Introduction

The business environment is evolving quickly in the modern day, and globalization, the dynamic dynamics of international rivalry, and a diverse labor force are what are particularly driving India’s information technology sector. In order to accomplish their organizational objectives, information technology organizations must effectively and efficiently manage and lead their workforce in this fiercely competitive business climate. One of the most crucial aspects of management is leadership, which helps to fulfill the organization’s overall vision and goals by encouraging staff to perform better and maximizing efficiency. A successful leader should be adaptable, dynamic, endowed with positive attributes, and able to motivate their team members to do better.

In order to communicate with people and get higher work output from them, leaders need to have certain personality attributes. The accomplishment and success of an organization greatly depend on its leaders exhibiting both positive personality attributes and an active, dynamic, and successful leadership style. In the modern world, a leader’s contribution to raising staff performance within the company is crucial. The leaders of the organization have a significant influence on the employees’ voluntary engagement. Both positive and bad effects on employee behavior within the company may be attributed to the leaders. Organizational Citizenship Behavior is the term used to describe the beneficial effects that leadership has on the workforce.

Organizational citizenship is an interpersonal behavior which affects organizational effectiveness. It is people’s voluntary interaction with coworkers, staff, and other employees within the company. Organizational citizenship characteristics include altruism (helping behavior), civility, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, and civic virtue. Employees that exhibit “good citizenship” behaviors assist their teammates, offer to work extra, resolve issues amicably, lend a helping hand to others, and do it in a way that benefits the firm as a whole. It goes beyond the stated criteria of the job. Although it is a crucial component of work performance and can significantly enhance organizational performance, the organizational system frequently ignores it. Employees who engage in voluntary activities for the organization’s benefit, whether or not they receive compensation, are said to exhibit citizenship behaviors.

Along with education, training, and experience, the leaders also wish to hire and keep personnel who practice good citizenship. These characteristics demonstrate their dedication to the organization, positive outlook, and convictions. Workers that are more trustworthy, on time, and have a greater understanding of the company have stronger bonds with their coworkers. In India, the information technology sector is now highly valued. The industry has made a substantial contribution to rising GDP, employment, and exports. According to National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) Strategic Review (2022), the industry accounted for 51% of services exported and contributed 9% to the nation’s GDP.

The industry has made a substantial contribution to rising GDP, employment, and exports. According to NASSCOM’s Strategic Review (2022), the industry accounted for 51% of services exported and contributed 9% to the GDP of the country. In a single year, the sector added 4.5 lakh new hires in total. Two million of the 5 million workers in the IT sector now are women, of whom 2 lakhs were hired in the last 10 years. With 1.8 million female employees, it is the largest employer of women in the commercial IT sector. These days, Indian IT firms with global recognition for their IT prowess include Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL, Infosys, and others.

Review of Literature

Transformational Leadership

According to Bass and Avolio (1990), who first proposed the idea of transformational leadership, transformational leaders simultaneously promote the growth of groups and organizations and increase the ambitions of their followers for success and self-development. Without using either a carrot or a stick to address followers’ immediate self-interest, transformational leaders increase followers’ confidence and gradually shift their focus from survival concerns to goals, growth, and development while bringing attention to important issues, the group, and the organization.

These leaders are characterized by their idealized influence (charisma), personalized attention, intellectual stimulation, and motivating inspiration. The four fundamental elements, or “I”s, of transformational leadership are represented by these variables. According to Sahgal and Pathak’s (2007) conclusion, leaders are created by a journey of unique life experiences and processes rather than as a result of happenings or events. After researching the four facets of transformational leadership, Raja (2012) came to the conclusion that managers who practice idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, and inspiring motivation increase employee job engagement. According to Givens (2008), managers have the power to shape workers’ actions such that they benefit the company.

Transformational leadership significantly improves staff performance and efficiency, hence facilitating the attainment of the organizational objective. The transformational leaders play a very important role among the employees working for the organization.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Organ (1988) explained organizational citizenship behavior as “The voluntary behavior of a person that is not a part of the individual’s formal job description; is not directly or clearly acknowledged by the formal reward system and that cumulatively enhances the functioning of the organization.” Put simply, it’s the work that an employee does above and beyond what is required of him or her and beyond the organization’s set standards for the position. Extra-role behavior is what is meant by this (Organ, 1988).

According to Ishak (2005), the supervisor-subordinate connection is essential to enabling work performance beyond the confines of the job. According to Somech and Ron’s (2007) research, organizational citizenship activity is positively correlated with perceived supervisor support and collectivism, and negatively correlated with negative affectivity. According to Bukhari and Umair (2009), there is a significant relationship between all three antecedents (civic virtue, conscientiousness, and altruism) along with organizational citizenship behavior, although there is no positive association between the two. Dargahi et al. (2012) demonstrated a strong relationship between the marital status, educational background, and gender of Iranian nurses and civic virtue, sportsmanship, and altruism.

Benjamin (2012) argues a substantial correlation among corporate citizenship behavior, intentions of voluntary turnover, and the human resource development environment. On the other hand, there is no discernible correlation between voluntary turnover intentions and organizational citizenship conduct. It is clear that workers who exhibit “good citizenship” behaviors support their coworkers, volunteer for extra work, steer clear of pointless confrontations, encourage others, aid others, and serve others in a way that benefits the firm as a whole. It goes beyond the stated criteria of the job.

Research Objectives

1. To explore the extent of transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees in a few select IT companies in India.
2. To study the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees in a few select IT companies in India.
3. To analyze the organizational citizenship behaviors of employees in a few select IT organizations in India according to their age.
4. To study the organizational citizenship behavior of employees in select few IT organizations in India based on gender.
5. To compare how workers in a few chosen IT organizations in India behave in terms of organizational citizenship behavior according to their marital status.

Hypotheses of the Study

H₁: There is a high level of transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees in a few select IT companies in India.

H₂: There is a significant relation among transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees of a few select IT companies in India.

H₃: There is significant correlation between age and organizational citizenship behaviors among employees in a few numbers of Indian IT organizations.

H₄: There is a substantial correlation between gender and organizational citizenship behavior among employees in a few numbers of Indian IT organizations.

H₅: There is a significant correlation between employees’ marital status and the organizational citizenship behavior in a few numbers of Indian IT organizations.

Research Design

The research is exploratory and descriptive in character. The aim of this present research is to explore organizational citizenship behavior and transformational leadership among Indian IT industry workers. Based on a list published by Brand Finance, 10 of the top fifteen firms were selected. Eighty workers from India’s top 10 IT organizations made up the sample.

Collection of Data

Questionnaire Method has been used to gather the primary data for this study. Thirty-nine items made up the transformational leadership inventory (Bass & Avolio, 1990). The main four dimensions of the scale are idealistic influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and individualized consideration. It was discovered that the transformative leadership’s Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.962. The organizational citizenship behavior was examined using the 24-item scale originated by Moorman and Fetter (1990). The scale is further broken down into five dimensions: Civic virtue, sportsmanship, conscientiousness, courtesy, and altruism. It was discovered that organizational citizenship conduct had a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.798.

Results and Discussions

The gathered data was examined to ensure that the study’s goals were met. However, the data’s normality was examined before a thorough examination was conducted. The normality of the data was checked in order to ascertain whether parametric or non-parametric tests would be used in the process of statistical analysis of the data.

To make sure the data was normal, Shapiro–Wilk & Kolmogorov–Smirnova analyses were performed. The statistics for the two tests—the Shapiro–Wilk & Kolmogorov–Smirnova tests—are shown in Table 1. Kolmogorov–Smirnova reports that the p values for organizational citizenship behavior and transformational leadership, respectively, were determined to be .200 and .200. Shapiro–Wilk states that the p value for organizational citizenship behavior is .469 and the p value for transformational leadership is .103.

These results indicated that the data distribution was typical. Karl Pearson’s correlation is used to evaluate the data since it was determined based on these findings that the data was appropriate for parametric testing.

 

H₁: There is a high level of transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees in a few select IT companies in India.

 

Table 1. Tests of Normality.

Source: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

 

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics.

Source: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

 

Descriptive statistics shown in Table 2 have been used to show the level of transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. The scale used in the questionnaire for transformational leadership was the 5-point Likert Scale and the scale used in the questionnaire for organizational citizenship behavior was the 7-point Likert Scale.

Transformational leadership, with a mean value of 4.0077, has been identified as highly effective. It has also been revealed that transformational leadership has a wide range of values, with a minimum of 2.54 and a maximum of 5. Given that the mean has a high value of 5.3120, organizational citizenship behavior has also been shown to be high. The findings indicate that there is a wide range in corporate citizenship behavior, with a minimum value of 3.58 and a maximum of 6.92. According to the high degree of transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior among Indian IT sector personnel, it can be said that H₁ is embraced.

 

H₂: There is a significant relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees in a few select IT companies in India.

 

Karl Pearson’s Correlation results (Table 3) revealed a substantial positive correlation between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior (r = 0.609, p = .000).

Thus, it can be said that H₂, which claims that employees in India’s IT sector exhibit organizational citizenship behavior and transformational leadership in a major way, is neither rejected nor unlikely to be accepted. The positive correlation in this particular case indicates that strong leadership significantly affects the behavior of the organization’s employees.

 

Table 3. Correlations.

Source: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

 

Table 4. Correlation.

Source: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

 

H₃: There is significant correlation between age and organizational citizenship behaviors among employees in a few numbers of Indian IT organizations.

Table 4 shows that Karl Pearson’s correlation analysis between age and organizational citizenship behavior revealed a low correlation (r = 0.140, p = .216). Age has no impact on the citizenship behavior among the employees in the IT industry in India.

Consequently, it can be said that H₃ might not be approved. Additionally, there exists a weakly significant correlation between organizational citizenship activity and age. The lack of a significant relationship found here between age and organizational citizenship behavior suggests that employee citizenship behavior is not related to age.

H₄: There is a substantial correlation between gender and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees of the IT Sector in India.

The findings of Karl Pearson’s correlation indicate a negligible association (r = 0.029, p = .797) between gender and organizational citizenship behavior (Table 5). The organizational citizenship behavior of employees in India’s IT industry is not influenced by gender.

 

Table 5. Correlation.

Source: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

 

Table 6. Correlation.

Source: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

 

Thus, it may be said that H₄, which claims that there is a low meaningful relationship between gender and organizational citizenship behavior, may not be accepted. When the role of leaders is examined, there is no discernible difference in the citizenship behavior of men and women, as indicated by the low connection between the gender of the employees and organizational citizenship behavior among them.

 

H₅: There is a significant correlation between employees’ marital status and the organizational citizenship behavior in a few numbers of Indian IT organizations.

 

Karl Pearson’s correlation data (Table 6) revealed a negative association (r = –0.178, p = .114) between organizational citizenship activity and marital status. The marital status of employees adversely affects their corporate citizenship behavior in the Indian IT sector.

So, subsequently H₅, which claims that there is a low meaningful association between married status and corporate citizenship behavior, may not be accepted. It can be inferred from the negative link between organizational citizenship behavior and marital status that employees who are single exhibit higher levels of civic engagement than those who are married.

Summary of the Results

Table 7. Summary.

 

Findings of the Research Study

1. The outcomes of the research indicate a significant correlation (r = 0.609) between organizational citizenship behavior and transformational leadership among employees in Indian IT companies. The results indicated a robust correlation between organizational citizenship behavior and transformative leadership.
2. There is no age-based link (r = 0.140) between employee behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. It claims that in India’s IT industry, age has little bearing on corporate citizenship behavior.
3. There is no gender-based association (r = 0.029) between employee behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. Which claims that in India’s IT industry, corporate citizenship behavior is not much influenced by gender.
4. Based on marital status, there is no link (r = –0.178) between employee conduct & the organizational citizenship behavior. Which claims that in the Indian IT industry, organizational citizenship behavior is not substantially correlated with marital status.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.