How Informational Injustice Leads to Exit Intentions: Cynicism in Highly Identified Employees

Abstract

This research investigates the effect of informational justice in the context of a particularly jarring type of change: downsizing and layoffs. In Study 1 a diverse sample of US employees (N=147) responded to a scenario exercise in which informational justice during a major organizational change was manipulated and cynicism and exit intentions were measured. In Study 2, eighty-seven US employees responded to a scenario exercise in which both informational justice and organizational identification during a major organizational change were manipulated and cynicism and exit intentions were measured. In Study 3, a field survey of 1821 employees in a European organization undergoing a major restructuring which included layoffs, all variables of interest were measured. In all three studies, employee cynicism mediated the positive relationship between informational injustice and exit intention. In Study 2 and Study 3, moderated-mediation analysis was used to show the moderating effect of organizational identification on this mediated relationship. Informational justice mattered more for employees highly identified with their organization, such as they reacted with stronger cynicism to informational injustice. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.