The moderating role of individual variables in the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-12-2015-0311 |
| Date | 06 November 2017 |
| Published date | 06 November 2017 |
| Pages | 1635-1650 |
| Author | Jale Minibas-Poussard,Jeanne Le Roy,Turhan Erkmen |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
The moderating role of individual
variables in the relationship
between organizational justice
and organizational commitment
Jale Minibas-Poussard
Institute of Management Research (IRG-EA2354),
Université Paris-Est, UPEC, UPEM, Créteil, France and
Department of Business Administration, Galatasaray University, Istanbul, Turkey
Jeanne Le Roy
Department of Management and Strategy,
European Business School of Paris, Paris, France, and
Turhan Erkmen
Department of Business Administration,
Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of individual variables (organization-based
self-esteem (OBSE) and work locus of control (WLOC)) that have been suspected to intervene as moderators
on the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment.
Design/methodology/approach –Self-administered survey was completed by 272 bank employees
in Istanbul, Turkey.
Findings –The results of moderation analyses clearly indicated a significant effect of OBSE and WLOC on
the link between justice perceptions and organizational commitment. People are more committed to
organizations when they have high OBSE. WLOC together with OBSE moderated the relationship between
procedural justice and organizational commitment: people engaged less in their organizations when they
perceived low procedural justice and reported lower OBSE. This relationship was revealed only when
external WLOC scores were high.
Research limitations/implications –The study was conducted in Istanbul, Turkey and the sample was
limited to 272 participants. These results show that managers should not only hire personnel with high OBSE
but they also should provide a participative work atmosphere where employees can perform with all their
potential and capacity that may help them reveal their internal WLOC. Theoretical and practical implications
of the study are discussed in the end.
Originality/value –The study provides some valuable contributions to the existing body of literature by
exhibiting the role of individual variables in the strong relationship between organizational justice and
organizational commitment. The findings of the study also contribute to banking sector that has been critical
and popular in Turkey since 2001.
Keywords Quantitative, Organizational justice, Organization-based self-esteem,Organizational commitment,
Work locus of control
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
There has been intense interest within the HRM field regarding how HR practices can add
value to organizations, leading to an increasing focus on high performance (Macky and
Boxall, 2007). In addition, conceptual models have started to explore the link between
HR practices and HR outcomes. HR practices can take three different forms: intended, actual
and perceived (Wright and Nishii, 2006). Intended HR practices includes the policies and
practices put together at organizational level such as criteria that are applied during
decision making on rewards and retributions or the quality of relations within the
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 8, 2017
pp. 1635-1650
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-12-2015-0311
Received 7 December 2015
Revised 26 June 2016
11 December 2016
16 February 2017
Accepted 12 March 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1635
Moderating
role of
individual
variables
organizational hierarchy. These practices are then enacted by line management in the
process of implementation, and may or may not be carried out as originally intended.
The employee is ultimately the recipient of these practices forming his or her own
perceptions of them. These perceptions then influence employee-level outcomes by affecting
the way the employee thinks, feels or behaves (Purcell et al., 2008). A significant number of
studies over the last decade showed that the respect of procedural and interactional justice
in HR practices has the potential to improve the relationship between employees and
organization with high level of organizational commitment. We present the argument that
HR practices to ensure the effect of achieving high commitment depend on the extent to
which employees perceive these practices to be fair, both in terms of the process and the
quality of interaction. Indeed, the respect to organizational justice in HR practices therefore
emerges as a key element in understanding the performance of employees in their
organization. However, some studies reported that there are some arguments about the
precise effect of HR practices on higher organizational commitment as the link in between
the variables may also be affected by other factors (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2005).
These limits also emerged from Colquitt et al. (2013) meta-analysis. They suggested that a
substantial amount of variation exists in the relationship between organizational justice and
organizational commitment. The authors argued that this variation could be caused by
moderating effects of individual variables since it is not clear that the relative importance
and contribution of various types of justice are stable among employees. While justice
judgments are mainly evaluated based on organizational events and social organizational
entities (Cropanzano et al., 2001), individual variables (self-variables and personality
variables) also tend to bias the way people evaluate and react to justice in their environment
(Brockner et al., 1998).
In summary, the present study contributes to organizational justice practices by
clarifying the role of individual variables in determining organizational commitment.
More precisely, it empirically examines the moderating role of organizational-based
self-esteem (OBSE) and work locus of control (WLOC) in the relationship between
procedural and interactional justice and organizational commitment.
Among all organizations, banks are considered to be one of the most stressful ones in the
world (Ebiringa, 2011). This is also the case with the banking sector in Turkey. The crisis
that was experienced in 2001 had a great impact on Turkey. Particularly, the banks that
were incumbents till that crisis were either transferred or sold to the Organization of Saving
Deposit and Insurance Funds. While the number of banks that operated in Turkey was
79 by 2000, it was decreased to 50 by 2003 (The 2009s Report of Banking Regulation and
Supervision Agency) despite the following developments, and particularly the rise of foreign
banks in the sector. The Banks Association of Turkey Report of 2015-2016 stated that the
number of branches and employment declined in recent years. As a consequence of
acquisitions and mergers, banks recruited many experienced and qualified employees from
other competing banks with better salaries and opportunities. Accordingly, holding
experienced and qualified employees with commitment to the banks they work for has
become a critical issue. Due to the current dynamic structure in this sector in Turkey,
we have decided to conduct our study in the banking sector.
Theoretical background and hypotheses
Organizational settings: the relationship between organizational justice and commitment
The term organizational justice refers to perceived fairness of workplace outcomes or
processes (Folger and Cropanzano, 2001), and it encompasses in particular, procedural
justice –referring to the evaluation of the criteria that are applied during decision
making on rewards and retributions (Thibaut and Walker, 1975), and interactional
justice –explaining the perceived quality of relations within the organizational hierarchy
1636
PR
46,8
To continue reading
Request your trial