Uncovering the Indirect Impact of Work Ethic on Engineering Students’ Productivity through Positive and Negative Organizational Behaviors and Workaholism

Humayun Sattar,Afshan Naseem,Masood Raza,Tasweer Hussain Syed,Muhammad Zeeshan Mirza,Yasir Ahmad

doi:10.3390/su13052922

Humayun Sattar, Afshan Naseem + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052922

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Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate the mediating effects of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), destructive deviant behaviors (DDB), constructive deviant behaviors (CDB), and workaholism (WA) in the relationship between work ethic (WE) and the productivity of engineering students. Another objective is to present a comprehensive holistic model of relationships of these organizational behaviors (OB), attitudes, and work ethic with the productivity. Structure equation modeling (SEM) and Hayes’ processes are used to analyze the hypothesized model. Data were randomly collected from 400 participants from the universities of Pakistan. The overall assessment of the model showed that WE indirectly effects productivity through mediating variables (OCB, DDB, CDB, WA). One of the implications of this finding is that education practitioners/planners should promote work ethic (considered essential for sustainable management practices by contemporary researchers also) among engineering students. This ethic will be reflected in students’ behaviors (enhanced positive behaviors/attitudes, i.e., OCB, CDB, and WA, and reduced negative behaviors i.e., DDB) which will in turn improve their productivity. The originality of this research lies in it being the first to explore the indirect effect of Islamic work ethic (IWE) on individuals’ productivity through OCB, DDB, CDB, and WA.

Highlights

Before going to Hayes’ process [68,69] and studying the complete model with all corelated variables (OCB, destructive deviant behaviors (DDB), constructive deviant behaviors (CDB) and WA), as a first step, a linear regression was carried out using SPSS to find effects of independent variables (IVs), i.e., Islamic work ethic (IWE), organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), DDB, CDB, and WA on the dependent variable (DV) i.e., cumulative grade point average (CGPA)
The results showed that in the absence of other variables (OCB, DDB, CDB, WA), work ethic (IWE) had a significant effect on productivity, i.e., 17.1%
In a multiple regression model, to find the direct effects of OCB, DDB, CDB, WA, and IWE on productivity, standardized beta values were considered to remove any error caused by different scales

Summary

Introduction

Productivity of individuals and organizations can be enhanced through promotion of positive OBs, attitudes, and WE, and reduction of negative OBs [9,10,11,12,13]; study of the effects of OBs and WE among undergraduate (UG) engineering students has not been given due attention, as noted by scholars [9,14]. This research is an effort to enhance knowledge in this area to develop a comprehensive model of interrelations and effects of WE, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), destructive deviant behaviors (DDB), constructive deviant behaviors (CDB), and workaholism (WA) with productivity of engineering students. This research empirically explored the missing link between WE and productivity through behaviors and attitudes (OCB, DDB, CDB, and WA), proposing a model of these relationships and Sustainability 2021, 13, 2922.

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