Organizational justice and employees' intention to stay: the mediating role of job satisfaction
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-07-2021-0156 |
| Published date | 13 May 2022 |
| Date | 13 May 2022 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
| Author | Emil Knezović,Ilma Neimarlija |
Organizational justice and
employees’intention to stay:
the mediating role of job satisfaction
Emil Knezovi
c and Ilma Neimarlija
International University of Sarajevo, Ilid
za, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Purpose –This study investigates the relationships between the four dimensions of organizational justice (OJ)
(distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) and employees’intention to stay (ITS) in
organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina while considering the mediating role of job satisfaction (JS).
Design/methodology/approach –Through a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey, 336 responses
were collected from employees in private companies and non-governmental organizations. Structural equation
modeling was performed to test the hypotheses.
Findings –Results indicate support for the relationshipsbetween dimensions of OJ and ITS, except in the case
of procedural justice (PJ). Similarly, JS is a full mediator in all relationships, except for PJ.
Originality/value –The study extends the literature by incorporating all four dimensions of OJ and testing
them individually in relation to the ITS. Furthermore, the study deviatesfrom a traditional approach of simple
relationships by introducing the mediating role of JS. Finally, it contributes to the scarce literature in
developing countries.
Keywords Organizational justice, Intention to stay, Job satisfaction, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The contemporary business environment requires the company to fight for the best human
capital since it is considered the most valuable asset (Terziev, 2018). As one of the critical
fights is to keep the best talents within the company, researchers tend to explore different
reasons why employees decide to stay. To retain employees, organizations need to provide
fair and just treatment, fair distribution of different incentives and rewards, and acceptable
working conditions (Bizri and Hamieh, 2020). For studying retention, researchers mainly
focused on the withdrawal intentions of employees that were measured by two opposite
constructs: intention to quit or intention to stay (ITS). Aboobaker et al. (2018) refer to the ITS
as “an employee’s conscious and deliberate willingness to stay with the organization, hence
the likelihood of him or her staying in his or her present job”(p. 5). To keep employees, the
organization has to develop a supportive work environment (Naz et al., 2020).
As a concept, organizational justice (OJ) has been present for several decades, and it is still
one of the focal points of organizational research (e.g., Akram et al., 2020;Le et al., 2021;
Mardanov, 2020). During that time, OJ has evolved into a multidimensional construct (Flint
et al., 2012). One of the main reasons for persistent interest in OJ is its multi-impact on different
organizational outcomes (Suifan et al., 2017). Although the relationship between OJ and ITS
has been investigated (Rusbadrol and Mahmud, 2018), there are gaps in the literature. First,
there was a dominant investigation of the simple linear relationship between the two
variables (Crow et al., 2012). Besides, in most of the studies, OJ is measured as the construct of
one dimension (Proost et al., 2015;Zagladi et al., 2015), two dimensions (Abu Elanain, 2010;
Kang and Sung, 2019), or three dimensions (Nadiri and Tanova, 2010;Mashi, 2018). Some
studies recently have OJ as a four-dimensional construct (Suifan et al., 2017;Hussain and
Khan, 2019). Following claims by several authors that different dimensions of justice tend
to have different influences on employee-related outcomes (Cropanzano et al., 2002;
Organizational
justice and
employeesʼ
intention to stay
1
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2049-3983.htm
Received 29 July 2021
Revised 24 January 2022
8 April 2022
Accepted 26 April 2022
Evidence-based HRM: a Global
Forum for Empirical Scholarship
Vol. 11 No. 1, 2023
pp. 1-18
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2049-3983
DOI10.1108/EBHRM-07-2021-0156
Behson, 2012), the four-dimensional approach to OJ makes more sense. Besides, in the OJ and
ITS relationship, we believe that employees often leave their managers rather than the firm.
Thus, it is essential to observe more precisely interactive justice. In particular, a manager or
supervisor might treat employees politely and with respect but not be able to explain the
rationale behind certain decisions and vice versa. Therefore, the study’s first objective is to
investigate the relationship between four-dimensional OJ and ITS.
Second, two studies investigated possible mediators, particularly job satisfaction (JS)
(Suifan et al., 2017;Vaamonde et al., 2018). However, they had their limitations. For example,
Suifan et al.’s (2017) study was limited to the airline industry, while Vaamonde et al. (2018)
used a three-dimensional constr uct of OJ. Considering that both in terpersonal and
informational justices are more precise observations of the interaction between employees
and their supervisors or managers, their role in JS is worthy of examining. As there is
insufficient empirical evidence about the multi-linear relationship between the four-
dimensional OJ construct and ITS, and JS is not investigated as a mediator in this
particular relationship, the study’s second objective is to investigate an indirect relationship
between four-dimensional OJ and ITS by considering a mediating role of JS.
Finally, the literature presented is heavily focused on developed countries’samples.
Drawing on arguments made by Cole (2009) that OJ is culturally sensitive, we believe that the
context of developing countries is of particular research interest. For studying the role of OJs
in employee retention, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) provides an interesting context. In the
past five years, the trend of migration from B&H to Western Europe has been increasing
(Knezovi
c and Ðilovi
c, 2020). According to the statistics, in 2017, the estimated number of
migrations from B&H was about 107,926 individuals, most of them young people between 18
and 25 years old (Trading Economics, 2021). One of the main factors why people go to other
countries is unemployment, corruption, job insecurity, and overall dissatisfaction with the
macro-economic situation in the country (Tur
cilo et al., 2019). Besides, in the same study,
almost half of the participants said that the main reason for leaving the country is low living
standards, and one-fifth of them stated that the reason is better employment opportunities
and better working standards. Because of that, it is important to discuss the practical
implications regarding OJ in B&H companies.
2. Literature review and hypotheses
2.1 Concept of organizational justice
As employees want to work in a healthy environment where every individual has the same
rights and opportunities, every organization should be aware that fairness and equality are
characteristics that separate successful organizations from those less successful. The two
terms, “fairness”and “just”, are often interchangeably used. They refer to the actions that are
morally and ethically right and are under ethical standards, religion, or the law (Yean and
Yusof, 2016).
The perception of justice is often dependable on the individual, and not every employee
in the organization has the same view about what is fair and just. As Folger and
Cropanzano (1998) stated, “justice is about how rewards and punishments are distributed
by and within social collectives, and it is also about how people govern relations with one
another. It is also about who gets what and whether the participants in (and observers of)
these transactions believe them to be righteous”(p. 15). As can be seen from the definition, it
is obvious that justice is mostly related to rewards and punishments in the organization and
their distribution between employees. However, an organization needs to have a well-
developed organizational culture that would point out exactly what is fair and just to its
employees since employees’learned behaviors can impact their JS, security feeling,
commitment, and performance (Yean and Yusof, 2016). However, justice as a concept
EBHRM
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