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Article Title:
Prosocial Behaviour and Organisational Commitment in the Nigerian Public Sector
by Omoankhanlen Joseph Akhigbe, Osagie Nosa Godwin, Akhator Pita Akhere, Itoya Joy, 1Aiegoba, Lucky Ashely

Abstract:
This paper as an exploration of the bases of prosocial behaviour and further examines prosocial behaviour and organizational commitment in the Nigerian public sector. Questions to think about on prosocial behaviour as it relates to management sciences discipline and enterprises are: Why do some people help others in organizations for apparently no rewards? And why do people refuse to help others in organizations even in situations that clearly warrant helps. Prosocial behaviour represents a broad category of acts that are defined by some significant segment of society and/or one's social group as generally beneficial to other people. However, in organizations, helping others can have beneficial effects, not only for help recipients and the organization, but also for helpers themselves. Apart from the foregoing statement, little is known, however, about how, when and why does prosocial behaviour - helping others at work spill over into organizational commitment. In this study, we establish the relationship between prosocial behaviour and organizational commitment and also find out reasons why some people help in an emergency situation in organization while others do not. The study answered some central questions such as prosocial behaviour definitional issues, the bases of prosocial behaviour in organization, an examination of the effects of personal morality, building organizational image and psychological identification ? variables of prosocial behaviour, and affective, normative and continuance commitment ? variables of organizational commitment as a consideration of the measures by which prosocial behaviour and organizational commitment might be encouraged in organizations. Although, prosocial behaviour is simply employees' willingness to engage in extra-role behaviour but the study canvassed that managers should encourage employees' to see helping others at workplace as in-role behaviour (i.e. extra role behaviour seen as in-role behaviour and part of one's job) in order to ensure more consistent performance. Conclusively, awareness of prosocial behaviour in organizations is good, since it is not possible to itemize all employees'job responsibilities without any oversight omission. Hence, prosocial behaviour will help organizations to reduce employees' perception of 'that is not my job' syndrome.

Keywords: prosocial behaviour, organizational commitment antisocial behaviour, in-role behaviour, extra role, behaviour

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