Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme anhand eines Fallbeispiels zur Gruppenarbeit in der Automobilindustrie

摘要

Current development of the business environment, like lean organizational struc-tures and progressing rationalization, contribute to an increase in individual re-sponsibility for each employee. It becomes more and more important for staff to commit themselves to a degree that exceeds what can be planned in advance and agreed contractually. Taking teamwork in the automotive industry as an example, the present dissertation focuses on the engagement which employees provide voluntarily and which is beneficial for the organisation. Studies on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) cover this very behaviour. The first part of this study presents theoretical deliberations and empirical findings on OCB. The focus lies on two major aspects of the OCB definition, namely the behaviour’s usefulness for the organization and the aspect of voluntariness. Basis of this research is an empirical investigation in an engine plant of the automotive industry. By means of a ques-tionnaire data for OCB, personal characteristics and team atmosphere in the manufacturing area of gasoline engines were collected twice. The random check comprised all employees of the production. The analysis goes along with the start of a new engine’s serial production. The longitudinal section examines whether team climate should be regarded as a prerequisite for or as a result of OCB and whether the examined individual’s characteristics can be assumed a prerequisite of OCB. This study also tries to connect OCB with team performance. Although the studied area offered several plant characteristics, satisfactory findings can hardly be recorded. The results indicate that part of the recorded team climate should rather be regarded as a prerequisite for OCB and other aspects appear to be enhanced by OCB. The results furthermore indicate to consider internalism as a prerequisite for OCB. Respective delayed correlations appeared in the longitudi-nal section which appear plausible also when looking closer into the OCB scales and –items. With regard to the business ratios the data only hints to OCB correlat-ing with the successful implementation of teamwork that is appraised by opera-tional supervisors using company specific parameters. Findings of team leaders show the difficulty to distinguish between the required work behaviour and citizen-ship behaviour. Finally the findings and the current state of research on OCB are looked at critically. OCB provide a framework to grasp current organisational pros-pects. Furthermore the construct focuses on people being subjects and on ethic aspects of control of the behaviour within the business. It provides the opportunity to explore a highly interesting behaviour for profit organisations and with this to communicate physical health and personality development as base prerequisite for high quality working performance.