Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Associations of Changes in Organizational Justice with Job Attitudes and Health—Findings from a Prospective Study Using a Matching-Based Difference-in-Difference Approach

  • Full length manuscript
  • Published:
International Journal of Behavioral Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Ample evidence indicates that unfairness at the workplace (organizational injustice) is associated with both job attitudes and health of employees. Several factors that influence these associations have been identified: e.g., personality traits, such as the Big Five traits, justice sensitivity, type of occupation (e.g., white-collar), and unobserved time-invariant factors. Previous studies only addressed parts of these issues, and the ideal research design to mitigate biases—an experiment with random assignment to a treatment and control group—is not feasible. This study therefore mimics a randomized experiment using two statistical techniques.

Methods

First, matching was implemented to balance the treatment and control group in confounding factors (demographics and personality) in two prospective waves (2012–2014) of observational data (4522 white-collar, 2984 blue-collar) taken from the Linked Personnel Panel, which is an employee survey representative for German private sector companies with more than 50 employees. Second, a difference-in-difference approach excludes unobserved time-invariant factors by estimating associations of changes in organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interactional) with job attitudes (job satisfaction, turnover intention) and health (general and mental) in these groups, separate for white- and blue-collar employees.

Results

A decrease in perceived justice was associated with lower job attitudes (less job satisfaction and higher turnover intentions), while an increase was associated with higher values. This pattern was found for white- and blue-collar workers and also for health indicators, with the latter, however, being less pronounced.

Conclusions

Increased fairness at the workplace is related to better job attitudes and health for white- and blue-collar employees, independent of personality traits and unobserved time-invariant factors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Colquitt JA, Conlon DE, Wesson MJ, Porter CO, Ng KY. Justice at the millennium: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. J Appl Psychol. 2001;86(3):425–45.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Cohen-Charash Y, Spector PE. The role of justice in organizations: a meta-analysis. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process. 2001;86(2):278–321. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2001.2958.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Elovainio M, Heponiemi T, Sinervo T, Magnavita N. Organizational justice and health; review of evidence. G Ital Med Lav Ergon. 2010;32(3 Suppl B):B5–9.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Greenberg J. Organizational injustice as an occupational health risk. Acad Manag Ann. 2010;4(1):205–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2010.481174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Herr RM, Bosch JA, van Vianen AE, Jarczok MN, Thayer JF, Li J, et al. Organizational justice is related to heart rate variability in white-collar workers, but not in blue-collar workers—findings from a cross-sectional study. Ann Behav Med. 2015;49(3):434–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-014-9669-9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Folger R. Fairness as deonance. In: Gilliland DS, Skarlicki D, editors. Theoretical and cultural perspectives on organizational justice. Greenwich: JAI; 2001. p. 3–33.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cropanzano R, Goldman B, Folger R. Deontic justice: the role of moral principles in workplace fairness. J Organ Behav. 2003;24(8):1019–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gillespie JZ, Greenberg J. Are the goals of organizational justice self-interested? In: Greenberg J, Colquitt JA, editors. Handbook of organizational justice. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publisher; 2005. p. 179–213.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fischer R, Abubakar A, Nyaboke AJ. Organizational justice and mental health: a multi-level test of justice interactions. Int J Psychol. 2014;49(2):108–14.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Vermunt R, Steensma H. Physiological relaxation: stress reduction through fair treatment. Soc Justice Res. 2003;16(2):135–49.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Lind EA, Tyler TR. The social psychology of procedural justice. Plenum Publishing Corporation; 1988.

  12. Lind EA, Kulik CT, Ambrose M, de Vera Park MV. Individual and corporate dispute resolution: using procedural fairness as a decision heuristic. Adm Sci Q. 1993;38:224–51.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Cropanzano R, Mitchell MS. Social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. J Manag. 2005;31(6):874–900.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Herr RM, Li J, Angerer P. The synergistic effects of organizational justice and trust to supervisor on vagal tone: preliminary findings of an empirical investigation. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(5):790.

    PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Elovainio M, Ferrie JE, Gimeno D, et al. Organizational justice and sleeping problems: The Whitehall II study. Psychosom Med. 2009;71(3):334–40.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Greenberg J. Losing sleep over organizational injustice: attenuating insomniac reactions to underpayment inequity with supervisory training in interactional justice. J Appl Psychol. 2006;91(1):58–69. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.58.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Hietapakka L, Elovainio M, Heponiemi T, et al. Do nurses who work in a fair organization sleep and perform better and why? Testing potential psychosocial mediators of organizational justice. J Occup Health Psychol. 2013;18(4):481–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033990.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Kouvonen A, Kivimaki M, Elovainio M, et al. Low organisational justice and heavy drinking: a prospective cohort study. Occup Environ Med. 2008;65(1):44–50. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2007.032755.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Kouvonen A, Vahtera J, Elovainio M, Cox SJ, Cox T, Linna A, et al. Organisational justice and smoking: the Finnish public sector study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007;61(5):427–33. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2007.061739.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Ndjaboue R, Brisson C, Vezina M. Organisational justice and mental health: a systematic review of prospective studies. Occup Environ Med. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2011-100595.

  21. De Vogli R, Brunner E, Marmot MG. Unfairness and the social gradient of metabolic syndrome in the Whitehall II study. J Psychosom Res. 2007;63(4):413–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2007.04.006.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. De Vogli R, Ferrie JE, Chandola T, Kivimaki M, Marmot MG. Unfairness and health: evidence from the Whitehall II study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007;61(6):513–8. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2006.052563.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Elovainio M, Leino-Arjas P, Vahtera J, Kivimaki M. Justice at work and cardiovascular mortality: a prospective cohort study. J Psychosom Res. 2006;61(2):271–4.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Gimeno D, Tabak AG, Ferrie JE, et al. Justice at work and metabolic syndrome: the Whitehall II study. Occup Environ Med. 2010;67(4):256–62.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Kivimaki M, Ferrie JE, Brunner E, et al. Justice at work and reduced risk of coronary heart disease among employees: the Whitehall II Study. Arch Intern Med. 2005;165(19):2245–51.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Kivimaki M, Ferrie JE, Shipley M, et al. Effects on blood pressure do not explain the association between organizational justice and coronary heart disease in the Whitehall II study. Psychosom Med. 2008;70(1):1–6.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Holtz BC, Harold CM. Fair today, fair tomorrow? A longitudinal investigation of overall justice perceptions. J Appl Psychol. 2009;94(5):1185.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Hausknecht JP, Sturman MC, Roberson QM. Justice as a dynamic construct: effects of individual trajectories on distal work outcomes. J Appl Psychol. 2011;96(4):872–80.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Rupp D. An employee-centered model of organizational justice and social responsibility. Organ Psychol Rev. 2011;1(1):72–94.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Nakagawa Y, Inoue A, Kawakami N, Tsuno K, Tomioka K, Nakanishi M, et al. Change in organizational justice and job performance in Japanese employees: a prospective cohort study. J Occup Health. 2015;57(4):388–93. https://doi.org/10.1539/joh.14-0212-BR.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Tekleab AG, Takeuchi R, Taylor MS. Extending the chain of relationships among organizational justice, social exchange, and employee reactions: the role of contract violations. Acad Manag J. 2005;48(1):146–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Blau PM. Exchange and power in social life. New York: J. Wiley; 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Herr RM, Bosch JA, Loerbroks A, van Vianen A, Jarczok MN, Fischer JE, et al. Three job stress models and their relationship with musculoskeletal pain in blue- and white-collar workers. J Psychosom Res. 2015;79(5):340–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.08.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Lind EA, van den Bos K. When fairness works: toward a general theory of uncertainty management. Res Organ Behav. 2002;24(0):181–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(02)24006-X.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Inoue A, Kawakami N, Tsuno K, Tomioka K, Nakanishi M. Organizational justice and psychological distress among permanent and non-permanent employees in Japan: a prospective cohort study. Int J Behav Med. 2013;20(2):265–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-012-9224-7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Scott BA, Colquitt JA. Are organizational justice effects bounded by individual differences? An examination of equity sensitivity, exchange ideology, and the big five. Group Organ Manag. 2007;32(3):290–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601106286877.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Barsky A, Kaplan SA. If you feel bad, it's unfair: a quantitative synthesis of affect and organizational justice perceptions. J Appl Psychol. 2007;92(1):286–95.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Colquitt JA, Scott BA, Judge TA, Shaw JC. Justice and personality: using integrative theories to derive moderators of justice effects. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process. 2006;100(1):110–27.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Johnston CS, Krings F, Maggiori C, Meier LL, Fiori M. Believing in a personal just world helps maintain well-being at work by coloring organizational justice perceptions. Eur J Work Organ Psychologie. 2016;25(6):945–59.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Shi J, Lin H, Wang L, Wang M. Linking the big five personality constructs to organizational justice. Soc Behav Pers. 2009;37(2):209–22.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Tornroos M, Elovainio M, Hintsa T, et al. Personality traits and perceptions of organisational justice. Int J Psychol. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12472.

  42. Mäkikangas A, Feldt T, Kinnunen U, Mauno S. Does personality matter? A review of individual differences in occupational well-being. Advances in positive organizational psychology. Emerald Group Publishing Limited; 2013. p. 107–43.

  43. Elovainio M, Kivimäki M, Vahtera J, Virtanen M, Keltikangas-Järvinen L. Personality as a moderator in the relations between perceptions of organizational justice and sickness absence. J Vocat Behav. 2003;63(3):379–95.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Schmitt M, Dörfel M. Procedural injustice at work, justice sensitivity, job satisfaction and psychosomatic well-being. Eur J Soc Psychol. 1999;29(4):443–53. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199906)29:4<443::AID-EJSP935>3.0.CO;2-C.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Oshio T, Tsutsumi A, Inoue A. Do time-invariant confounders explain away the association between job stress and workers’ mental health?: Evidence from Japanese occupational panel data. Soc Sci Med. 2015;126(Supplement C):138–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.12.021.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Yang LQ, Bauer J, Johnson RE, Groer MW, Salomon K. Physiological mechanisms that underlie the effects of interactional unfairness on deviant behavior: the role of cortisol activity. J Appl Psychol. 2014;99(2):310–21. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034413.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Vermunt R, Peeters Y, Berggren K. How fair treatment affects saliva cortisol release in stressed low and high type-a behavior individuals. Scand J Psychol. 2007;48(6):547–55.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Falk A, Menrath I, Verde PE, Siegrist J. Cardiovascular consequences of unfair pay. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5720. 2011.

  49. Greenberg J. Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: the hidden cost of pay cuts. J Appl Psychol. 1990;75(5):561.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Nakamura S, Somemura H, Sasaki N, Yamamoto M, Tanaka M, Tanaka K. Effect of management training in organizational justice: a randomized controlled trial. Ind Health. 2016;54(3):263–71. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2015-0164.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  51. Kampkötter P, Mohrenweiser J, Sliwka D, Steffes S, Wolter S. Measuring the use of human resources practices and employee attitudes: the linked personnel panel. Evidence-based HRM: a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship. 2016;4(2):94–115. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-09-2015-0037.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Kim T-Y, Leung K. Forming and reacting to overall fairness: a cross-cultural comparison. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process. 2007;104(1):83–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2007.01.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. DIW. The German Socio-Economic Panel study (SOEP). 2008–2019. https://www.diw.de/en/soep. Accessed 7 May 2019.

  54. Bluedorn AC. A unified model of turnover from organizations. Hum Relat. 1982;35(2):135–53.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Topp CW, Østergaard SD, Søndergaard S, Bech P. The WHO-5 well-being index: a systematic review of the literature. Psychother Psychosom. 2015;84(3):167–76.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Gerlitz J-Y, Jr S. Zur Erhebung der big-five-basierten Persönlichkeitsmerkmale im SOEP [The measurement of the big five personality traits in the SOEP]. Berlin: DIW Berlin; 2005.

  57. Schmitt M, Baumert A, Gollwitzer M, Maes J. The justice sensitivity inventory: factorial validity, location in the personality facet space, demographic pattern, and normative data. Soc Justice Res. 2010;23(2):211–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-010-0115-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Morgeson FP, Humphrey SE. The work design questionnaire (WDQ): developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. J Appl Psychol. 2006;91(6):1321–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.6.1321.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  59. Antonakis J, Bendahan S, Jacquart P, Lalive R. On making causal claims: a review and recommendations. Leadersh Q. 2010;21(6):1086–120.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Angrist JD, Pischke J-S. Mostly harmless econometrics: an empiricist’s companion. Princeton University Press; 2008.

  61. Iacus SM, King G, Porro G. Causal inference without balance checking: coarsened exact matching. Polit Anal. 2012;20(1):1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Blackwell M, Iacus SM, King G, Porro G. CEM: coarsened exact matching in Stata. Stata J. 2009;9(4):524–46.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Iacus SM, King G, Porro G. Matching for causal inference without balance checking. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1152391 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1152391. 2008. Accessed 19 August 2019.

  64. Herr RM, Loerbroks A, van Vianen AE, Hoffmann K, Fischer JE, Bosch JA. Injustice at work and leukocyte glucocorticoid sensitivity: findings from a cross-sectional study. Psychosom Med. 2015;77(5):527–38. https://doi.org/10.1097/psy.0000000000000185.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Richter D, Metzing M, Weinhardt M, Schupp J. SOEP scales manual, SOEP survey papers, no. 138. Berlin: DIW/SOEP; 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Gosling SD, Rentfrow PJ, Swann WB. A very brief measure of the big-five personality domains. J Res Pers. 2003;37(6):504–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Lang FR, John D, Lüdtke O, Schupp J, Wagner GG. Short assessment of the Big Five: robust across survey methods except telephone interviewing. Behav Res Methods. 2011;43(2):548–67.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This study uses the Linked Personnel Panel (LPP), waves 1 and 2. Data access was provided via on-site use at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and subsequently remote data access. This work was supported by a grant from the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The authors thank Professor Patrick Kampkötter for providing additional background information on the organizational justice item selection.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The funders had no role in the analyses, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

    Raphael M. Herr, Christian Almer, Catherin Bosle & Joachim E. Fischer

Authors
  1. Raphael M. Herr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christian Almer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Catherin Bosle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Joachim E. Fischer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raphael M. Herr.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

J.E.F. has received royalties for lectures regarding occupational health from various companies and public agents. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (Ethics Commission of the Medical Faculty Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg; No. 2018-514N-MA) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 135 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Herr, R.M., Almer, C., Bosle, C. et al. Associations of Changes in Organizational Justice with Job Attitudes and Health—Findings from a Prospective Study Using a Matching-Based Difference-in-Difference Approach. Int.J. Behav. Med. 27, 119–135 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-019-09841-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-019-09841-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation