The Influence of Conscientiousness, Sportsmanship, and Civic Virtue on Organizational Effectiveness in Public Universities of Ethiopia

This article draws on data collected from a wider PhD study conducted in Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia, in 2023. The study investigated the relationship between academic staff's extra-role behaviors (conscientiousness, sportsmanship, and civic virtue) and organizational effectiveness in higher education institutions. The study employed a correlational research design. A total of 719 participants were included in the study through proportionate stratified and simple random sampling techniques. It utilized a questionnaire with multi-item scales from pre-existing models and analyzed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that the status of conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue, and organizational effectiveness were moderate. It also disclosed that civic virtue, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship had high, medium, and low associations with organizational effectiveness, respectively. The result of the regression analysis showed that conscientiousness, sportsmanship, and civic virtue have significant predictive power for OE. The result further revealed that 86.3% of the variance in organizational effectiveness was explained by the civic virtue behavior of the academic staff members in the study institutions. From the findings, it may be possible to conclude that since studies confirm high levels of conscientiousness and sportsmanship, play key roles in enhancing effectiveness, public universities in the study area appear to be challenged with problems of organizational effectiveness. The study recommends institutional leaders encourage their staff to engage in high-level extra-role behavior so that they can support their colleagues voluntarily without anticipating rewards in return.