ORGANISATONAL SOCIALISATION AND CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR AMONG EMPLOYEES IN LAGOS STATE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, NIGERIA.

Organisational Socialisation is a key determinant of how employees exhibit positive discretionary behaviour that goes beyond the formal tasks of the organisation to improve productivity and healthy relationship among co-workers in the organisation. This study, therefore, examined how organisational socialisation influences the citizenship behaviour of employees in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. A proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to select 60% of 230 employees across the departments in the study area. However, 123 respondents were used for this study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents and was analysed using frequency counts, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Chi Square and Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC). The result showed that 71% were within 31-40 years of age, 50.4% were female, 44.7% were married, 60.2% were Christians, 64.2% possess B.Sc., 74.8% earn between ₦100,001 and ₦200,000, 60.2% had less than or 10 years of working experience, 47.2% were mid-level staff, 95.9% had 11-20 years of schooling and 65.9% were from the Yoruba tribe. Training (x̅= 4.62) and understanding (x̅= 4.47) were the prevalent organisational socialisation dimensions. Overall, 94.3% of the respondents have high level of organisational socialisation in the study area. The prevalent antecedents of OCB dimensions were individual dispositions and motives (x̅= 4.33) and organisational loyalty (x̅ = 4.14). Civic virtue (x̅= 4.29) and conscientiousness (x̅= 4.28) were the prevalent dimensions of Organisatonal Citizenship Behaviour while 96.7% of the respondents have high level of OCB. The hypotheses tests using Chi Square and PPMC revealed that Sex (x̅= 0.040), Marital Status (x̅= 0.000) and Highest Educational Level (x̅= 0.003) personal characteristics have significant relationship with OCB while Religion (x̅= 0.673), Rank (x̅= 0.974), Ethnicity (x̅= 0.543), Monthly Income (x̅= 0.143), Year of Working Experience (x̅= 0.318) and Years of Schooling (x̅= 0.141) have no significant relationship with OCB. The test using PPMC revealed that Training (r = 0.487**), Understanding (r = 0.342**), Coworker Support (r = 0.347**) and Future Prospects (r = 0.447**) have significant relationship between Organisational Socialisation and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour. Also using PPMC, the test revealed that the determinants of OCB; Organisational Justice (r = 0.531**), Organisational Loyalty (r = 0.561**), Group Cohesiveness (r = 0.470**) and Individual Dispositions and Motives (r = 0.587**) have significant relationship between employees citizenship behaviour. In conclusion, organisational socialisation is crucial for fostering employees citizenship behaviour. The study recommends that management should encourage a culture of trust and open communication within the organisation.