Going the extra mile: what does it mean for the male and female university teachers of Pakistan?

This thesis examines the subjective perceptions of the job activities of the university teachers with an aim to understand and differentiate between what is regarded as in-role tasks (i.e. prescribed or mandatory job behaviours) and what is regarded as extra-role tasks or Organizational citizenship behaviours OCB (Organ, 1988). In the recent past, OCB has gained a wide academic and organizational interest. With an emerging role of OCB in helping organizations to achieve various objectives, many researchers have focused on understanding the relationship of OCB with different determinants and consequences. However, most of the OCB-research has been confined to the causal studies aiming to relate OCB with various other factors following the positivist approach and quantitative methodologies. Moreover, being originated in commercial work settings, OCB remains under-researched in the academics. Furthermore, OCB has been problematized by the researchers for ignoring the gender-perspective in the formulation of OCB concept (e.g. Kidder, 2002; Kark & Waismel-Manor, 2005). The current study uses a qualitative lens to explore the meaning attached to extra-role job behaviours and their implications for male and female university teachers. The study includes the unheard voices of university teachers of Pakistan to understand the contextual and structural conditions under which these perceptions of in-role and extra-role job behaviours are developed. Thematic analysis was performed on the data obtained from 40 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with university teachers from the public and private sector universities of Pakistan. Drawing on the positioning theory (Harré & van Langenhove, 1999) and professional identity paradigm (Lasky, 2005), the findings suggest that the personal choices, social expectations and cultural values underpin the way in which university teachers develop their perceptions of OCB and other job behaviours. Moreover, there is a large difference in the perceptions of these participants on regarding their job behaviours as in-role or as extra-role job behaviours. Based on their perceptions, the study proposes three general domains for which university teachers perform OCBs. These domains include OCB towards students, colleagues, and department or university. Findings also indicate that there is a remarkable difference in the perceptions and performance of extra-role job behaviours by male and female university teachers, where the types of OCBs performed by female university teachers are helping in nature and mostly aimed at students, whereas the male university teachers perform OCB which are targeted at the department or the universities. Finally, the thesis offers theoretical and applied contributions in the field of OCB-research suggesting a few avenues for future research. Theoretically the current study has contributed by introducing the voices of a completely unheard segment i.e. academics from Pakistan. It highlights the need for examining OCB through a qualitative study to appreciate the unique context in which the accounts of participants are developed. The study also suggests the use of professional identity paradigm and positioning theory to examine the context in which university teachers develop their perceptions of in-role and extra-role job behaviours. Moreover, the study problematizes the concept of OCB being gender-neutral, offering the gender-based analysis of accounts obtained from the male and female university teachers.