim, 1992). Organisational behaviour deals with the individual's behavioural and psychological aspects at the workplace, and the reciprocal activity between the employee and the organisation. The scientific area of organisational behaviour attempts to understand the processes and mechanisms controlling people's behaviour when they are in organisational settings, and their influence upon them. In particular, it examines human behaviour in organisational settings at three levels: the level of the individual, the level of the group and the level of the organisation (Bar-Haim, 1992). In contrast, the second concept 'citizenship' is derived from the concepts of politics and political science and more specifically from one of the branches dealing with philosophy, the political concept and regime theory (Vigoda, 1996). Already in ancient Greece, opinion makers and philosophers such as Aristotle tried to explain the true meaning of citizenship.… a citizen is one of a community, as a sailor is one of the crew; and although each member of the crew has his own function and a name to fit it – rower, helmsman, look- out and the rest – and has therefore his goodness at that particular job, there is also a type of goodness which all the crew must have, a function in which they all play a part –the safe conduct of the voyage; for each member of the crew aims at securing that. Similarly, the aim of all the citizens, however dissimilar they may be, is the safety of the community, that is, the constitution of which they are citizens (quote from Aristotle in Elcock, 1976, p.58).

 

 

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