The Synergistic Effects of Organizational Justice and Trust to Supervisor on Vagal Tone: Preliminary Findings of an Empirical Investigation.

Raphael Herr,Peter Angerer,Jian Li

doi:10.3390/ijerph16050790

Abstract

The influence of perceived unfairness at the workplace (organizational injustice) on employee health is well established. Several theories explain the unpleasant and stressful nature of the experience of injustice, using trust as a central element. This study examines the effect of trust to supervisor on the association of perceived injustice with vagal tone—an objective marker for stress experience. Questionnaires assessed organizational justice and trust. Vagal tone was measured by indictors of heart rate variability (HRV), which captured parasympathetic (pNN50, RMSSD, and HF) and parasympathetic and sympathetic (SDNN, and LF) regulation. Synergistic effects were tested by linear regressions with interaction terms between organizational justice and trust to supervisor in 38 managers. Organizational justice was related to HRV indicators that reflect in particular the parasympathetic branch (βpNN50 = 0.32, p < 0.05; βRMSSD = 0.27, p < 0.1), and interaction effects with trust to supervisor were also most pronounced there (interaction βpNN50 = −0.41, p < 0.01; βRMSSD = −0.47, p < 0.01). In conclusion, the combination of low perceived justice and trust to supervisor appears substantial to the physiological stress threat of employees. Promoting fairness at the workplace might reduce stress; if not possible, trust to supervisor should be enhanced.

Highlights

The perception of unfairness at the workplace has consistently been linked to various job-related factors, such as commitment, turn-over intention, motivation and productivity, as well as to adverse mental and physical health [1,2,3,4]
We found that heart rate variability (HRV) was lowest when both organizational justice and trust to supervisor were low
With fairness heuristic theory and uncertainty management theory as our basis, we have argued that perceived justice might be used as a shortcut for trust to supervisor, which appears hard to determine

Summary

Introduction

The perception of unfairness at the workplace (organizational injustice) has consistently been linked to various job-related factors, such as commitment, turn-over intention, motivation and productivity, as well as to adverse mental and physical health [1,2,3,4]. The negative health consequences are seen to be the result of the negative emotions and stress associated with the perception of injustice [3,5]. Several theoretical concepts have been developed to explain why people are interested in fairness and why their perception of unfairness might be stressful to them. The fairness heuristic theory argues, for example, that perceived justice at work is important to employees because of facing the “fundamental social dilemma”, which is expressed in the question of whether to trust and cooperate with authorities [6]. Justice can be seen as an employee’s

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Conclusion