The role of values and leadership style in developing OCB among Arab teachers in Israel

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between individual values, social exchange variables (organizational leadership and transformational leadership), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and in-role performance. Specifically, we posited that the principals’ values would be transmitted to the teachers and would thereby affect the latter’s OCB and in-role performance. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was administrated in a sample of 1,268 teachers and their 64 principals, all of them employed in Arab schools in Israel. Findings – The results of HLM showed that the principals’ individual values were related to two of the outcome variables: Openness to change was related to altruistic OCB and self-transcendence to in-role performance. However, the nature of the relationships found was not according to expectations. The findings showed a strong positive relationship between the two social exchange variables and all three outcome variables. The results demonstrate that both individual values and social exchange variables are concepts that can increase the understanding of employees’ behavior in the workplace. Research limitations/implications – The authors conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on the relationship between values, social exchange, and performance and by suggesting some directions for such research. Originality/value – The data for the study were collected from different sources (data on values and performance from the schools’ principals and data on the exchange variables from the teachers). Such an examination provides interesting insights into the relationship examined, together with reducing common method errors.