Organizational culture and the individuals' discretionary behaviors at work: a cross-cultural analysis.

Stating "how things are done here," organizations are defining their culture. Organizational Culture (OC) is the set of values, norms, goals, and expectations shared by all members of an organization that aids in improving their commitment and performance. On the organizational level, it impacts behavior, productivity, and long-term survival by influencing organizational capability. Due to employee behavior being a competitive differential, this study examines how specific OCs influence individual behavior. In particular, how the different cultures in the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) affect employees' main dimensions of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). A descriptive-confirmative ex post facto research was conducted by surveying 513 employees from over 150 organizations worldwide. The Kruskal-Wallis H-test was used to validate our model. The general hypothesis was confirmed, showing that the predominant organizational culture type affects the level and the kind of OCBs individuals demonstrate. It is possible to provide organizations with a breakdown of their employees' OCBs based on their OC type and which changes they can make to their organization's culture to increase the employees' OCB and, consequently, the efficiency of their organization.

Using design science research to propose an IT governance model for higher education institutions.

The increasing use of, and dependence on, Information Technology (IT) to support operational teaching, research, and management activities in Higher Education Institutions (HEI)-mainly due to their multi-unit organizational structure-have evidenced the need of encouraging managers to focus more on IT Governance (ITG) effectiveness, which has been an issue for many of these institutions. In this sense, we aim to develop a specific ITG model for Higher Education Institutions, by following the methodological principles of Design Science Research (DSR). The model was developed based on a robust theoretical basis that took into account different approaches substantiated by both the alignment of good practices and ITG focus areas as well as addressing the current ITG context of the Brazilian higher education institutions. The validation of the ITG model was based on its presentation to members of the IT Steering Committee of a Brazilian HEI, who confirmed its usefulness and applicability.

The individuals' discretionary behaviors at work. An overview and analysis of its growing interest.

Nearly forty years have passed since the term Organizational Citizenship Behavior appeared. Despite a current consensus among scholars about the citizenship gestures as prosocial acts of employees that benefit the organization, it does not apply commonly to the exponential growth of all OCB-related concepts. The concept's expansion has confused the researchers and practitioners, mainly when choosing the most appropriate instruments (constructs) and dimensions to use in their area of interest and context. A systematic literature review was conducted and 420 articles were analyzed. Results point that the trends on OCB-like behaviors goes higher, with an average annual growth rate of new studies of 3.13%. United States (39%) and China (25%) lead but some "under-studied" contexts like Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania start being studied towards OCB. New trends appear in the spectrum of the many different domains and disciplines related to OCB, while leadership and task performance remain the most studied domains and disciplines. In future studies, researchers must freely choose the OCB dimensions and constructs they want to use or adapt to meet their needs and research needs since there is no written rule about their use, only the care to be taken with the context and discipline studying.