Relationship between work engagement and organizational justice among hospital nurses

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to clarify the relationship between organizational justice and work engagement among nurses.Methods Japanese nurses working in a medium-sized hospital in the Tokyo metropolitan area were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. We conducted a stepwise multiple regression analysis with scores from the Japanese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-J) as the dependent variable and scores from the Japanese version of the Organizational Justice Scale (OJS-J), age, sex, position, employment status, shift work, self-efficacy, social support, work control, and work quantitative load as the independent variables. Additionally, a stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted for each OJS-J subscale score.Results The questionnaire was distributed to 270 nurses, of whom 219 (83.0% response rate) provided valid responses. With the UWES-J as the dependent variable, Model 1 adjusted only for age and sex; Model 2 adjusted for position, employment status, shift work, and self-efficacy score; and Model 3 adjusted for the social support, work control, and work quantitative load scores. Model 2 and Model 3 showed a significant association to the positive direction between UWES-J and OJS-J (Model 3: β=0.202, P<0.01, R2=0.363). Furthermore, when the same analysis was conducted for each OJS-J subscale score, a significant association was found between procedural justice scores and the UWES-J (Model 3: β=0.165, P<0.05, R2=0.383). Neither model found a significant difference between distributional equity scores and information equity scores.Conclusion The results of this study examining the relationship between work engagement and organizational justice among hospital nurses showed that work engagement was associated with organizational justice, especially procedural justice. These results suggest that maintaining and improving organizational justice is important for improving nurses' work engagement.