Exploring the Mediating Effect of Organizational Trust Between Organizational Justice Dimensions and Affective Commitment

Abstract

Extant research has established that perceptions of justice in the organizational arena lead to desirable employee attitudes and behaviours. However, there seems to be a paucity of research exploring how social exchange variables act as mechanisms linking justice perceptions with their output. The present research is therefore a small step towards bridging this gap by examining the role of a social exchange variable, Organizational Trust (Trust), as mediating the relationship between each of the three Organizational Justice dimensions: Distributive (DJ), Procedural (PJ) and Interactional Justice (IJ), and an organizational level outcome (Affective Organizational Commitment - OC). The study finds that PJ and IJ does not have any significant relationship with Trust and only the relation between DJ and OC is fully mediated by Trust. Further, there is no interaction effect of the three justice dimensions upon Trust.The study concludes with a discussion regarding the findings, the limitations under which it has been conducted, and its implications for management practice.