Motivating factors: perceptions of justice and their relationship with managerial and organizational trust

Abstract

Research on trust in organizations shows that it facilitates relationships, cooperation between individuals and organizations, organizational commitment, and employees’ motivation to innovate. Organizational justice, which refers to perceptions of the fairness of workplace outcomes or processes, is often considered an antecedent to managerial and organizational trust. The current research sought to determine whether different types of justice relate to managerial and organizational trust in unique ways. Participants from numerous organizations representing two geographic regions were surveyed regarding their last performance appraisal. Results indicate that procedural justice was the strongest predictor of both organizational and managerial trust, distributive justice only predicted managerial trust, and interactional justice did not predict either type of trust.