Exploring Academic Staff Perception of Organizational Climate and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: Lessons from Private Universities in Nigeria

This study explored academic staff perception of organisational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour private universities in Southeast, Nigeria. Five specific objectives, research questions and hypotheses were formulated with the decomposed variables of the study. The study was anchored on Social Exchange Theory (SET). A survey design was carried out using the sampled academic staff in the selected private universities. The study population was 4654 while the sample size was 355 arrived. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire from the random sample of academic staff of the selected private universities in Southeast Nigeria. The data using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used in this study. The results revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the organizational climate dimensions and organizational citizenship behaviour dimensions. This implied that the success of an institution is dependent upon the effective management of organisational climate, which is an important path to the success of employee‟s citizenship behaviour. The study recommended that equity and fairness should be entrenched during appointments and promotions so as to reduce incidence of service sabotage among academic staff of private universities. In the spirit of harmony, management of private universities should score collaborative works more than individual outputs in order to encourage teamwork among academic staff.

Private universities are always in competition with Federal and State Universities in Southeast Nigeria in terms of workforce. Due to some reasons including working state of affairs, stature, job security and pay, there has being massive turnover of employees" from private institutions to the more "prestigious" State or Federal Institutions (Adani, et al., 2022). This was supported by Monanu, et al. (2014) who explicate that there has being incessant labour turnover of highly experienced and gifted academia from private universities to Federal or State Universities. They continue to posit that some of these academia scarcely stay for long in private universities before moving to a better Federal or State Universities, hence, causing brain drain, which could be detrimental to the institutions.
To try to formulate the teachers work better and put in their best, OC can be explored through making it better, as Haritha & Subrahmanyam (2013) state that one of the ways to create an atmosphere of good performance and OCB is through OC. Pleasant OC supports the employee's willingness to perform better. Furthermore, the employee within an excellent OC would develop willingness for good behaviour to complete activities outside the main occupation (Widayati & Gunarto, 2017). In order to widen a tradition of willingness and commitment in an educational institution, it is essential to identify and promote the characteristics and actions that lead to OCB (Meniado, 2020). Hence, to fight the scourge of incessant turnover and poor performance, the principles of OC could be deployed.
Despite the importance of organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour, many universities can still not extract and share its benefits. This is so because, with research on OC and OCB, the private universities could have a clue as to how to make employees put in their best in the organization, as against what is reachable in the institutions as observed by the researcher. It was observed that the climate of support of lecturers by management is very minimal. The justice system also, in terms of distributive and bureaucratic justice seems to be suspect. There appeared to be little effort geared towards the career development of staff, while the teamwork spirit in the institutions appears not to be strong. All these could have implications for resolution to go beyond formally recognized duties and responsibilities, as they may not be open to put in their best, given the climate they work in. This may perhaps be fuelling turnover and dissatisfaction of employees if not handled properly. It is therefore, against the backdrop of these seeming issues that this work was necessitated to empirically look at them, with a view to find the associations involving the variables in the institutions and making recommendations that could help the institutions function better.
The study objective was to examine the affiliation linking the organizational climate (OC) along with organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among academic staff in selected private universities in Southeast, Nigeria. The research questions were used as a guide in achieving the objectives of the study: a) What is the nature of relationship existing between organizational supports along with civic virtue in selected private universities? b) What nature of nexus exists concerning organizational justice with conscientiousness in selected private universities? c) To what extent does career development link with altruism in selected private universities? d) What nature of relationship exists between teamwork climate and sportsmanship in selected private universities? e) What is the nature of relationship existing between open communication climates along with courtesy in selected private universities?

Organizational climate
Organizational climate (OC) is a perception of the organization member, individually or groups that relate to the internal organization that influences the organization's attitude and behaviour (Wirawan, 2007). It is the perception of employees towards their workplace environments (James, et al., 2008). To Gerber (2003), OC is illustrative of organizational individuals' collective perceptions as well as emotions about the organization. He describes it as a shared perception of what an organization is like. Therefore, it is the individual perception toward a particular condition that shows the internal environment quality of the organization towards what they see and what they feel, and what the member of the organization thought (Nugroho, et al., 2020).
Organizational climate has the potential of influencing the performance and behaviour of employees. Bringing to the light the behaviour influencing angle of OC, Nugroho, et al. (2020) stated that it is the organizational internal environment quality that is ongoing, experienced by the member of the organization, and influence the behaviour. OC is a meaningful construct with significant implications for understanding human behaviour in organizations (Allen, 2003;Glission & James, 2002). Furthermore, Harmius, et al. (2021) point that it is a combination of various aspects of the work environment that is accepted and felt directly or indirectly by employees which will determine the employee's behaviour. OC can be viewed as an illustrative idea that mirrors the regular view and understanding of all individuals with respect to the different components of the organization, for example, structure, frameworks and practices (McMurray, 2003); organizational units" activities, strategies, processes, routines and rewards (Ali, et al, 2018); standard, responsibility, reward, support and employee commitment (Nugroho, et al, 2020); norms, values and culture (Haritha & Subrahmanyam, 2013).
effectual functioning of the organization. With OCB, the emphasis is on the discretionary attitudes and behaviours of workers that are beyond the call of obligation (Podsakoff, et al, 2014). OCBs are the behaviours that are voluntary to employees which are not part of employees' prescribed functions (Oladipupo, 2016). Thus, the behaviour is rather a matter of personal choice, such that its omission is not generally understood as punishable nor rewarding (Ojebola, et al, 2020). They are discretionary, beyond-role behaviours and gestures that are not explicitly recognized by the formal reward system but are considered important in promoting organizational effectiveness (Organ, 2018).
It is informal; that is, it is not recognized by the formal structures of a firm, and hence, not rewarding, it is desirable for the firm to progress and make headway in the ever competitive business environment. Farooqui (2012) states that it is an informal kind of behaviour that is desirable by the organization. It promotes the goals of the organization by adding to its social along with psychological environment (Organ, 1997;Rotundo & Sackett, 2002). It serves to promote the general well-being of the organization (Kandeepan, 2016). It contributes to the effective functioning of a firm (Nadim, et al., 2016). The consequences of OCB are found in the positive effects it has on the company"s overall performance. Sridhar & Thiruvenkadam (2014) aver that OCB is significant because it support the social, organizational and psychological components to accomplish both individual and organizational performance. It fosters cooperation among co-workers, work groups, firm"s effectiveness, efficiency and overall performance of the organization (Akturan & Çekmecelioglu, 2016;Acaray & Akturan, 2015). It generally includes pro-social behaviours, including punctuality, helping others and innovating and volunteering (Organ, 1988).

Organizational support (OS) and civic virtue
Organizational Support (OS) has to do with the awareness of the human resources on how the organization along its leadership care about the employees; whether the management is looking out for them or not. David, et al. (2007) opine that OS guarantee employees that the organization is behind them when they face problems execute their job and handle stressful situations. A positive perception of OS by employees makes them feel that the firm is looking out for them and this could lead to the employees exhibiting healthy behaviour and having a good relationship with the firm. OS is employee"s attitude that causes the good association among employees as well as their organization (Chiang & Hsieh, 2012).
Organizations need employees who will voluntarily choose to get involved in suggesting better ways for doing things. They need employees to get involved in brainstorming sessions without being asked, so as to come up with new ideas of doing old things or new things entirely. This is the purview of civic virtue. Afzal (2020) opine that acts of civic virtue may include gift suggestions for cost improvement or other resource saving ideas, which may directly be influencing efficiency. Organ (2018) stated that holistic interests with commitments to the organization are inclusive to achieve the organizational goal and development. Gabriel (2015) stated that it is the employee engrossment in the organizational activities and being consistent with sensitive issues of the firm. Based on these discussions, therefore the following hypothesis is proposed: Ho1: There is no significant positive relationship connecting organizational support along with civic virtue in selected private universities.

Organizational justice (OJ) and conscientiousness
Organizational Justice has to do with the perception of employees about the fairness of the organization with her leaders. Justice by itself has to do with an action or decision that is morally and ethically right (Tabibnia, et al, 2008). It can be linked to religion, ethics, equity, and law. Bringing the idea of justice to organization, it could be seen in how issues related to pay, equal opportunities for promotion and employee selection processes are handled, whether it is done fairly or not (Tabibnia, et al, 2008). An employee positive or negative feeling about his job holistically refers to perception of OJ (Balogun, et al., 2012). Igbinomwanhia & Akinmayowa (2014) suggested that when an employee perceives that he/she is being fairly treated in the organization and self-assured that such fair treatment will continue, he/she will be motivated to return to the organization behaviours like extra role behaviour. This implies that, the positive or negative perception of employees about the OJ may have its impact on the individual motivation to go extra mile and impact firms" performance (Ojebola, et al., 2020).
Employees that are conscientious are willing to go beyond their normal required duties, even in the harshest of conditions. They are those that would avoid personal gains and adhere to organizational rules and guidelines. Conscientious employees, as well as those who avoid personal gain or other negative behaviours, demonstrate compliance with company policies and maintain predictable, consistent work schedules, increasing the reliability of the service (Afzal, 2020). Carrying out one"s duties beyond the minimum requirements is part of being conscientious in organizations. It was formerly called generalized compliance, which refers to employees going beyond minimal requirements in carrying out their assigned tasks, even when the conditions are not so suiting to them (Subramani, et al, 2015). The main point of conscientious is not complaining much about conditions of service and trying to go beyond and above the call of duty in making sure that the organization succeeds and stay ahead of competition. Based on these discussions, the following hypothesis has been developed: Ho2: There is no nexus between organizational justice and conscientiousness in selected private universities.
2.1.5 Career development and altruism Armstrong (2001) stated that career development is of great importance to both the individual employee and the organization. Similarly, Jianwei (2010) avers that the organizational climate in career development of the employees is imperative for both the firm and the employee, because to perform better at work, providing necessary and related trainings are required. Career development has to do with improving on the skills and competences of the employees to be able to execute well in either a current job or a higher position. However, the major worry is on performing better in a higher rank or position. In relation to this, Agba, et al. (2010) point that career development includes concerted efforts directed towards assessing workers" potentials, identifying likely career paths for that employee and designing and implementing various forms of training and experience to prepare that person for more advanced job. It involves higher status and responsibilities which can take place in one organization or through movement between organizations or a combination of both; it is the use of planned instruction activities to promote learning (Armstrong, 2006).
Altruism involves behaviours of helping co-workers (Meniado, 2020). These help an organization promote efficiency through reduced need for supervision, training, and crisis management costs (Pickford & Joy, 2016). Helping behaviour involves willingly assisting coworkers with or inhibiting the incidence of work related issues. It supports the idea that friendship and cooperation exist between workers (Organ, 1988). Altruism consists of flexible behaviours which are expected at helping explicit persons in an organizational setup (Subramani, et al, 2015). Altruism or helping co-workers make the work system extra productive; because one worker can exploit slack time to assist another on a more critical task (Afzal, 2020). Based on these discussions, the following hypothesis has been developed: Ho3: Career development has no significant positive link with altruism in selected private universities.

Teamwork and sportsmanship
The process of group of persons working together for a common goal is regarded as teamwork. This was the position of Fauziah, et al. (2010) who posits that teamwork is a process of working collaboratively with a group of people, in order to achieve a goal. Also in line with this, Mba (2015) opines that teamwork is an umbrella term that depicts the degree of co-operation which exists in teams or between teams. Hence, collectivism is one of the measures of teamwork. Fajana (2002) asserts that teamwork is an incorporation of assets and inputs working in synchronization to achieve organizational goals, where roles are arranged for every organization member, challenges are equally faced along with incremental improvements are hunted continually. The more the team spirit, the more the employees will be predisposed to put in their best foot forward. If the teamwork atmosphere of climate is good, everyone will be striving for the betterment of the firm where they work. Working together encourages employees to use their knowledge, competencies, and abilities to collaborate with their colleagues to maximize the effectiveness of the overall organization (Adani, et al., 2022).
Sportsmanship has to do with not complaining much even when we are unflavored. In sports parlance, it is used to represent situations where even after a loss to opponents, both the winners and the defeated congratulate each other in good spirit. Sportsmanship refers to willingness to eschew minor inconveniences without request or protest (Pickford & Joy, 2016). It refers to employees" tolerance levels for environmental factors (Organ, 1988). Extant literature on sportsmanship observe that such behaviour positively relates to work group performance, and the more employees display this attitude, the less time and energy a manager wastes in getting their cooperation (Ibukunoluwa et al., 2015;Özdemir & Ergun, 2015). This implies that, the presence of sportsmanship allows managers to dedicate a substantial proportion of their time to productive activities like planning, organizing resources and monitoring performance. It allows organizations to sustain efficiency and effectiveness by focusing on more important job functions (Pickford & Joy, 2016). However, lack of sportsmanship behaviour as opine by Ibukunoluwa, et al. (2015) may lead to negative implication on group or team unity and make the work environment un-conducive to attract or retain productive workers. Based on these discussions, therefore the following hypothesis is proposed: Ho4: Teamwork climate and sportsmanship has no significant positive relationship in selected private universities.

Open communication and courtesy
The way information is shared in an organization forms part of the climate of an organization known as communication climate. Some organizations are known for being open and transparent when it comes to communication and informing people about what they need to know and what they need to do in order to grow, while some firms are notorious for keeping people at the dark with respect with what is being planned to be done, what is being done and what is expected of an employee to grow. Communication means giving or passing information from a sender to a receiver. This was the view of Fauziah, et al. (2010) when they posit that communication refers to the evoking of a shared or common meaning in another person. The climate of communication in organizations involves trust, openness, information adequacy, information quality, information flow, participative management and strengthening of good communiqué practices as well as shared responsibilities for making communication effective (Ijaduola, 2008).
Courtesy is considered as avoiding problems from occurs and taking required actions to reduce the impact of the problems in the future (Muthuraman and Al-Haziazi, 2017). Courtesy as a type of behaviour where the employees notify their colleagues about changes that may directly or indirectly affect their work thus, aids them in better preparing for future problems that may arise. This is directed towards participants giving advance notices, timely reminders and suitable information when needed are some examples of courtesy (Sharma & Jain, 2014). Podsakoff, et al. (2000) mentioned employees who implemented courtesy are having less intergroup conflict and time to deal with conflict management activities. Nevertheless, the employees with high courtesy will always show behaviour will prevent them from creating problems, thus with more mindful and cautious in engaging with any actions that can affect their co-workers. Lastly, according to Dimitriades (2007), courtesy also contributes to OCB because it helps to avoid relationship problems at the workplace. Based on these discussions, therefore the following hypothesis is proposed: Ho5: Open communication climate has no significant positive relationship with courtesy in selected private universities.

Theoretical Literature
This work is going to be anchored on Social Exchange Theory (SET), which is credited to the work of George Homans in 1958, a sociologist. This theory is said to be among one of the most  (2005) aver that SET is one of the most influential conceptual paradigms in organizational behaviour.
The concept of "Social Exchange" will greatly help in the understanding of the combined concept or theory of Social Exchange. Among various definitions of social exchange, theorists have converged in accepting that social exchange has to do with a series of interactions that generate obligations (Emerson, 1976). It is a voluntary action of personalities that are motivated by the returns they are anticipated to bring and classically do in fact bring from others (Blau, 1964). The original definition given by the propounded of the theory (Homans, 1958), is that social exchange has to do with the swap of activity, tangible or intangible with more or less rewarding or costly, among at least two people. From the forgoing, it is seen that for an exchange to take place, it has to involve more than one person. That is, there must be a giver and a receiver, for an exchange to take place. It is however, important to note that the exchange as captured by Cropanzano & Mitchell (2005) must not involve something tangible, it could be perceptual. They posit that "exchanges between people are not limited to material goods like money or resources, but they also include symbolic values like respect or prestige". The goal of such an exchange should be to better the lives of those involved. Holthausen (2013) captured it thus, whether the resources being exchanged are tangible or not, it must be between two parties, or groups, with the goal of improving, sustaining or terminating relations or relationship.
The principle of reciprocity and interrelationship between and amongst organizational member captures the tenets of SET properly. This was captured by Hopkins (2002) who states that SET is used to study the various levels and aspects of employee reciprocity in firms. Furthermore, Nammir, et al. (2012) opine that it is best understood as a frame for expounding exchanges of resources, in market conditions which are imperfect, between two parties or a network via a social process. Here, reciprocity captures the act of people feeling compelled to return a favour or act in a similarly way as someone. That is, people that are treated well in organizations feel compelled to also give back to the organization. This was succinctly encapsulated in what Cropanzano & Mitchell (2005) said as they opine that reciprocal interdependence emphasizes contingent interpersonal transactions, whereby, an action by one party leads to a reaction by another. On his part, Gergen (1969) point out that if a person supplies a benefit, the receiving party should respond in kind.
There is an atom of mutual relationship with social exchanges. In a completely interdependent system, all sub-criteria of the systems are mutually related, directly or indirectly (Yang, et al. 2008). Thus, human beings are attuned and mutually dependent on each other in relations amongst each other, where "gestures of goodwill" are exchanged amid employees with the organization and flanked by subordinates and their supervisors, when particular action warrants reciprocity. According to Helm, et al, (2006), the basic assumption of the theory is that human beings strive for a positive outcome when considering rewards and costs of a relationship. Furthermore, humans are rational beings; hence, they will attempt to control their environments to achieve specific objectives, in order to aim for a maximization of their own benefits (Gardner, et al, 1995). The SET starts with the premise that humans interact in social behaviour in order to make the most of benefits and diminish costs, which then leads to a positive result (Hutchison & Charlesworth, 2003). The central message is that people weigh the pros and cons before making a decision. In economics, individuals can decide between costs and benefits before approving in an exchange (Okyere-Kwakye, et al, 2012).
The point of juncture connecting this theory and the study is the point of humans being rational and the point of the theory proposition reciprocity as its main tenet. Hence, perceived good environment based on the assumptions of the theory will lead to behaviours that are above the required formal tasks which is termed OCB. That is, when employees perceive that the support they are receiving from the firm is good, they would be obliged to show civic virtue. Also, when they see that the institutions and her management are just in their rewards and processes, they would have no option than to exhibit conscientiousness in the universities. Similarly, when the institutions actively seek to develop the career of their staff, then the staff would want to pay back by being altruistic. Same also goes to when the employees recognize that the teamwork is for their own benefit, that there is no unhealthy rivalry and bickering, then they will exhibit sportsmanship behaviour. All these will help the universities to perform better. Nawawi, et al. (2022) analyzes the relationship of organizational citizenship behavior to the organizational climate among secondary school teachers in the state of Kelantan. The respondents for this study consisted of 422 teachers from secondary schools in the state of Kelantan. Data analysis was conducted using Descriptive Mean Test, t-Test, and One-Way ANOVA, and correlation values were analyzed using AMOS 23.0 software. The findings of the study found that there is a strong relationship between organizational citizenship behaviour with organizational climate. Harmius, et al. (2021) did a study to evaluate the effect of organizational climate with organizational commitment on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in addition to its effect on employee performance. The population was all employees of Pidie Jaya regional secretariat office as one of the government institutions in Pidie Jaya district, Indonesia. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to examine the consequence of all the variables. The result showed that organizational climate affects organizational citizenship behaviour. Almaqableh, et al. (2021) determined the computerized organizational climate (OC) and their relationship to civilizing the organizational citizenship behaviour with motivation as intervene of the employees of the Jordanian telecommunication companies. A questionnaire was organized and created to congregate data and determine the study variables in order to meet the study's objectives. SmartPLS (3.3.2) was used. 350 randomly selected respondents from three major telecommunication companies in Jordan were given the self-administered questionnaire. The study found the following direct effects are positive and significant namely, OC on OCB (ß=0.484; P = 0.000), OC on motivation (ß=0.852; P = 0.000), and motivation on OCB (ß=0.383; P = 0.013). Fahim & Asadollahi (2021) examine the relationship among organizational climate with organizational citizenship behaviour of sports coaches in the Basij areas of Mashhad. The method is descriptive survey and data collection was done in the field. The results of this research stated that there is a positive and significant relationship amid organizational climate and its components (except the distance component) with the organizational citizenship behaviour of sports coaches in Basij areas of Mashhad and this relationship and level of significance in the team spirit component was more than other components of organizational climate.

Empirical Literature
Shahnavazi, et al. (2021) examined the effect of perceived organizational climate on the performance of nurses in private hospitals. A descriptive survey design was employed. The population of the study is 112 nurses working in the pediatric ward of private hospitals in Rasht, including Golsar, Pars, Ghaem and Aria hospitals. The study found that there is a relationship between perceived organizational climate and nurses" job performance was statistically significant. Soetjiptoa, et al. (2021) analyzed the effect of organizational climate, organizational nationality behaviour and transformational leadership as an area that are foreseen to increase job satisfaction along with work morale. In examining the simulating consequences, the findings expressed that there were significant effects of organizational climate on work morale throughout job satisfaction (t=2.492; p=0.015<0.05), organizational citizenship behaviour on work morale with job satisfaction interventions (t=2.311; p=0.023<0.05). Isik (2021) investigated the factors distressing the organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) of English teachers in Turkish state high schools contained by the framework of job satisfaction, emotional commitment, and demographic factors. The findings revealed that the English teachers" job satisfaction, emotional commitment, and OCB levels were above average. Moreover, job satisfaction and emotional commitment predicted OCB. No significant association was experienced among demographic factors and OCB. The findings observed a positive correlation among demographic factors with job satisfaction, as well as between demographic factors and emotional commitment.
Al-Zoubi & Alfandi (2021) examined the dimensions of Organizational Climate on employee"s creativity in Jordanian Hotels. The study objective was to develop and test a conceptual framework which linked the creativeness of employees with four organizational climatic factors: the structure, obligation, rewards, and support, as well as the connection between creativity of employees and performance of employees. 432 employees in 18 luxury hotels in Jordan collected data. The quantitative study was all ears on an empirical exploratory factor, a basic linear regression analysis and the validity of the CFA factor solution. The outcome viewed that the affiliation within employee creativity and employee success affects the creativity of workers through different organizational factors. Nabilla & Riyanto (2020) measured and analyzed the impact of job satisfaction, perceived organizational support (POS), and organizational climate through OCB of the employee on employees in an outsourcing company Jakarta. The finding of was job satisfaction, POS, and organizational climate variables have important correlation to OCB. The research revealed the most variable that influencing OCB was job satisfaction.
Okoli (2018) examined the relationship within organizational climate and job satisfaction among academic staff in selected private universities in Southeast, Nigeria. The results revealed that there is a positive significant correlation among organizational climate with job satisfaction. The results further revealed that there is a significant relationship between the organizational climate dimensions (leadership style and academic freedom) with job satisfaction dimensions (satisfaction with administrative support and satisfaction with working conditions). Vasudevan & Iqbal (2018) determined whether there is a relationship among each of the three dimensions of organizational climate (supervisory support, autonomy, and goal direction), Organizational Citizenship Behaviour-Individual with Organizational Citizenship Behaviour-Organizational on a non-supervisory staff of Bank Simpanan National in Malaysia. This research exposed a significant association between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour of non-supervisory employees of Bank Simpanan National in Malaysia. The hypotheses exposed a significant positive association linking 2nd order construct of organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour. This study suggested that all banks' need to exhibit a positive organizational climate within employee's to increase organizational citizenship behaviour. Dargahi (2016) inspect the relationship between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviours within employees of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour and all its dimensions and there is a significant optimistic relationship. The organizational climate as much as 14% on organizational citizenship behaviour had an impact. The establishment of an appropriate climate and employee satisfaction on space and extra-role behaviour causes spontaneous organization of staff that will be ultimately can influence the accomplishment of an organization. Piotrowski, et al. (2020) determined the benefits of organizational climate, organizational support and citizenship behaviour in the Army; and how citizenship behaviours may be shaped in the Armed Forces. Findings showed that some of the OC parameters and POS, especially those coming from other soldiers were positively associated with OCB.
Pozveh & Karimi (2017) explore the relationship involving organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) of the staff members in the Department of Education in Isfahan City. The research has been conducted through descriptive/correlation method. The findings of the research designate that there is a direct and significant relationship between organizational climate, its dimensions, and OCB. Of the dimensions of organizational climate, the goals of an organization, the role, rewards, procedures, and communications within an organization are able to forecast the OCB. The results of MANOVA suggest that there is a significant difference between the respondents' viewpoints about the organizational climate according to age and OCB according to education. Creating positive and good organizational climate requires a culture based on universal values, and employees can accept their work problems and their organizational citizenship behaviours are increased. Shbail & Shbail (2020) analysed the consequence of organizational climate on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and the consequence of OCB on turnover intention. Strong organizational climate should be formed in Jordanian private universities since it improve and predict OCB. OCB will in turn cause turnover purpose to diminish among internal auditors.
Akanni & Ndubueze (2017) look into the relationship between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) between employees of preferred private companies in south-eastern Nigeria. It examined the relationship among each of the three dimensions of organizational climate (reflexivity, innovation and outward focus) and OCB. The research accomplished that organizational climate had a significant positive relationship with OCB within employees of private companies in Abia State. Mabekoje (2017) tested whether contextual factors of organizational climate and organizational health would significantly reckoning in teachers" organizational citizenship behaviour. Two hundred and seven (207) teachers randomly sampled from secondary schools in an education zone in Ogun State, Nigeria contribute in the research. The study found that organizational climate and organizational health would significantly predict individual-based, organization-based and total organizational citizenship behaviour. Obeng, et al. (2020) examined the moderating effect of perceived organizational support on the associations among organizational climate and organizational commitment, organizational commitment with employee performance. However, perceived organizational support had no moderation consequence on the relationship among organizational climate and organizational commitment. Damayanti & Dewi (2020) determined the effect of the organization, work motivation and organization justice on OCB. The research was conducted at the One-stop integrated service and capital investment official office, Gianyar Regency, Bali Province, Indonesia. The findings described the impact of organization climate, work motivation, and fairness of organizational variables was positive and significant on OCB.
Cek & Eyupoglu (2020) did a study to examine job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour among teachers; and donate to the educational management prose by testing a model that binds the overall job satisfaction, intrinsic satisfaction, extrinsic satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour of high school teachers. The results show that teachers are more intrinsically fulfilled with their jobs when compared to extrinsic and overall job satisfaction, and that teachers exhibit a high degree of organizational citizenship deeds. The results further reveal that as hypothesized, teachers" job satisfaction (overall, intrinsic and extrinsic) positively influences organizational citizenship behaviour, and however intrinsic job satisfaction is the majority influential. Balyer & Özcan (2017) examined organizational climate at Primary Schools and its influences on Teachers Job Satisfaction. A descriptive quantitative study was carried out to discover if elements of organizational climate (structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames) influence teachers" intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Results revealed that while male teachers perceive school environment more positively, female participants have higher intrinsic job satisfaction. While younger teachers distinguish all factors more positively, experienced teachers identify symbolic frame more positively.

Gap in Knowledge
A careful examination of related and previous studies revealed few empirical theoretical researches had been done in Nigeria that focused on educational institutions. Based on the literature review, it was discovered that some of the few studies conducted in Nigeria was done outside the Southeast geo-political region and the few that was done in the Southeast did not mention the sources of their measurement scale. They also failed to report the measurement scale validation process, if designed by them, which cast doubt on the potential of their measurement scale to measure what it was supposed to measure. There is also a lacuna in the proxies (variables) used in previous studies, as the independent variables (organizational support, organizational justice, career development, teamwork climate, and open communication climate) and dependent variable (civic virtue, conscientiousness, altruism, sportsmanship, and courtesy) applied in this study differ with those of previous studies. Furthermore, some of these empirical studies violated the assumption of regression analysis, which stated that all the variables should be continuous. Nevertheless, the authors collected ordinal data using a five-point Likert scale. Based on these gaps identified, the study examined the effect of organizational climate on organizational citizenship behaviour among academic staff of private universities in Southeast Nigeria. The study also will employed validated psychometric scales that captured the two constructs adopted from previous research to ensure that the results from our study are valid for reliable prediction.

Research Method
The study has employed survey research design for this study. This research design is appropriate for the study as it aids in defining and describing phenomena by advancing an academic argument through the development of a research query or procedures by data gathering and tabulation of the data based on its interaction or frequencies. The study population from which the sample was drawn for the study consists of fourteen private universities in Southeast Nigeria. The questionnaire was administered to the academic staff ranging from Professors, Readers, Senior lecturers, Lecturers I, Lecturers II, Assistant lecturers, and Graduate Assistants. The total number of academic staff in the selected private universities is 4654 (Researcher"s Field Survey Report, 2022). The questionnaire was administered to the academic staff ranging from Professors, Readers, Senior lecturers, Lecturers I, Lecturers II, Assistant lecturers, and Graduate Assistants. The sample size of the study was determined using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size determination formula to arrive at three hundred and fifty five (355) academic staff. A stratified random sampling technique was employed to determine the number of participants in each stratum. Stratified random sampling was used because of the nature of the population of the study and the behavioural pattern of the profession.
The questionnaire was the major tool for data collection. The questionnaire which is tagged "Organizational climate and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour Questionnaire (OCOCBQ) was in two sections. Section (A) has questions on respondents" demographic details while section (B) contains questions on the organizational climate variables and organizational citizenship behaviour variables examined in the study using the close-ended type of questions. More specifically, the organizational climate construct was measured on five dimensions (organizational support, organizational justice, career development, teamwork climate, and open communication climate) and the organizational citizenship behaviour construct consists of five dimensions (civic virtue, conscientiousness, altruism, sportsmanship, and courtesy). The respondents were asked to indicate their agreement with each item on a five-point scale, ranging from "strongly agree" with a score of 5 to "strongly disagree" which scores 1.
To test the validity of the instrument, the Principal Component Analysis and test for commonalities and Varimax Rotation using the Extraction method was employed. The factor analysis procedure was applied to validate the instrument because the set of variables analyzed in the factor analysis extends beyond test data and since it utilizes rating and other criteria measured along with other tests to explore the factorial composition of a particular test and so define the common traits it measures hence, usually preferred in most construct validation exercises. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted on the 22 items of the organizational climate questionnaire using Orthogonal Rotation (varimax). Similarly, the 21 items of the organizational citizenship behaviour questionnaire were subjected to factor analysis using a principal component analysis (PCA). An initial analysis will be run to obtain each component in the data. All factor loadings below 3.00 will be eliminated.
The reliability of the measuring instrument was tested using Cronbach Alpha. The  978, 0.979, 0. 988, 0.991, 0.981, 0.977, 0.971, 0.970, 0.976, and 0.990, respectively. The data collected was analyzed using a combination of descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (correlation analysis and regression analysis). Hypotheses will be tested at a 5% significance level.

Result and Discussions
In all, 355 copies of questionnaires were administered to these selected private universities, and a total of 342 questionnaires were returned and appropriately filled. This represents a response rate of 96.34%. The respondents" response rate is presented in Table 2 below.

Descriptive Statistics
The demographic profile of sampled respondents, showing the sample distributions in terms of gender, age, appointment status, rank, and work experience of the respondents are reported in the table 3 below.

Test of Hypotheses
Hypothesis One: Organizational support does not significantly relate with civic virtue among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria.  (2-tailed) .000 N 342 342 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The relationship between organizational support and civic virtue was investigated using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. The result found a strong, positive correlation between organizational support and civic virtue among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria, r = .85, n = 342, p < 0.01. Consequently, the null hypothesis was rejected. The result suggested that high level of organizational support was associated with higher civic virtue. It implies that high level of institutional support leads to greater level of civic virtue among private university lecturers. This suggests that academics would voluntarily and actively engage in providing lasting solutions to their university problems if they enjoyed the goodwill of their universities. The prior survey supported the result of this research (Harmius, et al., 2021;Piotrowski, et al., 2020;Obeng, et al., 2020;Nabilla and Riyanto, 2020); that perceived organizational support has recorded a positive, significant relationship with organizational citizenship behaviour in various work settings.
Hypothesis Two: There is no significant relationship between organizational justice and conscientiousness among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria.  -tailed) .000 N 342 342 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The nature of relationship between organizational justice and conscientiousness was examined using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The research indicated a strong, positive relationship between organizational justice and conscientiousness among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria, r = .96, n = 342, p < 0.01. Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected. The research established that organizational justice has statistical, significant relationship with conscientiousness. This implies that high level of institutional justice leads to greater level of conscientiousness among private university lecturers. It explains that academics would do extra job and avoid personal gains if they enjoyed fair treatment from their university leadership. A similar result was reported by prior researchers (Damayanti and Dewi, 2020;Piotrowski, et al., 2020). For instance, Damayanti and Dewi (2020) ascertained the influence of fairness on organizational citizenship behaviour in a service and capital investment company, Gianyar Regency, Bali Province, Indonesia. In addition, Piotrowski, et al., (2020) determined a significant statistical relationship between organizational climate and perceived organizational support in the Polish Army.
Hypothesis Three: Career development does not significantly influence altruism among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria.  (Cek and Eyupoglu, 2020;Balyer and Özcan, 2017). For example, Cek and Eyupoglu (2020) reported that teachers were more intrinsically satisfied with their jobs when compared to extrinsic and overall job satisfaction and that the teachers displayed a high level of organizational citizenship behaviour.
Hypothesis Four: Teamwork climate has no significant influence on sportsmanship among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria. The influence of teamwork climate on sportsmanship was investigated using linear regression. The result found that teamwork climate exerts high statistical, significant influence on sportsmanship among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria (β = 0.98, t = 89.00, r 2 = .959, F = 7921.217, p < .01). Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. The research indicated that teamwork climate results to the spirit of sportsmanship among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria. It is vital to note that 96% change in the spirit of sportsmanship was related to proportionate change in the teamwork climate among academic staff of private universities in Southeast, Nigeria. Teamwork climate increases the spirit of sportsmanship more than when it is lacking among academics in private universities. This explains that academic staff of private universities would often show high level of tolerance as long as they engage in collaborative works. Many past studies reported related findings (Almaqableh, et al., 2021;Fahim and Asadollahi, 2021;Harmius, et al., 2021;Nugroho, et al., 2020;Nabilla and Riyanto, 2020). For instance, research established that teamwork climate had a positive significant influence on organizational citizenship behaviour across industries and cultures.  (2014); which showed that emotional commitment was statistically related to organizational citizenship behaviour. Obeng, et al. (2020) reported that perceived organizational support significantly correlated with organizational commitment.

Conclusion
The study concluded that organizational climate (OC) has a significant positive relationship with organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among academics in private universities studied in Southeast, Nigeria. Therefore, the success of an institution is dependent upon the effective management of organizational climate, as one important path to this success is employee"s citizenship behaviour. Private university academics that enjoyed organizational support tend to actively participate in the university welfare more than those who had not enjoyed similar benefit. Academics that enjoyed fair treatment would often do extra job and avoid personal gains more than those who were denied justice.
4. Private universities should develop annual budget to partially or fully finance academic conferences and workshops in order to improve staff capacity. 5. Private universities should score collaborative works more than individual outputs in order to encourage teamwork among academic staff. 6. Efforts should be made to provide accurate, adequate, and timely information to academics so as to encourage active engagement.
The study provided valuable ideas, model, facts and figures that can be used by academics, university administrators, management practitioners and consultants in understanding the relationships and the various dimensions between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behaviour variables. This study was able to isolate the link between each component of organizational climate and each component of organizational citizenship behaviour. This made it possible to know where attention needs to be directed. Most studies emphasised global and composite organizational citizenship behaviour which obscures the specific areas for administrative attention. The study also provided insight into organizational factors that would likely impinge on organizational citizenship behaviour in a privatized environment using the selected universities as sample area.