To What Extent does Employees’ Perception of Organizational Justice Influence Their Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

Abstract

This study investigated how employees’ perception of organizational justice affects their Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). Three dimensions of organizational justice were studied. Organizational tenure of employees was also considered as a mediating variable. Social Exchange Theory and the Norm of Reciprocity were utilized in describing potential relationships because of their association with the concept of fairness and socialization. Data for the study were obtained from 152 employees. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis. Hypotheses were tested at the .05 and .01 levels of significance. The results revealed that organizational justice perceptions of employees significantly and positively influenced, and accounted for 6.5% of the variance in their OCB. Analysis of the degree of relationship of the three sub-categories of organizational justice to OCB indicate that, procedural and interactional justice both related positively and significantly to OCB at the .01 level of significance. Distributive justice, however, did not significantly relate to OCB. A hierarchical regression indicated that distributive justice accounted for only 1.4% of the variance in OCB. Procedural justice and interactional justice accounted for 3.7% and 2.1% respectively. This implies that distributive justice did not have a significant influence on employees’ involvement in citizenship behaviour. Employees’ organizational tenure did not mediate the relationship between their justice perception and citizenship behavior. The results were discussed in relation to other research findings.

Key words: Organizational Justice, organizational citizenship behaviour, perception, social exchange theory.