Work Status Congruence's Relation to Employee Attitudes and Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Procedural Justice

• Published in: Journal of business and psychology Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 583 - 592
• Main Authors: Carr, Jon C., Gregory, Brian T., Harris, Stanley G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer Science + Business Media, Inc 01.12.2010; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied psychology; Attitudes; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Boundary conditions; Business and Management; Community and Environmental Psychology; Employee attitude; Employee supervision; Fairness; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Organizational behavior; Perceptual organization; Personality and Social Psychology; Procedural justice; Psychology; Scheduling; Sense making; Social exchange theory; Social Sciences; Studies; Subordinate personnel; Working hours; Workplaces; Organizational commitment; Work status congruence; Procedural justice; Organizational citizenship behavior
• ISSN: 0889-3268; 1573-353X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10869-009-9151-z

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore procedural justice as a boundary condition of work status congruence's (WSC) relationships with organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). WSC is defined as the degree to which an employee's schedule, shift, fulltime or part-time status, and number of working hours, match his or her preferences (Holtom et al. in J Appl Psychol 86: 80-93, 2002). This exploration is grounded in the outcome favorability-procedural justice interaction literature (e. g., Brockner in Acad Manag Rev 27: 58-76, 2002). Design/Methodology/Approach Data were obtained from 209 supervisor-subordinate dyads from three large material processing and distribution facilities in the Southeastern United States. Hierarchical regression was used to test hypotheses. Findings The positive relationship between WSC and organizational commitment as well as the positive relationship between WSC and coworker directed OCB is attenuated in the presence of procedural justice. Implications Study findings inform management practice by suggesting that organizations maintain high levels of procedural justice to reduce the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of employees experiencing unfavorable outcomes (i.e., low WSC). Originality/Value First, we add incremental evidence of the importance of WSC as a factor that influences employee attitudes and behaviors. Next, the study results suggest that procedural justice is a boundary condition on these direct relationships. We also add to the outcome favorability-procedural justice literature by conceptualizing WSC in terms of a favorable outcome that individuals receive from organizations and by suggesting that the outcome favorability-procedural justice interaction can predict supervisor-rated citizenship behavior.