The effect of workaholism and gender role beliefs on organizational citizenship behavior and gender as the moderator

Understanding the characteristics probably related to an individual's exceptional role performance is important for creating a cohesive and successful workforce. Investigating the relationships between workaholism, organizational citizenship behaviors, and gender role beliefs are necessary and can benefit employers and employees. The effects of workaholism and gender role beliefs on the organizational citizenship behavior are examined in the employees of branches of Bank Mellat in Alborz Province.
The research is a descriptive/analytical study conducted as a survey, which is an applied work in terms of its purpose. A questionnaire containing 33 questions was used to collect data (user addiction measurements following Spence and Robbins, 1992; gender role beliefs following Dicke et al., 2019; and organizational citizenship behavior following Williams and Anderson, 1991). The study population consisted of all the employees at the branches of Bank Mellat in Alborz Province (n=500). After confirming the content validity and reliability of the questionnaire, 220 questionnaires (according to Cochran's formula) were randomly distributed, and based on the analysis, the research model was implemented in SMART PLS3 twice (with moderator and without moderator).
According to the frequency observed in the sample members, 56.8% of the respondents were men, 50% of the respondents had between 5 and 10 years of service experience in Bank Mellat, which contributed the most in answering the questions of this research. 61.4% of respondents were between 40 and 50 years old, 89.1% of respondents had bachelor's education, 10.9% had postgraduate education. According to the obtained results, the factor loadings of all the questions were greater than 0.7 and the reliability indices (Cronbach's alpha, composite alpha, RHO_A index, and AVE) were acceptable. Therefore, the construct reliability and convergent and divergent validity of the research were confirmed. The implemented model showed that Workaholism had a significant and positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior (T: 2.095, β: 0.225). Gender role beliefs had a significant and positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior (T: 359.16, β: 0.615). In addition, the positive effects of gender adjustment on the relationship between gender role beliefs and organizational citizenship behavior was confirmed (T: 159.2, β: 0.292). The GOF index was equal to 0.701, which is a strong value, and the SRMR index was equal to 0.04 <0.05; thus, the structural model of the study was confirmed. According to the obtained results, the GOF fit index is equal to 0.701, which is a strong value, and the SRMR index is equal to 0.04, which is lower than the value of 0.05, so the structural model of this research has a good fit.
As society continues to change, gender role beliefs expand beyond the limits of biological gender. Understanding how these beliefs relate to work behavior (such as organizational citizenship behaviors) is essential for organizations. Considering that both genders have an equal share in organizational excellence in today's society, many suggested not to consider gender in assigning organizational roles and instead pay attention to employees' competencies. If employees are convinced that their gender has no impact on their promotion, they will certainly show positive behaviors toward better organizational performance and performing the assigned tasks. They will also have a greater tendency to adhere to the rules and regulations of the organization. At the same time, bank managers should take into account the existence of gender role beliefs, because women and men play different social roles in their personal lives. Different genders have different roles at home and when these differences are taken into account by the organization, employees will experience less stress and discomfort at work. Through this, employees will find enough time and energy for additional role behaviors at work, such as organizational citizenship behavior. Working in a bank is very stressful for bank employees due to the financial nature of the duties. In addition, workaholism leads to stress at work, which leads to a lack of energy to demonstrate different work behaviors such as organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, workaholism damages mental health and disrupts relationships with colleagues. In the long term, it neutralizes the positive effects on citizenship behavior, if any. Finally, it leads to job frustration and reduction of job commitment and even job effectiveness in employees. Therefore, the managers should try to continue and improve work conditions to make sure that the employees always enjoy their work and have an inner desire to work (i.e. keeping the employees interested in their job).