Featured Topic: Organizational Justice

Organizational justice comprises distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational dimensions, and is defined as employees’ “perceptions of fairness and their impact on behavior in organizations” (Beugré, 1998, p. 348)^†. The first two dimensions relate to resource distribution and organizational procedures, and generally remain stable over time; as such, they are viewed as being embedded in a firm’s structure. In contrast, the latter two dimensions involve respectful treatment and information sharing, and are more likely to vary across day-to-day interactions within an organization. In combination, the dimensions of organizational justice contribute to employees’ job satisfaction both daily (interpersonal and informational) and in the long term (distributive and procedural).

Employees’ satisfaction with their current work conditions is influenced by their perception of organizational justice. In a study conducted last year by LinkedIn, it was reported that students who graduated between 2006 and 2010 will make an average of 4.4 job changes in their first decade of work (Berger, 2016)^††. In light of this trend, employers are seeking ways to reduce turnover intention and retain key employees. As a number of SBP Journal authors have indicated, one method of achieving this goal is promoting a positive work environment that includes ensuring employees have positive perceptions of organizational justice.

Our authors have investigated how organizational justice relates to a variety of variables, including leadership styles (Wang, Ma, & Zhang, 2014), work engagement (Lyu, 2016), and coping styles in different cultures (Finkelstein, Minibas-Poussard, & Bastounis, 2009). A common element is the support employees receive, both from supervisors, managers, and coworkers, and outside the workplace from family and friends. A supportive work atmosphere that includes fair treatment of employees by their managers contributes to a positive job environment, again promoting employee retention.

In addition, a widely recognized (Zhang, Qiu, & Teng, 2017) complement to organizational justice is one of our previous Featured Topics: organizational citizenship behavior, which relates to employees acting for the good of the company in ways that are not always recognized by formal reward systems. Together, these concepts form the basis of a mutually beneficial employee–employer relationship, so it seemed timely to give equal attention to organizational justice by selecting it as the current Featured Topic.

To find out more about organizational justice and related topics, browse  through the SBP archives on our website.

^† Beugré, C. D. (1998). Implementing business process reengineering: The role of organizational justice. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 34, 347–360. http://doi.org/czknp9

^†† Berger, G. (2016, April 12). Will this year’s college grads job-hop more than previous grads? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blog.linkedin.com/2016/04/12/will-this-year_s-college-grads-job-hop-more-than-previous-grads