ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AS A DETERMINANT OF EFFECTIVE COMMITMENT AND SILENCE OF EMPLOYEES

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 825 - 840, 30.06.2017

Huseyin Yesil A. Begum Otken Hayriye Senem Gol Beser

https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2017.435

Abstract

As we move into the 21st century, increased global competition, rapid
developments in the area of information technologies and redesigning of former
business processes have deeply affected the way of managing people at
workplaces. With the flattening of organizational structures and reduction of
management intervention, more responsibilities have been given to the employees
for making decisions and managing their daily activities. Besides increasing
responsibilities, individuals are expected to be more attached to the goals,
objectives and values of their organizations, and also more willing to express
their opinions, ideas, suggestions and concerns about workrelated issues.
However, building affectively committed workforce and breaking silence by
encouraging employees to speak up about critical issues have emerged as crucial
management challenges of today’s organizations. Numerous theoretical and
empirical studies have revealed that attitudinal and behavioral reactions of
individuals toward their organizations are mainly influenced by their fairness
perceptions. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the
relationship of perceived organizational justice with employee silence and
affective commitment. Study was conducted on total 200
white collar employees working in a private sector company. Results indicated
that distributive justice has no significant contribution on employee silence
and affective commitment. Also, it was revealed that procedural justice has
significant positive contribution on acquiescent silence and defensive silence.
Finally, interactional justice has been found to be a good predictor of
employee silence and affective commitment.

 

Keywords

Organizational Justice, Employee Silence, Affective Commitment

References

• Abbott, G. N., White F. A., and Charles M. A. (2005). “Linking values and organizational commitment: A correlational and experimental investigation in two organizations”, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78:531-551
• Adams, J. S. (1965). “Inequity in Social Exchange”, In L. Berkowitz (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267-299), New York: Academic Press.
• Becker, H. S. (1960). “Notes on the Concept of Commitment”. American Journal of Sociology, 66: 32-42.
• Bies, R.J. (2015). “Interactional Justice: Looking Backward, Looking Forward”, In Cropanzano, R., Ambrose, M.L. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Justice in the Workplace (pp. 89-107). Oxford University Press.
• Bies, R. J., and Moag, J. F. (1986). “Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness”. In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, and M. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiations in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 43-55). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
• Bies, R.J. and Shapiro, D.L. (1987). “Interactional Fairness Judgments: The Influence of Causal Accounts”, Social Justice Research, 1: 199218.
• Brinsfield, C.T. (2013). “Employee silence motives: Investigation of dimensionality and development of measures”, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(5): 671-697.
• Cohen, A. (2007). “Commitment before and after: An evaluation and reconceptualization of organizational commitment”, Human Resource Management Review, 17: 336-354.
• Cohen, R. L. (1990). “Justice, voice and silence”, Paper presented at the International Conference on Social Science and Societal Dilemmas, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
• Cohen-Charash, Y., and Spector, P. E. (2001). “The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86(2), 278-321.
• Colquitt, J.A. (2001). “On the Dimensionality of Organizational Justice: A Construct Validation of a Measure”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 86:386-400.
• Colquitt, J.A. (2008). “Two Decades of Organizational Justice: Findings, Controversies, and Future Directions”, In J. Barling and C.L. Cooper (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Organizational Behavior Volume 1: Micro approaches (pp. 73-88). London, UK: Sage Publications.
• Colquitt, J. A., Conlon, D.E., Wesson, M.Y., Porter, C., and Ng, K.Y., (2001). “Justice at the Millennium: A Meta-Analytic Review of 25 Years of Organizational Justice Research”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 425-445.
• Cropanzano, R., and Greenberg, J. (1997). “Progress in organizational justice: Tunneling through the maze”. In C. Cooper and I. Robertson (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 317-372). New York: Wiley.
• Demiralay, T. and Lorcu F. (2015). “Examining Organizational Silence on Doctors with Structural Equation Modeling”, International Journal of Business and Social Science , 6(9), 1: 37-49.
• Fischer, R. (2004). “Rewarding employee loyalty: an organizational justice approach”, International Journal of Organizational Behavior, 8:486-503.
• Greenberg, J. (1987). “A Taxonomy of Organizational Justice Theories”, Academy of Management Review, 12(1): 9-22.
• Greenberg, J. (1990). “Organizational Justice: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”, Journal of Management, 16(2), 399-432.
• Greenberg, J. (1993). “The social side of fairness: Interpersonal and informational classes of organizational justice”, In R. Cropanzano (Eds.), Justice in the workplace: Approaching fairness in human resource management (pp. 79-103). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Greenberg, J. and Cohen, R.L. (1982). “Equity and Justice in Social Behavior”, New York. Academic Press.
• Hirschman, A. O. (1970). “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States”, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Homans, G. C. (1961). “Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms”, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
• Kanter, R. M. (1968). “Commitment and Social Organization: A Study of Commitment Mechanisms in Utopian Communities”, American Sociological Review, 33: 499- 517.
• Leventhal, G. S. (1980). “What should be done with equity theory? New approaches to the study of fairness in social relationships”, In K. J. Gergen, M. S. Greenberg, and R. H. Willis (Eds.), Social exchange: Advances in theory and research (pp. 27-55). New York: Plenum.
• Meyer, J. P., and Allen, N. J. (1991). “A Three-Component Conceptualization of Organizational Commitment”. Human Resources Management Review, 1: 61-89.
• Meyer, J. P., and Allen, N. J. (1997). “Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research, and Application”. London: Sage.
• Meyer P. J. and Herscovitch, L., (2001). “Commitment in the workplace toward a general model”, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 11: 299-326.
• Meyer, P.J., Stanley, J.D., Herscovitch, L., and Topolnytsky, L., (2002). “Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61:20-52.
• Milliken, F. J., Morrison, E. W., and Hewlin, P. F. (2003). “An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence: Issues that Employees Don’t Communicate Upward and Why”, Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1453-1476.
• Morrison, E. W. (2014), “Employee Voice and Silence”, The Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1:173-97.
• Morrison E.W. and Milliken F.J. (2000). “Organizational Silence: A Barrier to Change and Development in a Pluralistic World”, The Academy of Management Review, 25(4), p.706-725.
• Morrison, E. W. and Milliken, F. J. (2003), "Speaking Up, Remaining Silent: The Dynamics of Voice and Silence in organizations", Journal of Management Studies. 40(6): 1353-1358.
• Mowday, R.T., Steers, R.M., and Porter, L.W. (1979). “The measurement of organizational commitment”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14: 224-247.
• Mowday, R.T., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M. (1982). “Employee - Organization Linkages: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism, and Turnover”, New York: Academic Press.
• Niehoff, B. P., and Moorman, R. H. (1993). “Justice as a mediator of the relationship between methods of monitoring and organizational citizenship behavior”, Academy of Management Journal, 36(3), 527-556.
• Pinder, C. C., and Harlos, K. P. (2001). “Employee Silence: Quiescence and Acquiescence as Responses to Perceived Injustice”, Personnel and Human Resources Management, 20, 331-369.
• Salancik, G. R. (1977). “Commitment and the Control of Organizational Behavior and Belief” Pp. 1-54 in New Directions in Organizational Behavior, edited by B. M. Staw and G. R. Salancik. Chicago: St. Clair Press.
• Somers, M. J. (2009). “The combined influence of affective, continuance and normative commitment on employee withdrawal”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74:75-81.
• Staw, B. M. (1977). “Two Sides of Commitment”, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Orlando, FL.
• Steers, R. M. (1977). “Antecedents and Outcomes of Organizational Commitment”, Administrative Science Quarterly, 22:46-56.
• Tangirala S. and Ramanujam R. (2008). “Employee silence on critical work issues: the cross-level effects of procedural justice climate”, Personnel Psychology 61(1): 37-68.
• Thibaut, J. and Walker, L. (1975). “Procedural Justice: A Psychological Analysis”, Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
• Vakola, M. and Bouradas, D. (2005). “Antecedents and Consequences of Organizational Silence: An Empirical Investigation”, Employee Relations. 27(5): 441-458.
• Van den Bos, K. (2001). “Fundamental Research by Means of Laboratory Experiments Is Essential for a Better Understanding of Organizational Justice”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, 254-259.
• Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., and Botero, I. C. (2003). “Conceptualizing Employee Silence and Employee Voice as Multidimensional Constructs”, Journal of Management Studies 40(6), 1359-1392.
• Wasti, S. Arzu, (2002). “Affective and continuance commitment to the organization: test of an integrated model in the Turkish context”, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 26:525-550.
• Wasti, S. Arzu, (2003). “The Influence of Cultural Values on Antecedents of Organizational Commitment: An Individual-Level Analysis”, Applied Psychology: An International Review, Vol.52, No.4, 533-554
• Wasti, S. Arzu, (2005). “Commitment profiles: Combinations of organizational commitment forms and job outcomes”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol.67, No.2, 290-308.
• Whiteside, D. B., Barclay, L. J. (2013). “Echoes of Silence: Employee Silence as a Mediator Between Overall Justice and Employee Outcomes”, Journal of Business Ethics, 116:251-266
• Wiener, Y. (1982). “Commitment in Organizations: A Normative View”, Academy of Management Review, 7: 418-428.