What signals does procedural justice climate convey? The roles of group status, and organizational benevolence and integrity

Abstract

Summary We propose and test a theoretical framework to explore why and how procedural justice climate influences individual behaviors after controlling for the influence of individual justice perception. Two types of symbolic information conveyed by procedural justice climate are considered. We argue that procedural justice climate reflects the status of or respect for a justice recipient, a work unit within an organization in our context, which then influences the identification of its members with the work unit. Procedural justice climate also reflects the moral attributes of a justice actor, herein an organization, which then influences organizational identification and perceived job security. Consistent with these arguments, results showed that perceived respect for the work unit mediated the relationship between procedural justice climate and identification with the work unit, and both perceived organizational benevolence and integrity mediated the relationship of procedural justice climate with organizational identification and job security. The two types of social identification and perceived job security were related to several outcome variables differently. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.