Organizational injusticethird parties' reactions to mistreatment of employee

  1. Topa Cantisano, Gabriela
  2. Moriano León, Juan Antonio
  3. José F. Morales
Journal:
Psicothema

ISSN: 0214-9915

Year of publication: 2013

Volume: 25

Issue: 2

Pages: 214-221

Type: Article

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Psicothema

Abstract

Background: Research on organizational injustice has mainly focused on the victim�s perspective. This study attempts to contribute to our understanding of third parties� perspective by empirically testing a model that describes third party reactions to mistreatment of employees. Method: Data were obtained from a sample (N = 334) of Spanish employees from various organizations, nested into 66 work-groups, via a survey regarding their perceptions of organizational mistreatment. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Results: The proposed model had a limited fit to the data and it was re-specified. Organizational mistreatment, employee performance, and employee organizational commitment explained internal attributions blaming the organization. Moreover, coworkers� organizational identification showed a positive impact on external attributions of responsibility. Lastly, supportive organizational climate and internal attributions accounted for a large percentage of variance in coworkers� perceptions of organizational unfairness. Conclusions: The final model explains the perceptions of injustice on the basis of internal attributions of responsibility in the face of organizational mistreatment of employees.

Bibliographic References

  • Ashforth, B., & Mael, F. (1989). Social identity theory and the organization. Academy of Management Review, 14, 20-39.
  • Barclay, L., Skarlicki, D., & Pugh, D. (2005). Exploring the role of emotions in injustice perceptions and retaliation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 629-643.
  • Brockner, J., Spreitzer, G., Mishra, A., Hochwarter, W., Pepper, L., & Weinberg, J. (2004). Perceived control as an antidote to the negative effects of layoffs on survivors' organizational commitment and job performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 49, 76-100.
  • Clayton, S., & Opotow, S. (2003). Justice and identity: Changing perspectives of what is fair. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 298-310.
  • Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P. (2001). The role of justice in organizations: A metaanalysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, 278-321.
  • Colquitt, J., Conlon, D., Wesson, M., Porter, C., & Ng, K. (2001). Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 425-445.
  • Cremer, D.D., & Hiel, A.V. (2006). Effects of another person's fair treatment on one's own emotions and behaviors: The moderating role of how much the other cares for you. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 100(2), 231-249. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.10.002.
  • Cropanzano, R., Byrne, Z., Bobocel, D., & Rupp, D. (2001). Moral virtues, fairness heuristics, social entities, and other denizens of organizational justice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, 164-209.
  • Cropanzano, R., Goldman, B., & Folger, R. (2005). Self-interest: Deffning and understanding a human motive. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 985-991.
  • Donovan, M., Drasgow, F., & Munson, L.J. (1998). The Perceptions of Fair Interpersonal Treatment Scale: Development and validation of a measure of interpersonal treatment in the workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 683-692.
  • Folger, R., & Skarlicki, D. (1997). Retaliation in the workplace: The roles of distributive, procedural and interactional justice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 434-443.
  • Giacalone, R., & Greenberg, J. (1997). Antisocial behavior in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Harlos, K., & Axelrod, L. (2005). Investigating Hospital Administrators' Experiences of workplace mistreatment. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 37(4), 262-272.
  • Harlos, K., & Pinder, C. (1999). Patterns of organizational injustice: A taxonomy of what employees regard as unjust. In J. Wagner (Ed.), Advances in qualitative organizational research (Vol. 2, pp. 97-125). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
  • Harlos, K., & Pinder, C. (2000). Emotion and injustice in the workplace. In S. Fineman (Ed.), Emotion in organizations (2nd ed., pp. 255-276). London: Sage.
  • Hu, L., & Bentler, P.M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fft indexes in covariance structure analysis conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1-55.
  • Huo, Y., Smith, H., Tyler, T., & Lind, E. (1996). Superordinate identiffcation, subgroup identiffcation, and justice concerns: Is separatism the problem, is assimilation the answer? Psychological Science, 7, 40-45.
  • Jones, E.E., & Nisbett, R.E. (1971). The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behavior. Morristown: General Learning Press.
  • Kelloway, K., Francis, L., Catano, V., & Dupré, K. (2008). Third-party support for strike action. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 806-817.
  • Leung, A., Chiu, W., & Au, Y. (1993). Sympathy and support for industrial actions: A justice analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 781-787.
  • Low, D., Schneider, K., Radhakrishnan, P., & Rounds, J. (2007). The experience of bystanders of workplace ethnic harassment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37, 2261-2297.
  • Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identiffcation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 103-123.
  • Malle, B.F. (2006). The actor-observer asymmetry in attribution: A (surprising) meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 895.
  • Mañas, M., González Romá, V., & Peiró, J.M. (1999). El clima de los equipos de trabajo. Determinantes y consecuencias [The climate of work teams. Determinants and consequents]. University of Almería (Spain): Instituto de Estudios Almerienses.
  • Meyer, J., & Allen, N. (1991). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1, 61-89.
  • Miceli, M., & Near, J. (1992). Blowing the whistle. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
  • Skarlicki, D.P., Barclay, L., & Pugh, D. (2008). When explanations for layoffs are not enough: Employer's integrity as a moderator of the relationships between informational justice and retaliation. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 81, 123-146.
  • Skarlicki, D.P., & Kulik, C.T. (2004). Third-party reactions to employee (mis)treatment: A justice perspective. Research in Organizational Behavior, 26, 183-229. doi: 10.1016/S0191-3085(04)26005-1.
  • Skarlicki, D.P., & Latham, G.P. (2006). Leadership training in organizational justice to increase citizenship behavior within a labor union: A replication. Personnel Psychology, 50(3), 617-633.
  • Skarlicki, D.P., & Rupp, D.E. (2010). Dual processing and organizational justice: The role of rational versus experiential processing in third-party reactions to workplace mistreatment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(5), 944-952.
  • Topa, G., Moriano, J., & Morales, J.F. (2009). Las reacciones de terceras partes ante la injusticia organizacional [Third-party reactions to organizational unfairness]. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 9(1), 79-88.
  • Weiner, B. (1989). Human motivation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Zhu, L., Martens, J., & Aquino, K. (2012). Third party responses to justice failure: An identity-based meaning maintenance model. Organizational Psychology Review, 2(2), 129-151.
Data source: Dialnet