Document Type : Original Article (Quantified)
Authors
1 Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
2 PhD student in educational management, Faculty of Humanities, Bu- Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran
Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of individual citizenship behavior in the organizational innovation of schools with the mediation of knowledge sharing in elementary school teachers. The current research is developmental and applicable in terms of its purpose, and descriptive-correlative in terms of the nature and method of data collection. And it is specifically based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the present study is all primary school teachers in 2 districts of Kermanshah, which are 1150 people; And according to Morgan's table and stratified random sampling method, 291 people were selected as samples. In the present research, three questionnaires were used as collection tools, which include the standard questionnaire of individual citizenship behavior of Schwabsky (2014), knowledge sharing by Van den Hooff and Van Weenen (2004) and organizational innovation of schools by Amid et al. (2002). The findings of the research showed that individual citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing of teachers have a significant effect on the organizational innovation of schools at the level of 0.05. Individual citizenship behavior through knowledge sharing has a significant effect on schools' organizational innovation at the 0.05 level. Also individual citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing can explain 47% of the variance of schools' organizational innovation.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Innovation is a key category for improving performance because it plays a fundamental role in organizational competition at all levels, including different national and international levels. In the dynamic and complex situation in which organizations are competing, the need for innovative organizations is constantly felt more (Battistelli, at al, 2019). Many thinkers have introduced innovation along with making a difference as an undeniable indicator, and believe that innovation is a complementary part of the organization's strategy (Le and Lei, 2019). Among the factors influencing the organizational innovation of schools is "individual citizenship behavior". In relation to individual citizenship behavior, the most recent research has used organizational citizen behavior with a scale change of "individual citizen behavior". Individual citizenship behavior is the description of voluntary behaviors on behalf of individuals that exceed official expectations and express their duties (Ribeiro, Duarte, Filipe, 2018). Individual citizenship behavior is a part of extra-role behaviors; individual citizenship behavior is a kind of valuable and useful behavior that includes various behaviors of employees such as accepting and assuming additional responsibilities, obeying the rules and procedures of the organization, developing a positive attitude and tolerating problems at work (Sun and Yoon, 2020). On the other hand, research has shown us that one of the factors influencing the innovation of schools is "knowledge sharing" (Delio and Cullar, 2021). Knowledge sharing will be and is one of the main processes in different structures known for knowledge management, and the motivation of people to share knowledge in organizations is one of the most important priorities of knowledge management activists and agents in the world (Ghanbari and Ahmadi, 2019). Knowledge sharing reflects the culture of social interaction, which includes the transfer of knowledge, experiences and skills of employees in the whole or part of the organization (Afsar, Masood, Umrani, 2019). Sharing knowledge will improve the professional and working skills of employees and create a social context for them so that they have the ability to produce valuable knowledge content that can cause the growth and development of the organization's intellectual capital (Attar, 2020).
According to the mentioned points, the researchers are trying to answer the main question of whether there is a significant relationship between individual citizenship behavior and organizational innovation of schools through the sharing of knowledge among primary teachers.
Theoretical framework
Organizational innovation of schools refers to new techniques of management, organization and strategies at the levels of organizations (Woodland, Douglas, Matuszczak, 2021). Organizational innovation of schools creates positive output and usable and valuable services in the organization. On the other hand, school organizational innovation is defined as a school's willingness to develop positive outputs and advanced and new services and present them to the market for success. In other words, organizational innovation at the school level is the key to survival in today's competitive education environment (Khan, at al, 2018). Knowledge sharing is the voluntary and enthusiastic transfer of acquired skills and experiences to other people and departments of the organization (Gupta, Mejia, Kajikawa, 2019). Knowledge sharing is also defined as information behavior that requires effort and preparation to be accountable and understand information knowledge sharing (Kurniawan, at al, 2020). Individual citizenship behavior by creating suitable platforms for working human factors makes teachers teach with a sense of responsibility and full commitment to issues in their organization and profession (Tufan, Elma, Çinkir, 2019). Individual citizenship behavior causes the success, efficiency and effectiveness of teachers in any type of educational system and should depend more on teachers who are willing to do things beyond the formal job requirements (Choi, Hwang, Kwon, 2019).
Mesgarian, et al (2021) showed that there is a significant relationship between knowledge sharing and organizational innovation. Rajabi Farjad, Mirsepasi, Naderi Mehrbani (2021) showed that there is a significant relationship between knowledge management processes and organizational innovation. Mazari and Thabet (2019) showed that there is a significant relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing.
Methodology
In terms of the objective, the current research is of the type of applicable and developmental research, and in terms of the method used, it is a descriptive-correlative research. The statistical population of the present study is all primary school teachers in two districts of Kermanshah, which are 1150 people; and according to Morgan's table, 291 people were selected as samples. Stratified random sampling method was used in this research. In order to collect data related to the variable of organizational innovation of schools, the questionnaire of standard organizational innovation of schools (Amid et al, 2002), individual citizenship behavior questionnaire (Shuibeski, 2014), and knowledge sharing questionnaire (Vanden Huff & Van Vinen, 2004) was used.
Research findings
In order to investigate the hypothesis of the research, the modeling of structural equations, the method of structural equation modeling with the help of spss software, and inferential statistics was used to test the hypotheses. Then, regression was used to test the hypotheses with LISREL software, confirmatory and content factor analysis, as well as the effect of factors; and the descriptive indices and correlation matrix of the research variables showed that the variables of individual citizenship behavior (0.698) and knowledge sharing (0.447) have a positive and significant relationship with the variable of organizational innovation of schools at the level of 0.05. The individual citizenship behavior variable has a positive and significant relationship with the knowledge sharing variable (0.645) at the 0.05 level. The results of the first hypothesis showed that the variable of individual citizenship behavior with the path coefficient (0.51) and the t value (7.15) has a positive and significant effect on the variable of organizational innovation of schools at the level of 0.05, and as a result, the null hypothesis is rejected while the opposite hypothesis is confirmed, so the first hypothesis is confirmed. The results of the second hypothesis showed that the knowledge sharing variable with path coefficient (0.41) and t value (5.36) has a positive and significant effect on the organizational innovation variable of schools at the level of 0.05, and as a result, the null hypothesis is rejected and the opposite hypothesis is confirmed, so the second hypothesis is confirmed. The results of the third hypothesis showed that the individual citizenship behavior variable with path coefficient (0.54) and t value (6.73) has a positive and significant effect on the knowledge sharing variable at the level of 0.05, and as a result, the null hypothesis is rejected and the opposite hypothesis is confirmed, so the third hypothesis is confirmed. And the results of the fourth hypothesis showed that the variable of individual citizenship behavior through knowledge sharing with the path coefficient (0.2214) and the t value (4.16) has a positive and significant effect on the variable of organizational innovation at the level of 0.05, and as a result, the null hypothesis is rejected and the opposite hypothesis is confirmed, so the fourth hypothesis is confirmed.
Conclusion
The present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of individual citizenship behavior in the organizational innovation of schools with the mediation of knowledge sharing among primary school teachers. These results are consistent with the findings of researchers such as Mesgarian, et al (2021), Akbari (2019), Azeem, et al (2021), Shujahat et al (2019) and Koch, et al (2015). In explaining this finding, it can be said that teachers who are constantly donating knowledge and gathering knowledge and developing their knowledge and skills through this sharing of knowledge; bring new information into the organization through this behaviour, which leads to organizational innovation. Also, teachers who have high citizenship behavior develop their curricular and non-curricular, knowledge and information, and share their information with other colleagues on their demand. This can be effective in improving organizational innovation. According to the results of the research, it is suggested that teachers' performance evaluation systems be aligned with the dimensions of supporting innovations, and teachers' satisfaction with innovation should be measured and evaluated, which is done through changing employee performance evaluation policies; education managers should use appropriate systems and methods and support creativity and innovation, which is done through teachers' job independence, providing an environment for the learning organization, and welcoming their new ideas; and also to raise the level of organizational innovation of teachers, it is suggested to the policy makers, planners, and administrators of education to hold face-to-face or virtual training workshops about factors affecting innovation, including individual citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing.
Keywords
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