Survey Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

International Journal of Management Academy (2014), 2 (3): 1-8 Received: July 2014 Accepted: August 2014 Copyright 2014 by IJOMA Survey Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Original Article Sayyed Mohsen Allameh a and Najibeh Abbasi Rostami b a Assistant professor, Department of Administrative Sciences and Economy, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. b Master of business management, Department of Administrative Sciences and Economy, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Abstract Nowadays, organizations are required to continually find new ways to grow in response to constantly changing challenges. In today s dynamic work place, successful organizations need employees who do more than their role requirements. employees who perceive unfairness might lessen their extra-role behavior, while on the other hand employees who perceive fairness Would want to contribute more to their organization. Additionally, when employees feel that their company is managed fairly, they are more likely to view citizenship behavior as an appropriate part of the social exchange. This study evaluates the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior. This study is a descriptivecorrelational research. The method of collecting data is questionnaire. Nihoof & Moorman s organizational justice questionnaire and Allen & Lee s organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire were used in collecting data. Validity of the questionnaire is surveyed by the content validity and its reliability by calculating Cronbach s alpha. The statistical population of this research is management and employees agricultural jihad in Isfahan province in Iran including 361 individuals and we chose 100 as a sample study based on cochran formula. The analysis of data gathered was done by SPSS software and pearson correlation. The results revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior. The findings also revealed that there is a significant relationship between procedural justic and OCB-I, procedural justic and OCB-O, interactional justice and OCB-I, interactional justice and OCB-O. Keywords: Distributional justice, Procedural justic, Interactional justic, Organization citizenship behavior. Introduction Organizations are social systems where human resources are the most important factors for effectiveness and efficiency. Organizations need effective managers and employees to achieve their objectives. (Mirsafaei Rizi et al,2013). The * Corresponding author: E-mail: dr_allame@yahoo.com demonstration of desirable workplace behaviour by employees has become important in today s dynamic, flexible and innovative world of work (Robbins, 2005). Scholars and practitioners recognition of the importance of organizational citizenship behavior in organizations has grown dramatically in recent. Podsakoff et al. (1997) stated that over time and persons, citizenship behaviors become important because it helps to facilitate the accomplishments of organizational goals and thus enhances organizational

Allameh SM and Abbasi Rostami N / IJOMA (2014), 2 (3): 1-8 performance. Research has shown that organizational citizenship behavior helps maximize the organizational performance of companies (Podsakoff et al., 2000). Since this is the goal of every organization, it benefits managers to understand how various variables affect organizational citizenship behavior. This understanding can help managers assess what kind of environment to provide their employees, and also what motivates and satisfies them. Organizational justice is a key determinant in OCB. Since employees consider fair treatment as measure of how much the organization is willing to support them, we can claim that organizational justice is one of the most important requirements of OCB. When organizations treat their employees fairly they prove that they take the welfare and prosperity of their employees seriously. If employees feel that procedures and outputs are fair, they become aware of the organization s intentions to treat them fairly and, by extension, come to believe that the organization values its employees. (Soltani et al,2014). Organizational justice is among the major issue which is cared most by the workers. This is because the concept is related with the organizational output and variables such as organizational citizenship, loyalty, motivation, organizational climate, job satisfaction, absenteeism, productivity and release (Forret and Love, 2008). If employees of an organization feel a sense of organizational justice, it increases their functional ability and they show OCB (Goudarzvand Chegini,2009). Organ suggested that fairness perception plays an important role in promoting OCB. If organizational citizenship behaviour is believed a job contribution, then a worker s reaction to underpayment, viewed as an injustice, perceived as an inequity, will demonstrate decreased exhibition of organizational oitizenship behaviour. In other words, the negative emotions of organizational members toward procedural justice and distributive justice will give rise to absenteeism, low performance, deviance, low loyalty and citizenship behaviors (Yardan et al,2014). Organizational justice is strongly linked to employees willingness to engage in behaviors helpful to the organizations. Spector (2001) also found that distributive, procedural, and interactional justices are all positively related to organizational citizenship behaviors (Agyemang Badu et al,2013). When workers are treated fairly in their social working environment, the sense of higher justice and trust was observed as developed. By this way, it was confirmed that workers will of working and their tendency of displaying organizational citizenship behavior increased (Greenberg, 1990; Moorman, 1991). By consideration to importance of this subject, the present research attempts to investigate the relationship of organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors. Literature review Organizational Justice Organization justice was defined by Greenberg(1990) as a concept that expressed employee s perceptions about the extent to which they were treated fairly, in organizations and how such perceptions influenced organizational outcomes such as commitment and satisfaction. organizational justice is concerned with the ways in which employees determine if they have been treated fairly in their jobs and the ways in which those determinations influence other work-related variables (Moorman, 1991). The researches had shown that justice processes plays an important role in the organization and how it is possible that dealing with people in organizations influences beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and employees behavior. Employees face at least two sources of (in) justice in the organization. Perhaps most obvious is one s immediate supervisor or manager. This supervisor has a direct line of authority over the employee. She or he can influences important outcomes, such as pay raises or promotional opportunities. Secondly, employees might also attribute unfairness to the organization as a whole. (A L-Abr row et al,2013). Greenberg (1990) discusses organizational justice in three dimensions as; distributional, procedural and interactional justice. Distributive justice distributional justice is the perceptions of 2

Survey Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior workers whether the organizational savings are distributed according to the real evaluation and the performance presented (Moorman, 1991). Cohen (1987) defines the distributive justice as the equal allocation of resources to the employees due to the predetermined standards. Procedural justice procedural justice is the perception of the processes which are used to determine the decisions. In short, it is about the perceptions of justice related with the decision making processes (Konovsky, 2000). Interactional justice Interactional justice points out the fair behaviors of decision maker while acceptance of formative processes and application of those behaviors (Niehoff and Moorman, 1993). According to Moorman (1991) interactional justice is the interaction between the source of allocation and the people who will be affected by the allocation decisions; or is the method of telling how to do and what to do to the people in decision processes. Research has shown that employees appraise three families of workplace events.they examine the justice of outcomes (distributive justice), the justice of the formal allocation processes (procedural justice), and the justice of interpersonal transactions they encounter with others (interactional justice). These are shown in Table 1. (Cropanzano et al,2007). Organizational Citizenship Behavior Organ (1988) argued that OCB is held to be vital to the survival of an organization. Walz and Niehoff (1996) noted that OCB represents a set of desirable organizational behaviors, which demonstrate multi-dimensional relationships with positive organizational consequences. According to organ (1988) in OCB an individual s behavior is discretionary. This behavior is not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and it in the aggregate that promotes the effective functioning of the organization. Williams and Anderson (1991) suggested OCB to be divided into behavior that benefits the organization (OCB-O) and behavior that benefits specific individual but indirectly also benefits the organization (OCB-I). The dimension of OCBO is generalized compliance and civic virtue, whereas the dimension of OCBI is altruism, courtesy, and sportsmanship. (Ariani,2012). Both of these OCB forms have positive outcomes at the individual, group and organizational level, and promote the effective functioning of the organization (Kalshoven, 2010). Table 1: Components of organizational justice 1. Distributive Justice: Appropriateness of outcomes. Equity: Rewarding employees based on their contributions. Equality: Providing each employee roughly the same compensation. Need: Providing a benefit based on one s personal requirements. 2. Procedural Justice: Appropriateness of the allocation process. Consistency: All employees are treated the same. Lack of Bias: No person or group is singled out for discrimination or ill-treatment. Accuracy: Decisions are based on accurate information. Representation of All Concerned: Appropriate stakeholders have input into a decision. Correction: There is an appeals process or other mechanism for fixing mistakes. Ethics: Norms of professional conduct are not violated. 3. Interactional Justice: Appropriateness of the treatment one receives from authority figures. Interpersonal Justice: Treating an employee with dignity, courtesy, and respect. Informational Justice: Sharing relevant information with employees. 3

Allameh SM and Abbasi Rostami N / IJOMA (2014), 2 (3): 1-8 Podsakoff et al. (2000) based on a critical review of the literature identified seven dimensions of OCB: helping behavior, sportsmanship, organizational loyalty, organizational compliance, individual initiative, civic virtue, and self-development. According to Organ (1988), there are five dimensions of OCB, including: (1) Altruism, behaving in a way that demonstrates selflessness and concern for the welfare of others; (2) Conscientiousness, evidencing commitment to high levels of work quality and completion; (3) Sportsmanship, choosing not to complain or act in negative ways; (4) Courtesy, taking actions that help prevent problems from occurring, or taking actions in advance to mitigate a problem, and (5) Civic virtue, adopting a posture of responsible, constructive involvement in the political or governance process of the organization. Many researchers have focused on the antecedents of OCB such as trust in supervisors and psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, performance,and personality and consequences of OCBs such as service quality, organizational commitment, leadership and leadership behavior, and perception of fairness (Judeh,2012). Figure1 highlights the possible direct or indirect antecedents and consequences based on a collective review of 37 international research studies conducted with an aim to recognize substantive antecedents and consequences of OCB. (Kataria et al,2013). Research background Numerous studies reported positive associations between organizational justice and OCB. Agyemang Badu and Asumeng (2013) ; Asgari et al, (2011); Parhizkari et al (2010); Aslam and Sadaqat (2011); Molaeifar et al, (2013); stated that there is a significant and positive correlation between organizational justice understanding and organizational citizenship behavior. In his study, Moorman (1991), used causal modeling to assess causal paths from justice perceptions to organizational citizenship behavior. The main goal of the study was to test the relationship between perceptions of organizational justice, in the form of distributive and procedural justice, and organizational citizenship behavior. the results suggest that the relationship between interactional justice, which is a dimension of procedural justice, and organizational citizenship behavior show the strongest correlation. Vazifeh Damirchi et al. (2012) has also investigated the relationship between organizational justice and OCB in Moghan s Agro-Industry Company. The results show that among the organizational justice and its dimensions(distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice) has a significant relationship with organizational citizenship behaviors of employees. Research hypotheses Based on the above literature, this study seek to investigate how significance was the perceptions of organizational justice on organizational citizenship behavior.the following hypotheses were developed: The main hypothesis organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior. Sub-hypotheses distributional justice and OCB-I. distributional justice and OCB-O. procedural justic and OCB-I. procedural justic and OCB-O. interactional justice and OCB-I. interactional justice and OCB-O. Research methodology The present study was conducted using descriptive-correlational method. The statistical population included 361employees of the agricultural jihad in Isfahan province.the sample size was obtained equal to 100 persons using Cochran formula. standard questionnaire was tool of data collection. Two questionnaires 4

Survey Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Figure 1. Direct or Indirect Sources and Consequences of OCB. Attitudinal factors -Job satisfaction -Organizational commitment -Justice & fairness perceptions Dispositional factors -Personality Agreeableness, Conscientiousness -Traits Empathy, Helpfulness -Positive affect Individual Consequences -High performance ratings by supervisors -Favourable Self-evaluations -Self-esteem, personal control, self-efficacy, confidence -Personal Development -Physical and Mental Health -Individual well-being Higher positive affect, social rewards, intrinsic rewards -Life satisfaction Motivational Factors Expressive functional motives -Role identity -Ego protection -Self-enhancement Instrumental functional motives -Economic & Cost-benefit considerations Citizenship Motivation Scale -Prosocial values -organizational concern -Impression management Organizational Citizenship (Behavior OCB) Organizational Consequences Unit performance -Enhanced coordination -Reduced need for maintenance -Operating efficiency -Customer service quality -Performance quality and quantity -Unit sales Organizational Effectiveness Contextual Factors Task characteristics -Task demands -Job autonomy -Intrinsically satisfying tasks -Taskinterdependence Social Relationships - Relationship with supervisors Transformational leadership,lmx -Relationship with Co-workers Interpersonal relationship quality, intensity of friendship,tmx, group cohesiveness, cooperative group norms -Organizational productivity -Organizational flexibility -Organizational adaptability -Organizational efficiency -Employee retention -Talent acquisition -Team effectiveness -Managerial effectiveness -Optimization of scarce resources -Stable organizational performance -Environmental performance 5 5

Allameh SM and Abbasi Rostami N / IJOMA (2014), 2 (3): 1-8 Table 1. Correlation coefficient of two variables of Marketing capability and innovation. Variables organizational justice **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). N = 100 *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). N = 100 organizational citizenship behavior Correlation coefficient 0.499** P-value 0.000 Number 100 were used in this study. Organizational citizenship behavior a 16-item self-report scale previously adapted by Lee and Allen (2002) was used to measure OCB. This measure was expected to distinguish OCB directed towards the organization (OCBO: 8 items) from that directed towards fellow employees (OCBI: 8 items). Responses to these items were made on a 5-point scale. Organization justice scale (OJS), was used to measure organizational justice. This scale developed by Niehoff and Moorman (1993) with three components: distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice. Response to the items is based on 5 point Likert scale. In this study, in order to achieve validity were used content validity. and to estimate the reliability of the questionnaire is used cronbach s alpha. Reliability was obtained by cronbach s alpha for the organization justice 0.718 and for organizational citizenship behavior it was 0.740. The findings of the research Main Hypothesis testing To test this hypothsis, pearson correlation test was used. According to table 1 pearson correlation coefficient between organization justice and organizational citizenship behavior is 0.499 and meaningful level of pearson correlation coefficient test is 0.000 which is lower than 0.01, so there is a meaningful direct relation between organization justice and organizational citizenship behavior. Sub-hypotheses testing In order to test sub-hypotheses, pearson correlation test was used. Results of the test data is given in table 2. The results of the data analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between procedural justic and OCB-I (0.428), procedural justic and OCB-O (0.410), interactional justice and OCB-I (0.400), interactional justice and OCB-O (0.459) at (0/01 p). Discussion and conclusion organization needs to ensure the practice of organizational justice so that it can create confidence and loyalty among the employees. This will then influence workers organizational citizenship behavior. The main goal of our studies was relationship between organizational justiceand organizational citizenship behaviors. The results indicated that there is significant positive relationship (r=0.499, P<0.01) between organizational justice and OCB. It is found that organizational justice has positive impact on OCB. It means that if employees find their organization just and fair in distribution, processes and interactional system, they are more inclined to show organizational citizenship behaviors. Under a high level of organizational justice, employees tend to feel more secured and be engaged deeper in OCBs. The result of present study confirm studies: Moorman (1991); Agyemang Badu and Asumeng (2013) ; Asgari et al, (2011); Parhizkari et al (2010); Aslam and Sadaqat (2011); Molaeifar et al, (2013). The present study also found out that two dimensions of organizational justice which are procedural justice and Interactional justice, have a significant relationship with organizational citizenship behavior dimensions. The results of the Sub-hypothesis test show that there is a significant relationship between procedural justic with OCB-I and OCB-O. Procedural justice focuses on the fairness of the manner in which the decision-making process is conducted. Procedural justice also considers the process of resource allocation in the organization. It can be mentioned that 6

Survey Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Table 2. Results of Sub-hypotheses hypothesis test. Row Aspects of marketing capability Components of innovation Correlation Coefficient Sig Considerations 1 Distributional justice OCB-I 0.192 0.56 Reject the hypothesis 2 Distributional justice OCB-O 0.180 0.73 Reject the hypothesis 3 Procedural justic OCB-I 0.428** 0.000 Confirm the Hypothesis 4 Procedural justic OCB-O 0.410** 0.000 Confirm the hypothesis 5 Interactional justice OCB-I 0.400** 0.000 Confirm the Hypothesis 6 Interactional justice OCB-O 0.459** 0.000 Confirm the Hypothesis procedural justice (formal policy or process in achieving something that has been allocated by organization) can enhance OCB-I (behavior that benefits specific individual but indirectly also benefits the organization) and OCB-O (behavior that benefits the organization) in organizations. The findings also show that there is a significant relationship between interactional justice with OCB-I and OCB-O. Interactional justice refers to the perceived justice in interpersonal interactions between an employee and his coworkers. It can be mentioned that interactional justice (treatment taken by the decision makers in organization interpersonal) can enhance OCB-I and OCB-O. By creating a positive environment managers can foster organizational citizenship. These findings helped the managers to understand how fair judgments could contribute towards the effective management of workforce through implementation of organizational policies such as reward and performance evaluation policies. it is necessary to distribute and allocate resources and rewards justly in order to establish an organizational citizenship behavior in a way that staff can believe in justice observation. also recommended that the compensation system be implemented effectively in the organization. References Agyemang Badu C, Asumeng, M, 2013. Perceived Organizational Justice and Employees Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in Ghana. European Journal of Business and Management,Vol.5, No.19, P.144-150. AL-Abr row, H.A, Shaker Ardakani, M, harooni, A, Moghaddam pour, H, 2013. The Relationship between Organizational Trust and Organizational Justice Components and Their Role in Job Involvement in Education. International Journal of Management Academy, 1 (1): 25-41. Ariani, D.W, 2012. The Relationship between Social Capital, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, and Individual Performance: An Empirical Study from Banking Industry in Indonesia. Journal of Management Research, Vol. 4, No. 2.P.226-241. Asgari, M.H, Nojabaee, S.S. Arjmand F, 2011. The Relationship Between the Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior of the Employees. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 10 (2): 141-148. Aslam R, Sadaqat SH, 2011. Investigating the Relationship of Organizational Justice on Organizational Citizenship Behavior among Teaching Staff of University of the Punjab. European Journal of Scientific Research, Vol.57 No.1, pp.53-67. Cohen R. L, 1987. Distributive Justice: Theory and Research. Social Justice Research, 1, 19-40. Cropanzano R, Bowen D.E, Gilliland S.W, 2007. The Management of Organizational Justice. Academy of Management Perspectives, P.34-48. Forret M, Love M. S, 2008. Employee Justice Perceptions and Coworker Relationships. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 29(3), 248-260 Goudarzvand Chegini M, 2009. The Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration 1(2): 171-174. Greenberg J, 1990. Organizational justice: yesterday, today, tomorrow. Journal of Management, 16,399-432. Judeh M, 2012. Examining the Relationship between Organizational Justice, Job Security, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Jordanian Banks: A Structural Equation Modeling Perspective. Jordan Journal of Business Administration, Vol 8, No. 3, P. 581-601. Kalshoven K. 2010. Ethical Leadership: Through the eyes of employees. Proefschrift, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Retrieved from http://dare.uva.nl/ record/337849 Kataria A, Garg P, Rastogi R, 2013. Employee Engagement and Organizational Effectiveness: The Role of Organizational Citizenship Behavior, IJBIT, Volume 6, Issue 1. 7

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