HR practice, organisational commitment & citizenship behaviour A study of primary school teachers in Taiwan

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between HR practice (four aspects), organisational commitment and citizenship behaviour at primary schools in Taiwan. The four human resource (HR) aspects include: recruitment and placement (RP), teaching, education and career (TEC) development, support, communication and retention (SCR), and performance and appraisal (PA). Design/methodology/approach - With the assistance from the school HR managers and using an anti-common method variance strategy, research data from 568 incumbent teachers in Taiwan are collected, analysed and evaluated. Findings - Different from prior studies, highlighting the merits of HR practice, the study discovers that HR practice may not necessarily contribute to citizenship behaviour. Teachers with positive perceptions of RP and TEC are more likely to demonstrate citizenship behaviour, whereas teachers with positive perceptions of SCR and PA are not. In addition, the study finds three moderators: affective organisational commitment (AOC), rank of positions, and campus size. The analysis shows that teachers with more AOC, higher positions and from smaller campus are more likely to demonstrate organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Originality/value - The study provides a closer look at the HR-OCB relationship in Taiwan. It reveals that a positive perception of HR practice may not necessarily contribute to OCB occurrence. In addition, the results indicate that teachers have different views about varying HR aspects. Specifically, aspects of RP and TEC development receive relatively higher levels of positive perception, whereas aspects of SCR and PA receive relatively lower levels of positive perception. Questions arise as to whether HR practice may lead to more OCB at primary schools. If this statement is true, school managers shall think further of how to promote OCB using other policies, rather than relying on the HR practice investigated here.