East Meets West: Effects of Justice On Employees' Commitment within the Context of International Joint Ventures in China

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to explore and compare the relationships of justice and commitment among Chinese employees working in International Joint Ventures (IJVs) and reformed State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) today. In this study, distributive justice and procedural justice are considered as antecedents of affective commitment, and interactional justice is considered as antecedent of commitment to supervisor. Additionally, the model further suggests that affective commitment will affect employees' turnover intention and organisational citizenship behaviour; and commitment to supervisor will affect employees' organisational citizenship behaviour. A data set consisting of 247 employees in two international joint ventures and 253 employees in two state-owned enterprises in Shanghai and Southern China are used to test the hypotheses empirically. The LISREL results support the hypotheses. The study shows the major differences of employees' attitudes and behaviour in international joint ventures and state-owned enterprises in China today. The effect of distributive justice on employees' affective commitment is stronger in SOE than in IJV. On the contrary, the effect of procedural justice on employees' affective commitment is stronger in IJV than in SOE. Additionally, the effect of interactional justice on commitment to supervisor is similar in both types of organisation. These results reveal that interactional justice is highly emphasized in both IJVs and SOEs in contemporary China, though the employees are working in different organisational contexts. Finally, theoretical and practical implications of the present study are discussed.