Effects of the organizational antecedents on the organizational identification of faculty members in Hong Kong business schools

Abstract

This research examines how organizational antecedents affect organizational identification (OI) of academics in the business schools of universities in Hong Kong. Organizational antecedents include perceived organizational distinctiveness, inter-organizational competition, intra-organizational competition and perceived organizational prestige. OI is a perceptual cognition that links an individual to a particular group and identification with reference to an organization. It serves for individuals to cognitively segment and order the social environment. The outcomes of the study are faculty members’ in-role and extra-role performances, referring to the behavior necessary for the completion of the responsible work and behavior that attempts to benefit the organization and that goes beyond existing role expectations respectively. Based on the English language literature, it was hypothesized that OI of the faculty members was positively related to the antecedents except intra-organizational competition and the two outcomes. It also mediated the relationship between the four antecedents and two outcomes. Measures of the variables were operationalized using Likert scales by established international literature, and a survey instrument was constructed and validated after a pilot study in July 2012. All business school faculty members (1,162) in Hong Kong’s universities were invited to participate in the survey between August and October 2012. A total of 194 completed valid questionnaires were received. The statistics were run by the software package used for statistical analysis (SPSS) and data was analyzed using Baron and Kenny (1986)’s strategy to test the mediation hypothesis. The results of this study indicated a high level of OI consistent with the collectivist cultural value of Chinese employees. However, it demonstrated that OI was positively associated with organizational distinctiveness and organizational prestige only while there were no significant relationships between OI and inter-organizational competition as well as intra-organizational competition. These results were also contrary to the international OI literature which shows that OI only affects extra-role behavior. Instead, OI was positively associated with both consequences of in-role and extra-role performances. Finally, the data did not support OI as a mediator. Further research in a Chinese contexts and an extension of studies with more antecedents or moderators are recommended to retest the model and hypotheses.