Organizational Justice Literature Research Articles

COVID-19 impacts and mental health of auxiliary police: the moderating role of supervisor procedural justice

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 impacts and auxiliary police officers’ mental health as well as the moderating role of supervisor procedural justice.Design/methodology/approachBased on the role theory and a police officer survey from China, this quantitative study investigates the relationship between COVID-19 impacts and mental health status among auxiliary police, a rarely examined police type. We also examine the moderating role of supervisor procedural justice.FindingsAuxiliary police officers reported both negative and positive impacts from COVID-19, while the negative impacts were mainly in the work domain, but the positive impacts were primarily in the life area. OLS regression results indicate that negative impacts, especially work-related negative impacts, are significantly related to depression and anxiety, and supervisor procedural justice moderates the relationship between positive impacts and depression and anxiety.Originality/valueFirstly, we adopted the role theory to examine how public health emergencies affect police officers in their work and life domains. Secondly, we advance the organizational justice literature by assessing whether supervisor procedural justice can moderate the relationship between COVID-19 impacts and their mental health. Thirdly, this research extends the literature on depression and anxiety of auxiliary police officers in China, who attracted less attention in current literature and policies.

Understanding how organizational culture shapes the experiences of direct support professionals: A qualitative meta-synthesis from an organizational justice perspective.

Direct support professionals (DSPs) are critical to the quality of life of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, yet high turnover rates significantly affect the quality and consistency of their services. A qualitative meta-synthesis could help understand how organizational culture shapes the experiences of DSPs. A systematic search found six articles that met all inclusion criteria. The initial findings show that although DSPs perceived their work as worthy and rewarding, they did not feel valued or supported by management either monetarily or professionally. The analysis revealed an overarching theme with elements congruent with the organizational justice literature. Findings suggest that cultivating a culture of justice and fairness is vital to retaining quality DSPs, promoting organizational outcomes, and improving the quality of life of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Do Just Trainer Behaviors Matter?

Abstract: We explore whether justice-related trainer behaviors can contribute to positive training outcomes, with just behaviors defined according to the organizational justice literature. We also explore possible psychological mechanisms that may explain why just trainer behaviors matter, focusing on positive affect and felt obligation. The importance of just world beliefs is also investigated. In 100 individual training sessions, we manipulated trainer behaviors, just or unjust, and primed trainees with a message regarding whether the world is just. Just trainer behaviors related directly to increased trainee transfer motivation and indirectly to both transfer self-efficacy (via positive affect) and training performance (via general justice perceptions). Belief in a just world played no significant role.

How do institutional forces affect firm agility through organisational justice? Differences between Chinese and foreign firms in China

While institutional environment is increasingly affecting supply chains, the effects of institutional forces on firm agility remains largely unexplored. This paper integrates institutional theory with the organisational justice and agility literature to explore whether institutional forces (i.e. legal protection, the importance of guanxi, and government support) affect agility of local and foreign firms in China through organisational justice. Results from structural equation modelling of survey data from 241 manufacturers in China demonstrate that Chinese firms gained agility through procedural, distributive, and interactional justice created by the three institutional forces. Gaining less justice from all three institutional forces (especially guanxi), the agility of foreign firms relied on only distributive justice. Legal protection and guanxi worked for Chinese firms, whereas foreign firms are somewhat disadvantaged in this regard and relied mostly on government support to provide distributive justice for building agility.

Impact of authentic leadership on employee turnover intention: Perceived supervisor support as mediator and organizational identification as moderator.

Authentic leadership is considered a critical factor for retaining talented employees. However, despite fruitful findings, researchers have paid little attention to how authentic leadership is associated with employee turnover intention. Drawing on organizational support theory, justice literature, and social identity theory, we examine the effects of supervisors' authentic leadership on employee turnover intention to better understand how authentic leaders reduce employees' turnover intention in Asian context. In this study, we focus on the mediating role of perceived supervisor support (PSS) and the moderating role of organizational identification in the relationship between supervisors' authentic leadership and employee turnover intention. To test our hypothesized research model, we adopted a cross-sectional design with a convenience data sampling. We also used a self-report research design in the current study. We collected data from 433 employees from several organizations in Korea. Our respondents rated their immediate supervisors' authentic leadership and their PSS, turnover intention and organizational identification. Confirmatory factor analysis, regression analysis, and moderated mediation analysis revealed that: authentic leadership negatively predicted employee turnover intention. In addition, PSS completely mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and employee turnover intention. Furthermore, organizational identification moderates the relationship between PSS and turnover intention. Lastly, organizational identification moderates the mediating effect of PSS on the relationships between perceptions of authentic leadership and employee turnover intention. Herein, we discuss the managerial implications and future research directions arising from our study.

Event justice and social entity justice: A cross-lagged analysis

IntroductionThe life of organizations is punctuated by a wide range of managerial decisions (e.g., hiring and selection procedure, performance appraisal, new working methods). Facing such events, employees evaluate the fairness of the situation experienced (event justice). They can also examine the fairness demonstrated by a specific entity, such as the organization or the supervisor (social entity justice). So far, little is known about how justice judgments about events vs. entities are related to each other, especially in a context of organizational change. ObjectiveBuilding on decision-making and organizational justice literature, we investigate the directionality of the causal relationships between event justice and social entity justice within a context of organizational change in a Belgian company (a significant reorganization at the level of the organization chart resulting in different changes for employees). MethodsWe used two samples (team leaders and executives) and realized a cross-lagged panel analysis with two measurement times. ResultsThe study shows that, in both samples, employees’ fairness perceptions about their organization (social entity justice) influence their interpretation of the fairness of subsequent events involving the organization (event justice). ConclusionBuilding and fostering a climate of justice is therefore of primary importance to organizations, since global fairness perceptions about the organization may help employees to perceive a specific event, such as an organizational change, as being fair.

Shared Fairness Perceptions of Chinese Subordinates and German Supervisors

Enriching organizational justice literature with insights from cultural identity negotiation theory, our explorative, qualitative study develops an evidence-based model illuminating how culturally diverse subordinates and supervisors can achieve through their cross-cultural interactions shared fairness perceptions. Our analysis is based on a complex research design comprising in total 133 interviews in China and in Germany from Chinese subordinates of German supervisors, German subordinates of Chinese supervisors, Chinese supervisors of German subordinates and from German supervisors of Chinese subordinates. As a result of our empirically induced theorizing, we came to understand the centrality of inter-linked cultural identity negotiation processes. Only those subordinates and supervisors who were willing and able to engage in such processes, once they came into contact with the other respective party, succeeded in arriving at the approximation of previously more distinct fairness perceptions and ultimately to a partially shared understanding of fairness. In addition, we found various moderating factors influencing the cultural identity negotiation processes. From these factors cultural preservation, i.e., the degree to which the subordinates and supervisors cling to their original cultural identity, was by far the most important one.

Police Chiefs, Organizational Justice, and Body-Worn Cameras: A Key to Releasing Video Footage

This study addresses a missing link in the organizational justice literature—a police chief's trust in their officers. Most organizational and procedural justice studies examine these concepts from an officer's perspective, but fail to capture how leaders perceive their officers. Trust, however, is a relational concept, which implies there might be effects of a leader's trust in their officers. This study addresses if a police chief's level of trust in officers will affect their behavior as related to the release of body-worn camera footage. Body-worn cameras have been adopted across the United States and all over the world. However, if the footage they capture is rarely shared, cameras impact will be minimal. The findings suggest that if a chief has higher levels of trust in their officers, then the chief's willingness to release footage is increased, potentially leading to an improved relationship between law enforcement and communities.

리더 에너지가 부하의 절차공정성 인식에 미치는 영향

This study investigates a mediating model in which leader’s energy affects the procedural justice perception of subordinate through subordinate’s energy. The dual path of social contagion and leader role enactment posits that the leader’s energy positively affects subordinate’s energy. In turn, the subordinate’s energy improved by the leader’s energy is expected to positively affect procedural justice through two pathways. First, based on the broaden and build theory, the energy enables an extended interpretation of the organizational situation. According to the control theory approach, an extended interpretation of the situation will lead to increase procedural justice perception. Second, drawing on the interaction ritual theory, employee with high energy tend to experience positive social interactions with other members. According to the socio-emotional approach, individual with high energy experiences favorable social interaction with others, which enhances procedural justice perception. This study analyzes the data of 275 employees in China. Results reveal that leader’s energy positively affects subordinate’s energy. Also subordinate’s energy positively affects procedural justice perception. Finally, this study determines a significant mediating effect of the leader’s energy on the perception of procedural justice mediated by the subordinate’s energy. The results make a theoretical contribution to the organizational justice literature by explaining the formation of the perception from the lens of the accumulation and utilization of employee’s energy as a psychological resource. Moreover, the current study contributesto leadership research in that it explains the influence of leader energy. In practice, the results provide implications by examining the comprehensive influence of leader energy and suggesting a way to utilize it for leadership or organizational development.

Revisiting the Missing Theories of Organizational Justice

Organizational justice (OJ) literature focuses on the well-established theories of OJ dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justices) and the relative significance of different OJ dimensions on dependent variables (Ambrose & Schminke, 2009). However, literature suggest an equal focus on relevant missing theories of justice to have a complete understanding of this concept. The researchers assume that the inclusion of relevant missing theories in their respective OJ dimensions would yield better results. They used two data sets to test this assumption. One data set, include well-established theories using Colquitt (2001) scale, while the second data set include well-established theories along with the relevant missing theories, such as, external equity, equality, and need etc. They concluded that with the incorporation of relevant missing theories in their respective OJ dimensions; overall, results improved in terms of diagnostic statistics including specifically t-statistics (p-values), F-statistics and R2; however, missing theories claim has not been substantiated.

Antecedents of the perceived organizational justice: An aggregated theoretical framework

The interest of the perceived organizational justice realm remains an increased manifold. It is a behavioral concept that emphasizes how people subjectively assess the ethical and moral norms of organizational management. Perceived organizational justice (OJ) is sometimes studied as a dependent variable, but often as an independent variable. For that reason, various OJ antecedents are examined in this paper, such as factors related to individual characteristics (Demographic characteristics, personality traits), culture (Individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, long, term/court term orientation, masculinity/femininity), organizational processes (organizational structure, HR practices, CSR initiatives), and interpersonal relationship (Leader-member-exchange and social contagion). Besides, the current paper presents an analytic review of the existing perceived organizational justice literature, and attempts to respond to the following question: What contributes to framing a fairness perception? Because of the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinarity of this field, we consolidated more than 125 theoretical and empirical papers, to portray firstly a holistic overview of fairness theories (cognitive/process and content theories), and highlight secondly the different relationships between perceived organizational justice and an array of predictors. Thereby, this review aims to contribute to the enrichment of the state of knowledge of justice or fairness, by providing a clear roadmap and deeper insight for researchers and practitioners concerned with perceived organizational justice, and enabling them to understand how and why people make such fairness perceptions in the workplace. To do so, we discuss its relationships with various antecedent aspects and propose an aggregated theoretical framework to identify multiple areas for future investigation and guide the field forward.

In self-defense: Reappraisal buffers the negative impact of low procedural fairness on performance.

Contrary to an often-found result in the organizational justice literature, we suggest that there may be circumstances under which organization members will not perform poorly in response to being on the receiving end of low procedural fairness. To explain the theoretical mechanism, we integrate the group engagement model of justice with the emotion regulation perspective. Specifically, we argue that the detrimental effect of lower procedural fairness on performance is attenuated when individuals engage in reappraisal. Moreover, this is the case because reappraisal makes lower procedural fairness less likely to undermine self-perceived standing in the organization. Three experiments and a multisource survey among employees reveal support for these predictions. This research contributes to the organizational justice literature by showing that reappraisal can help maintain performance when people have experienced low procedural fairness, extending the typical finding that low procedural fairness undermines performance. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Psychological Distance in Influencing Pro-environmental Behavior Spread: Perceived Justice Enforceability as a Moderator.

The social system can spread tightly coupled complex practices under the context that members of the social system do not have the shared experience that enables them to coordinate within longstanding tight formal organizations. To promote the understanding of such a process, and given the possibility for other members in the social system to cheat and adopt pro-environment behavior, we draw on the organizational justice literature and the perspective of justice enforceability, and construal level theory, to develop a conceptual model in which the impact of social members’ perceived psychological distance on their response to other social members adoption of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is contingent on their perception of justice enforceability and cognitive appraisals (positive, not significant) towards other social members’ adoption of PEBs. We find that when social members perceive that the adoption of pro-environment behaviors is justice-enforceable, their cognitive appraisals of other social members’ adoption of PEBs is high, and then the more proximal the psychological distance they perceive, the stronger they will react to other social members’ adoption of PEBs. Further, they will adopt and enact such behaviors, otherwise, they would be unwilling to adopt and enact such behaviors. So, uneven perceived psychological distance of social members can harm their adoption and the spread of pro-environment behavior. We tested our model in a survey study. Results show that the proposed model is supported, and our understanding is enhanced about how social members’ willingness to adopt and spread pro-environment behavior is contingent on their perceptions of justice enforceability. This paper is comprised of five parts, of which include an introduction, a part on the theory and hypothesis, data and methods, results and discussion, and conclusion.

Making Sense of “Good” and “Bad”: A Deonance and Fairness Approach to Abusive Supervision and Prosocial Impact

This article challenges the unidimensional view of abusive supervisors and examines how employees respond to abuse when the transgressing boss also has a positive impact on others. Drawing on deonance and fairness theory, we propose competing hypotheses about the influence of prosocial impact. Specifically, we use deonance theory to suggest that prosocial impact might buffer the effects of abusive supervision. Alternatively, we incorporate fairness theory to predict that prosocial impact strengthens injustice perceptions and thereby worsens consequences of abuse. Two field studies show support for fairness theory, demonstrating that employees perceive greater injustice, and show stronger retaliatory behaviors, when the abusive supervisor makes a positive difference in the workplace. A final field study replicates these results, while also testing the underlying cognitive process employees use to assess the interplay between “good” and “bad” supervisory characteristics. This article contributes insights to abusive supervision, prosocial impact, organizational justice, and behavioral ethics literatures.

From helping hands to harmful acts: When and how employee volunteering promotes workplace deviance.

This study examines how the laudable behavior of employee volunteering can lead to deviant workplace behavior. We draw on the moral licensing and organizational justice literatures to propose that the relationship between employee volunteering and workplace deviance is serially mediated by moral license (moral credits and moral credentials) and psychological entitlement. Results from 2 multiwave survey studies of full-time employees from a variety of organizations and industries confirm that moral credits and psychological entitlement serially mediate this relationship, although the proposed mediating role of moral credentials was not supported. Organizational justice moderates the impact of psychological entitlement on workplace deviance; the indirect relationship between employee volunteering and workplace deviance weakens when perceptions of organizational justice are high. This study demonstrates a potential dark side to employee volunteering and also contributes to the moral licensing and behavioral ethics literatures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Treating the crowd fairly: Increasing the solvers’ self-selection in idea innovation contests

The success of idea crowdsourcing contests depends on the wideness of the number of solvers that voluntarily self-select to solve the problem broadcast by the seeker and previous research has started to highlight the role of fairness in the self-selection process of solvers. This study aims at deepening the understanding concerning how fairness can influence the solvers’ self-selection. By applying a netnographic research design, we identify possible unexplored facets of fairness in the crowdsourcing context, i.e., prize award, award guaranteed, and non-blind contest. Theoretically, we drew from the organizational justice and fairness literature to develop hypotheses about how the three fairness elements affect solvers’ participation in idea crowdsourcing contests. Then, to empirically test the hypotheses, we performed an econometric analysis building on a distinctive dataset of 1067 contests, broadcast on the 99designs crowdsourcing platform. We found that the three fairness factors which emerged from the netnography have a positive impact on the self-selection of solvers. The results of this study offer important contributions to previous literature and provide several implications for organizations and contest organizers in the idea crowdsourcing context.

The Interaction Effect of Supervisor Justice and Coworker Justice on Task Performance via OBSE

Recent research on organizational justice demonstrated that employees do not only react to fair treatment from authorities (i.e., supervisor and organization) but also that from peer relationships (i.e., coworker). Nevertheless, little attention has been drawn to whether and how justice from authorities and justice from peers can affect employees jointly. Drawing on group engagement model (Tyler & Blader, 2000, 2003), I hypothesize that supervisor justice and coworker justice interact to influence employees’ organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), such that the positive effect of supervisor justice on OBSE is stronger when coworker justice is higher. OBSE is further hypothesized to transmit the interaction effect of supervisor justice and coworker justice to employees’ task performance. The hypotheses were supported by a time-lagged survey study conducted with nurses in China. Implications for group engagement model and the organizational justice literature are discussed.

Not all that glitters is golden: The impact of procedural fairness perceptions on firm evaluations and customer satisfaction with favorable outcomes

Firms often strive to delight their customers and build strong customer-firm relationships by providing favored benefits to their customers. Drawing from the organizational justice literature, we show that even when customers receive favorable outcomes from distributively fair firm actions, considerations of procedural unfairness may adversely affect their firm evaluations. Procedural fairness salience and customers’ perceived relationship with the firm determine the extent to which procedural fairness affects firm-evaluations. Customers in communal relationships, focused on social/relational factors, are more sensitive to procedural fairness, leading to improved (diminished) firm evaluations when the procedure is perceived as fair (unfair). Those in exchange relationships are unaffected by procedural fairness and evaluate the firm based largely on outcome favorability. Firm trustworthiness mediates the impact of procedural fairness on evaluations. Implications of procedural fairness being driven by relational and non-instrumental considerations are discussed.

My Coworkers are Treated More Fairly than Me! A Self-Regulatory Perspective on Justice Social Comparisons

Social comparison processes were integral to the origins of the organizational justice literature, and are incorporated within several justice-based constructs and theories. Yet, despite this, the ...

The Influence of Goal Commitment and Partner Status on Team Assignment Outcomes.

The present study replicated and extended research on the influence of team assignment methods on task performance and fairness perceptions. This study examined the influence of team assignment methods, goal commitment, and partner status on team member performance and fairness perceptions in a laboratory setting. The assignment conditions were comprised of three variables: assignment method (random, self-decision, and ability), performer status (assigned or unassigned), and partner status (unassigned team member stayed or left during task performance). A significant interaction was found between assignment method and performer status when the unassigned team member left during task performance, but not when the unassigned team member stayed. Random and self-decision assignment methods resulted in higher levels of goal commitment and task performance than did ability-based assignment conditions. Lastly, goal commitment was found to mediate the relationship between assignment method and task performance. The implications of these findings for the task performance and organizational justice literatures, as well as for managers in general, are discussed.