In the current context, strongly marked by globalization, organizations have undergone a period of changes induced by economic, social, and political changes, which have led to changes in the relationships between individuals and society. In this way, organizations, through the implementation of new values and strategies, have established themselves as socially responsible organizations, characterized by their ethical essence. This chapter intends to evaluate the organizational virtuousness, affective well-being at work, and organizational citizenship behaviors, following the studies developed by Cameron et al. and by Rego et al., which relate organizational virtuosity, well-being at work, and behaviors of organizational citizenship. The study was applied in the municipalities of the Intermunicipal Community (CIM) – Trás-os-Montes, and 760 employees were surveyed. Findings indicate that perceptions of organizational virtuousness and well-being at work are related to organizational citizenship behaviors.
TopIntroduction
In the current context, strongly marked by globalization, organizations have undergone a set of economic, social and political transformations that have changed the relationships between individuals and society. The need to respond to these transformations has forced organizations to proceed with the implementation of new values and strategies, in order to build a path that aims to strengthen corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.
The concern with corporate social responsibility has led organizations to proceed with the implementation of an organizational culture that prioritizes the development of high performance, with emphasis on people management. In this way, the last decades have been marked by the growth of investigations directed to understand the different organizational cultures of countries, since organizational values are one of the fundamental elements of these cultures (Tamayo, 2004). Organizational values, present in organizations and perceived through organizational virtuosity and well-being at work, are constantly changing and, therefore, it is important to understand their trend.
The growing trend of virtuous characteristics in individuals and organizations has driven the topic of organizational virtuosity and well-being at work. These themes have assumed a growing importance over the last decades, not only in society, but also, increasingly, in the academic and scientific environment.
In the current context, strongly marked by situations of lack of business ethics and corruption, it is essential to analyze and study how organizations apply policies and practices and what is the impact on society. In this way, the importance of social responsibility has increased, essentially driven by organizational citizenship behaviors. Promoting the well-being of employees and managers is nowadays a priority.
Several studies have focused on the relevance of organizational virtuosity and on organizational environments where virtues such as integrity, forgiveness, trust, optimism and compassion are practiced, disseminated and perpetuated, both individually and collectively (Bright and Exline, 2012; Bright et al., 2006; Cameron, 2003; Cameron et al., 2004; Caza et al., 2004). These studies show that virtuous perceptions and practices are positively related to organizational citizenship behaviors.
In Portugal, this theme has also assumed its importance and several researchers have analyzed the perceptions of organizational virtuosity, relating it with organizational performance, affective well-being and organizational citizenship behaviors (Rego et al., 2010).
Following global and national trends, it is important to understand the true perception that employees develop about organizational values, since these values allow for the creation and permanence of work environments that help the development of people and the organization. This happens because the values present in the organization and perceived by the workers induce their behavior towards the organization.
This study aims to understand whether the organizational citizenship behaviors observed in the public entity Intermunicipal Community (CIM) - Terras de Trás-os-Montes are related to perceptions of organizational virtuosity and work well-being. To this end, we intend to answer the following questions: (1) Are the organizational citizenship behaviors practiced at CIM - Terras de Trás-os-Montes related to perceptions of organizational virtuosity? (2) Are the organizational citizenship behaviors practiced at CIM – Terras de Trás-os-Montes related to well-being at work?; (3) Is the well-being at work felt by workers at CIM - Terras de Trás-os-Montes related to perceptions of organizational virtuosity.
Although studies about integrity and trust within organizations are common in the literature, research combining such aspects as compassion, forgiveness, optimism and corporate social responsibility is yet to be done, namely in public sector entities.