The notion of the fairness or justice has become an increasingly important construct in behaviour and management over the last two decades because of its serious personal and organizational consequences. Despite considerable research on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of employees, various types and forms of employees’ justice perceptions have not been adequately examined. Studies of organizational justice in the area of health-care professionals are especially limited in the Indian setting. Because of higher expectations and demands on Indian hospitals, the issues of organizational justice and its associated work-related outcomes are quite relevant to employees working in them. With this background, the purpose of present study is to examine and compare the influence of different dimensions of organizational justice (of distributive, procedural, interpersonal (or relational), and informational justice) on work-related outcomes of job satisfaction and organizational commitment with special reference of healthcare professionals. Participants of the present study consisted of 100 health-care professional working in a government hospitals located in Varanasi (U.P., India). They were classified into three ranks: Doctors (N = 36), Nurses (N = 44), and Technicians and Hospital Administrative Staff (N = 20) and were mainly recruited from four major clinical departments—cardiology, gastroenterology, obstetrics & gynecology, and ENT. The statistical analyses of data included the descriptive statistics, coefficient of correlation and hierarchical regression analysis. The results of regression analysis revealed that among the four dimensions of justice, only procedural justice and relational justice significantly positively predicted job satisfaction of employees. Distributive and informational justice did not predict job satisfaction. Findings further indicated that informational justice was the only dimension that had significantly and positively predicted organizational commitment. Despite the significant zero-order correlations, distributive, procedural, interpersonal or relational justice did not predict organizational commitment. Implications of the study and avenues for future research were discussed.
The notion of the fairness or justice has become an increasingly important construct in behaviour and management over the last two decades because of its serious personal and organizational consequences [
Studies of organizational justice have illustrated that perceived fairness of rewards, organizational procedures and interpersonal treatment are related to individual attitudes and behaviours [
The employees of the organization are influenced by the perceptions of fair treatment in many ways. Firstly, perceptions of fairness are illustrative of the fact that organizational authorities are [
This often gives the reason to employees to prefer to work for certain organization than others [
Study of employees’ perceptions of the fairness of organizational processes is an outstanding issue for both scholars and practitioners as it influences many critical organizational outcomes. As organizational justice literature suggests, perceived fairness of rewards, decision-making procedures, and interpersonal treatment are found to be related to outcomes such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction, performance, employee’s intention to stay and citizenship behaviors [
In India, employees in the health-care industry are facing extraordinary challenges and competitive pressures such as financial challenges, patient safety and security and quality. Aging populations, new therapeutic possibilities and rising expectations have made the health-care much more complex than in the past. As a result they have to cope with rapid advancements made in health-care sector as reflected in a staggering increase in medical knowledge, technologies, skills and resources, increasing specialization of health-care professionals and increasing patient demands. Mostly, Indian health-care employees work with in hospital cultures that orders that employees must strictly adhere to all policies and procedures for safety of patients and quality assurance. Because of higher expectations and demands on Indian hospitals, the issues of organizational justice and its associated work-related outcomes are quite relevant to employees working in them. Thus, in the present study, we have expanded the previous work on organizational justice with special reference to health-care professionals.
People are social beings and devote considerable amount of time at their work place. Thus, organizations must create surroundings in which employees can to interact socially. One concept that is fundamental to human social interaction is justice. Whether, it is a promotion decision, the assignment of tasks, the allocation of rewards or simply any other type of social exchange, issues of fairness are bond to arise.
A widely used construct defining the quality of social interaction at work is organizational justice. Organizational justice was the term coined by Greenberg [
The principles of justice have long been recognized by social scientists as crucial for the functioning of organizations and personal satisfaction of individuals employed [
Despite the redundancy of studies in the field of justice in the last two decades, the valid theoretical data today mostly depends on the Equity Theory of Adams [
On the issues of justice, the equity theory of Adams [
1) Emphasis on equity theory and a focus on the perceived fairness of the work outcomes resulting from the social exchange relationship between employee and employer (i.e. distributive justice);
2) Interest in the perceived fairness of the ways by which organizations and their representatives make allocation decisions (i.e. procedural justice);
3) Highlighting on the interactive effects of distributive and procedural justice.
Earlier scholars have widely focused only on two types of distributive and procedural justice [
Distributive justice is one of the oldest forms of justice and is a conceptualization based on the equity theory of Adams [
Procedural justice is the extent to which the dynamics of the decision process are judged to be fair. In other words, procedural justice involves the perceptions of fairness of organizational procedures by which outcomes are distributed or decisions are made [
The literature on employee-employer relations shows that an employee expects the organization to treat him/her with respect, dignity, honesty and to extend equal treatment to all members [
When individuals perceive they have been communicated with in a sensitive and respectful manner and are treated with politeness and dignity by those carrying out organizational procedures [
Informational justice is second new type of justice which focuses on explanations provided to people that convey information about why procedures were applied in a certain way or why outcomes were distributed in a certain manner [
Both this justice type gives origin to a new type of justice which is defined as Interactional justice.
It a very recent study, Colquitt [
Job satisfaction has been defined as connection between what one expects from job and what his perception about getting from job [
Existence of job satisfaction is very important in a organization as it has significant impact in many fields like human resource management, behavior, Productivity, sociology, and strategic management etc. Job satisfaction is a measure of happiness of the workers with their job and working environment. That is why job satisfaction should exist wherever job occurs.
Locke [
The topic of organizational commitment is predominantly an important issue in today’s highly competitive environment as business firms progressively rely more on their human resources [
Organizational commitment is defined as “the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization” [
While researchers embrace diverse emphasis on the construct of organizational commitment, but most of them suggest that commitment represents both attitude that describes an individual’s linkage to the organization and set behaviors by which individuals manifest that link.
The issue of job satisfaction is particularly relevant and of interest to health-care professionals due to the fact that employees’ health and well-being depends a great deal on job satisfaction [
Several demographic variables (such as age, gender, marital status, salary, education & length of service) commonly included in past studies of job satisfaction and organizational commitment have also been included in the present study. Studies have shown that age [
However, some studies have not found any relationship of age with organizational commitment [
On the other hand, Sikorska-Simmons [
A number of socio-demographic variables have been found to relate positively to job satisfaction. Results from several studies have indicated that there is a relationship between age and job satisfaction [
However, in one study Huey [
In one study, Bender and Heywood [
The considerations put forward in the present section can be summarized in the following hypothesis:
H1. Job satisfaction will be affected by age, gender, marital status, salary, education and job tenure;
H2. Organizational commitment will be affected by age, gender, marital status, salary, education and job tenure.
Over the years, academicians and scholars have seriously focused their attention in the study of organizational justice with the belief that enhanced perceptions of fairness can lead to outcomes important to organization. At the personal level, a perception of fairness satisfies an individual’s needs for control, self-esteem, a sense of belonging, and ethical obligations. While at the organizational level, fairness provides legitimacy to management, thereby reducing counterwork behaviors, improving trust in authority, reducing fear of exploitation, and encouraging cooperation [
A number of researchers realized early the significance of equity considerations on allocations in organizations [
Research on organizational justice suggests that when an organization treats its employees fairly, employees are likely to reciprocate by adopting behaviors beneficial to the organization [
An overarching and long-standing concern prevalent in the organizational justice literature was to study the beneficial effects of distributive and procedural justice only. This is because the notion of interactional justice has recently appeared in the literature. Hence, studies regarding the predictive effect of interactional justice over the effects of distributive and procedural justice are limited. However, very limited studies have shown the impact of interactional justice on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Existing research on interactional justice has shown it to be positively related to employee performance, supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors, and job satisfaction [
In a recent study on Iranian sport federations’ employees Sareshkeh, Ghaziani, and Tayebi [
H3. Employees’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal (or relational), and informational justice will be positively related to job satisfaction;
H4. Employees’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal (or relational), and informational justice will be positively related to organizational commitment;
Keeping in mind both research evidence and theory that supports the contribution of variables from each model in explaining job satisfaction and organizational commitment, a general hypothesis is also proposed:
H5. Variables from each model i.e. demographic variables in model-1 and organizational justice variables in model-2 (after controlling the effects of demographic variables) will be related to job satisfaction;
H6. Variables from each model i.e. demographic variables in model-1 and organizational justice variables in model-2 (after controlling the effects of demographic variables) will be related to organizational commitment.
Participants of the present study consisted of 100 health-care professional working in a government hospitals located in Varanasi (U.P., India). Participants were classified into three ranks: Doctors (N = 36), Nurses (N = 44), and Technicians and Hospital Administrative Staff (N = 20) and were mainly recruited from four major clinical departments-cardiology, gastroenterology, obstetrics and gynecology, and ENT. The selection of participants was consistent with the ethical requirements for conducting research on human subjects. The employees who will have working experience of at least 5 years were eligible to participate in the study. Selected demographic variables were gathered and compiled. The characteristics of the sample were presented in
Formal permission to conduct the study was obtained from the directors of hospital after explanation of the purpose of the study. Data were collected with the help of a self-administered questionnaire in English, together with a cover letter stating the purpose of the study. 156 questionnaires were distributed out of which 100 usable questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 64.1%. The participants were assured about confidentiality of the data. They were also informed that the data will be used for academic purpose only.
The questionnaire included the measures of organizational justice, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and demographic information including participant’s age, gender, marital status, job tenure, salary and educational qualification. All the completed questionnaires were kept confidential and examined only by the
Variables | Number | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Age (in years) 24 - 35 36 - 45 46 - 55 56 - 60 | 48 30 14 8 | 48% 30% 14% 8% |
Gender Male Female | 44 56 | 44% 56% |
Marital status Married Unmarried | 76 24 | 76% 24% |
Salary in Rs. (per month) <20,000 20,000 - 40,000 >40,000 | 14 72 14 | 14% 72% 14% |
Education Post Graduate Graduate Undergraduate | 30 46 24 | 30% 46% 24% |
Length of service in years Up to 10 11 - 20 21 - 30 31 - 40 | 54 26 12 8 | 54% 26% 12% 8% |
Designation Doctors Nurses Staff | 36 44 20 | 36% 44% 20% |
researcher.
Procedural and relational justice had been measured by 7 items and 6 items respectively as suggested by Elovainio, Kivimäki, and Vahtera [
A fifteen-item version of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire [
Job satisfaction would be assessed with the help of Brayfield-Rothe’s [
The predictor variables for this study are: 1) procedural justice, 2) distributive justice, 3) interpersonal justice, and 4) informational justice. The criterion variables are: a) job satisfaction and b) commitment. The control variables are the demographic characteristics, which are: a) age, b) gender, c) marital status, d) salary, e) education and f) job tenure. In the present study, all the demographic variables that were assessed have been used. This is because they were related to several variables of interest. Rather than using none or some combination, they were all included in the analysis for simplicity. The data of the study were analyzed using, Descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression analyses. Hierarchical regression analyses were done in order to examine the contribution of each predictor variable in the explanation of criterion variable.
Descriptive statistics such as mean, SD and range of scores was computed to describe the basic characteristics of the data (
The results concerning H1 and H2 positing the relationships between demographic variables and job satisfaction and organizational commitment are displayed in
H1 of the study posited that job satisfaction will be affected by age, gender, marital status, salary, education and job tenure.
Variables | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | Std. deviation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Age | 22.00 | 59.00 | 38.16 | 9.235 |
Job tenure | 5.00 | 35.00 | 12.25 | 8.81 |
Procedural justice | 12.00 | 35.00 | 26.13 | 4.73 |
Relational justice | 13.00 | 28.00 | 22.012 | 3.43 |
Distributional justice | 11.00 | 20.00 | 16.056 | 2.235 |
Informational justice | 12.00 | 30.00 | 22.26 | 4.033 |
Job satisfaction | 9.00 | 25.00 | 17.32 | 2.94 |
Organizational commitment | 41.00 | 97.00 | 74.0200 | 14.09 |
Job satisfaction | Organizational commitment | |
---|---|---|
Age | 0.179 | 0.259** |
Gender | 0.198* | 0.016 |
Marital Status | 0.083 | −0.155 |
Salary | −0.285** | −0.214* |
Education | −0.336** | −0.272** |
Job Tenure | 0.176 | 0.155 |
*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
It is evident from
Inspection of the correlational analyses depicted in
Separate sets of hierarchical regression analyses were performed to test H3 and H4 of the study which posited that employees’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal (or relational), and informational justice will be positively related to job satisfaction and organizationalcommitment (
Regarding the third hypothesis, the results revealed that demographic variables explained 14.7% of variance (F6, 93 = 2.665, p < 0.05) in the prediction of job satisfaction. Education (β = −0.261, p < 0.05) and salary (β = −0.241, p < 0.05) were the only significant predictors of job satisfaction. Age, gender and job tenure did not predict job satisfaction.
The results further indicated that all the justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal or relational, and informational justice) accounted for 38.3% of variance (F10, 89 = 10.143, p < 0.001) in the explanation of job satisfaction over and above the demographic variables. Among the four dimensions of justice, only procedural justice (β = 0.315, p < 0.05), and relational justice (β = 0.272, p < 0.05) significantly positively predicted job satisfaction of employees. Distributive (β = −0.099, p > 0.05) and informational justice (β = 0.190, p > 0.05) did not predict job satisfaction.
Likewise in the prediction of organizational commitment, demographic variables accounted for 21.9% of variance (F6, 93 = 4.29, p < 0.01) at step-I. Among all the demographic variables, age (β = 0.508, p < 0.01), salary (β = −0.232, p < 0.05) and education (β = −0.396, p < 0.01), All the justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal or relational, and informational justice) were added in the regression equation at step-II, and accounted for 28.4% of variance (F10, 89 = 8.902, p < 0.001) in prediction of organizational commitment over and above the demographic variables. It is interesting to note that informational justice was the only dimension that has significantly positively predicted organizational commitment (β = 0.413, p < 0.01), Despite the significant zero-order correlations, distributive (β = −0.018, p > 0.05), procedural (β = 0.188, p > 0.05), interpersonal or relational justice (β = −0.116, p > 0.05) did not predict organizational commitment. These results partially supported H3 and H4 of the study. Finally, H5 and H6 predicted that variables from each of the groups would be related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The findings again provide partial support for these hypotheses. At the Step-I, education and salary and at the Step-II procedural and interpersonal (or relational), were the only significant predictors of job satisfaction. Likewise, age, salary and education and informational justice were the significant predictors of organizational commitment at Step-I and Step-II respectively.
Organizational justice dimensions | Job satisfaction | Organizational commitment |
---|---|---|
Procedural justice | 0.600** | 0.542** |
Relational justice | 0.590** | 0.515** |
Distributional justice | 0.157 | 0.234* |
Informational justice | 0.621** | 0.622** |
*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
Predictor variables | Job satisfaction | Organizational commitment |
---|---|---|
Step I | Beta | Beta |
Age | 0.236 | 0.508** |
Gender | 0.037 | −0.082 |
Marital status | 0.019 | −0.106 |
Salary | −0.249* | −0.232** |
Education | −0.261* | −0.396** |
Length | −0.204 | −0.200 |
R2 | 0.147 | 0.219 |
ΔR2 | ||
F(6,93) ratio | 2.665* | 4.294*** |
Step II | ||
Procedural justice | 0.315* | 0.188 |
Distributive justice | −0.090 | −0.018 |
Informational justice | 0.190 | 0.413** |
Relational justice | 0.272* | −0.016 |
R2 | 0.533 | 0.503 |
ΔR2 | 0.386 | 0.284 |
F(10,89) ratio | 10.143*** | 8.902*** |
*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
The major objective of this study was to examine effects of some selected demographic variables (such as age, gender, marital status, salary, education and length of service) and multiple dimensions of justice (distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal and informational justice) and two key organizational outcomes of job satisfaction and organizational commitment in a sample of healthcare employees. In general, we did not find much regarding the demographic predictions of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
The results indicated that among demographic variables, education and salary were significantly and negatively job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The age of the employees, significantly and positively predicted organizational commitment. These findings can be explained by the fact that as the level of education and consequently, the salary of the employees increase, their areas of responsibilities also increase which result in low job satisfaction [
These studies suggest that older employees who have stayed with an organization for a prolonged period of time are likely to be emotionally attached to the organization show more commitments toward their organization and receive better hierarchical positions in their job. The effects of other demographic variables such as gender, marital status, and job tenure on these outcomes were found to be non-significant. This result is in line with those previous studies that also illustrated that most of the demographic variables are not significant predictors of organizational commitment [
Despite the volume of empirical research that has investigated organizational justice most of the past research has focused mainly on the effects of distributive justice and procedural justice. Since, interactional justice has recently appeared in the literature therefore studies regarding its effect on different outcomes are limited [
Thus, another major objective of the study was to extend the field of organizational justice research by examining and testing hypothesized relationship between multiple dimensions of justice and multiple work-related outcomes in a single study.
H3 of the study posited that employees’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal (or relational), and informational justice will be positively related to job satisfaction. The results of regression analysis revealed that among the four dimensions of justice, only procedural justice and relational justice significantly positively predicted job satisfaction of employees. Distributive and informational justice did not predict job satisfaction. This result is in line with those from previous studies that also found that procedural justice would be a better predictor of job satisfaction, satisfaction to the organization and loyal behavior than distributive justice [
The findings further illustrated that in the prediction of health-care employees job satisfaction distributive justice has not played any significant role. This finding conflicted with the prior studies of Cropanzano and Greenberg [
Further according to Yoon [
H4 of the study stated that employees’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal (or relational), and informational justice will be positively related to organizational commitment. It is interesting to note that informational justice was the only dimension that has significantly positively predicted organizational commitment. Despite the significant zero-order correlations, distributive, procedural, interpersonal or relational justice did not predict organizational commitment. These results partially supported H4 of the study. Similar to the findings of the present study, Imberman [
Informational justice is thought to consist of factors that enhance individual perceptions of efficacy of explanations provided by organizational agents. These factors include perception of organizational agents’ truthfulness and justification. The link between informational justice and organizational commitment can be explained by the fact that when higher authorities and managers keep informed their employees about organizational matters, they tend to inspire feelings of loyalty and voluntary compliance of policies and rules among their employees thus fostering theirorganizational commitment.
Lavelle and colleagues explain the link between organizational justice and commitment in terms of social exchange [
Despite considerable research on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of employee, various types and forms of employees’ justice perceptions have not been adequately examined. In conclusion, the primary contribution of the present study to the existing literature is its empirical testing regarding the comparison of the impact of various dimensions of justice to predict two important work-related outcomes i.e. job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
The results revealed that procedural justice and relational justice were important predictors of job satisfaction and that informational justice was the only significant predictor of organizational commitment of employees. Therefore, managers must take notice of the employees’ perceptions of justice within the organization. They should be trained to enhance employees’ perceptions of interactional fairness through planned policies and initiatives that recognize the worth of employees and treat them with respect and dignity. The study results indicate that practitioner should be aware of how procedural justice and interpersonal justice have an influence on job satisfaction and they must be careful to use these elements more efficiently and strategically. With special reference to health-care employees, the higher authorities in health-care organizations have to become aware of the extent that their decisions and methods of making decisions influence the satisfaction and commitment of their staff which may in turn influence their quality of patient care.
Despite these contributions, this study also has certain limitations. This study is based on a single occupation of health-care professionals; hence the working context of the participants may limit the results of being generalized to other occupation. Hence, the current findings should be tested in different public and private sectors including education, hospitality, manufacturing etc.
Urmila RaniSrivastava, (2015) Multiple Dimensions of Organizational Justice and Work-Related Outcomes among Health-Care Professionals. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,05,666-685. doi: 10.4236/ajibm.2015.511067