Beyond Leadership and Commitment: Organizational Citizenship Behavior as a Stronger Predictor of Lecturer Performance in Muhammadiyah Universities

Abstract

This study examines the relationships among participative leadership, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and lecturer performance in Muhammadiyah universities in Jakarta. The study was motivated by the need to reassess whether lecturer performance in faith-based higher education is more strongly influenced by leadership participation or by discretionary extra-role behavior. A quantitative explanatory approach was employed using survey data collected from 300 lecturers selected through stratified random sampling from four Muhammadiyah universities. The data were analyzed using correlational and regression-based procedures to evaluate the direct relationships among the observed variables and the indirect role of OCB in linking participative leadership to lecturer performance. The results show a selective empirical pattern. OCB demonstrated a positive and statistically significant relationship with lecturer performance, whereas participative leadership did not significantly influence lecturer performance and did not significantly predict OCB.

The indirect effect of participative leadership on lecturer performance through OCB was also not supported. These findings suggest that lecturer performance in the studied universities is more closely associated with enacted citizenship behavior than with perceived participation in leadership processes alone. The study contributes to the higher education and organizational behavior literature by showing that in faith-based academic institutions, OCB may function as a more immediate behavioral resource for performance than participative leadership. The findings also imply that universities should complement leadership development with stronger institutional support for voluntary collaboration, collegial contribution, and academic service.