Distributive Justice Climate and Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Industrial Relations Climate

Abstract

Drawing on the theories of social exchange and social information processing, we proposed and examined a multilevel model of distributive justice climate. Using hierarchical linear modeling and a sample of 1,618 employees of 49 companies in China, we found that distributive justice climate was positively related to industrial relations climate at the firm level. Furthermore, industrial relations climate mediated the relationship between distributive justice climate and employees' job performance. Our findings contribute to the increasing interest in interpreting organizational behavior from a multilevel perspective.

Working sick and out of sorts: a cross-cultural approach on presenteeism climate, organizational justice and work–family conflict

“…Distributive justice also influences work outcomes (Liao & Rupp, 2005;Zhou & Li, 2015) by reducing turnover intention (Konovsky & Cropanzano, 1991) and by increasing satisfaction with employee compensation and benefits (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001). The perception of justice helps employees to feel more engaged with the company, thanks to an increased perception of organizational support from peers and supervisors (Biswas, Varma, & Ramaswami, 2013).…”

The effect of distributive justice climate on virtual team performance: A moderated mediation model

“…The current study introduced high-quality relationships as the mediator of the distributive justice climate and virtual team performance. Previous studies have focused on industrial relations climate in traditional physical teams ( Zhou and Li, 2015 ), and this study opens the black box between the distributive justice climate and team performance in virtual teams from the perspective of social interaction, and thus, it is different from previous studies.…”

“…A distributive justice climate describes the common views of members on the fair distribution of organizational resources and rewards ( Whitman et al, 2012 ). Existing studies have found that a distributive justice climate exerts significant positive effects on team performance in traditional physical teams ( Lester et al, 2002 ; Lipponen and Wisse, 2010 ; Zhou and Li, 2015 ). Zhou and Li (2015) proposed that industrial relation climate mediates the relationship between the distributive justice climate and employees’ job performance, identifying the internal mechanisms of the effect of the distributive justice climate on job performance.…”

“…Employees may interpret distributive justice climate as the guarantee to organizational economic outcomes (e.g., money) ( Colquitt et al, 2013 ). Moreover, distributive justice climate is regarded as an indicator that shows that organizations focus on the contributions of individuals and will treat them in a fair and equitable manner, encouraging employees to invest time and energy to accomplish tasks and achieve organizational goals ( Zhou and Li, 2015 ), ultimately helping improve virtual team performance.…”

“…Third, a distributive justice climate is conducive to building mutual respect among members. Previous studies have found that distributive justice climate may promote the formation of long-term employment relationship and emotional commitment between employees and their organization, helping enhance full understanding of and mutual respect for each other’s roles ( Zhou and Li, 2015 ). In addition, the preceding hypothesis has demonstrated that high-quality relationships exert a significant positive effect on virtual team performance.…”