Organizational justice and trust in managers as factors of organizational commitment
Organizational commitment, or the psychological bond between the employee and the organization, has been highlighted by past research as very important for many organizational processes. The present study examines two potential factors of organizational commitment, namely organizational justice and trust in managers, and test the hypothesis that the two facets of organizational justice (i.e. procedural and distributive) influence the three dimensions of organizational commitment (i.e. affective, normative and continuance) through their effect on employees’ trust in managers. A sample of 223 employees in various companies in Iasi, Romania participated in the research. Results provide partial support to our hypothesis, indicating the expected effect of organizational justice on organizational commitment, mediated by trust in managers, only in the case of two out of the three dimensions of commitment. Specifically, continuance commitment emerged as unrelated to the two factors hypothesized. Moreover, results also highlighted two direct effects of distributive and procedural justice, respectively, on the two dimensions of organizational commitment (i.e. affective and normative). Overall, these findings further highlight the importance of employees’ perceptions of fairness of managerial decisions, as well as that of the relationships between management and employees, for the degree of commitment that the latter develop in relation to their organization.
organizational justice, trust in managers, organizational commitment, mediation, organizational psychology
SEBASTIAN URIEȘI – Al. I. Cuza University, Iaşi
