Self-esteem, organizational citizenship behavior and commitment among university students

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between self-esteem (SE), university commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) within a higher education setup. Design/methodology/approach A convenience sample of 354 students in a three-year higher national diploma awarding technical university in Ghana participated in the study via the completion of self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and partial least square-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) were used to analyze data. Findings Path results using a PLS-SEM analysis showed a positive and significant association between SE and OCBs and university commitment among the students. Furthermore, OCBs were found to partially mediate the relationship between SE and university commitment. Practical implications The findings of the study provide important implication for management of higher education institutions. Management of higher education institutions must orient academic and non-academic staff to adopt communication strategies that help to improve students’ self-worth and assertiveness. All students should be encouraged to participate in extra-curricular activities in order to build students’ beliefs about themselves and self-confidence. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to have tested a model including SE, university commitment and OCBs in a technical university setup from a developing country perspective.