The moderating effect of leadership on perceived organizational justice and affective commitment: a study in China

Jean S. K. Lee (First Author), Feng Wei (Participant Author)

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal

7 Citations (Web of Science)

Abstract

While western literature proves the importance of procedural justice, interactional justice is found to have a greater impact on employees in China. This study investigates the effect of employees' perceptions of organizational justice on affective commitment, and the moderating effect of leadership style in the relationship. The authors proposed that the positive association of interactional justice with affective commitment is stronger than the positive association of procedural and distributive justices with affective commitment. In addition, the authors hypothesized that leadership style in teams moderates the relationship between interactional justice and affective commitment. Data were collected from 10 companies in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Wenzhou, Wuhan, and Qingdao, China. The results support the hypotheses stating that interactional justice has a robust impact on affective commitment and that leadership in teams moderates the relationship. These findings have important implications for human resource management. When setting up HR policy in China, putting the right HR procedures in place is essential. Employees' affective commitment relies heavily on interactional justice and whether or not employees perceive that they are being treated fairly by their managers. We discuss the implications of these findings.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)679-702
JournalInternational Journal of Human Resource Management
Volume28
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Corresponding author email

fwei@tongji.edu.cn

Project name

中小企业CEO诚信行为对企业成长的影响研究

Project sponsor

国家社会科学基金

Project No.

15BGL096

Keywords

  • Affective commitment
  • CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR
  • CULTURAL COLLECTIVISM
  • DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
  • EMPLOYEE-BENEFIT SATISFACTION
  • INTERACTIONAL JUSTICE
  • MEDIATING ROLE
  • PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
  • SOCIAL-EXCHANGE
  • TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP
  • TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
  • distributive justice
  • interactional justice
  • procedural justice
  • transactional leadership
  • transformational leadership

Indexed by

  • ABDC-A
  • Scopus
  • SSCI

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