Organizational justice: what changes, what remains the same?

Abstract

Purpose– This study aims to examine workers' distributive and interactional justice perceptions at three different moments in time over a period of eight years, assess their degree of stability and identify their most stable antecedents and outcomes.Design/methodology/approach– Data was collected through an overlapping repeated cross-sectional design. Of the participants involved, 334 were surveyed in 2000, 259 participated in 2004, and 285 participated in 2008.Findings– Distributive justice is more stable than interactional justice. Organizational support is the most stable predictor of distributive justice, and the quality of supervisor practices is the most stable predictor of interactional justice. Contrary to expected, interactional justice has a stronger relationship to workers' attitudes directed both at the organization and supervisor, and at the immediate work context.Originality/value– This study adopts a long-term perspective covering an eight-year period. Furthermore, it focuses on two dimensions of justice that have been less studied over time.