Interactional Justice and Employee Silence: The Roles of Procedural Justice and Affect

Abstract

In order to explore further the contingent influence mechanism of interactional justice on employee silence, we investigated how procedural justice moderates the interactional justice– silence relationship directly and indirectly through affect, drawing on the group engagement model and affect theories. We analyzed data collected from a survey completed by 272 Chinese subordinate–supervisor dyads and found that procedural justice strengthened the interactional justice–silence relationship both directly and indirectly through positive affect, and that positive affect had a stronger moderating effect on the interactional justice–silence relationship than did negative affect. However, negative affect did not mediate the moderating effect of procedural justice on the interactional justice–silence relationship. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.