Informational injustice with respect to change and negative workplace emotions

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the hitherto unexplored relationship between employees' perceptions of informational injustice with respect to change and their negative workplace emotions, as well as how this relationship might be mitigated by structural and relational features of the organizational context. Design/methodology/approach -The paper draws on quantitative data collected through the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS). The hypotheses are tested with ordered probit analysis using random effects. Findings -The findings show that informational injustice enhances the development of negative workplace emotions, yet this effect is attenuated at higher levels of job influence, reward interdependence, trust, and organizational commitment.Research limitations/implications -The findings contribute by identifying several contingencies that attenuate the harmful effect of informational injustice with respect to change on negative workplace emotions. The limitations of the study include the lack of data on changespecific outcomes and the reliance on the same respondents to assess the focal variables.Practical implications -The study suggests that organizations facing the challenge of sharing complete information about internal changes can counter the employee stress that comes with limited information provision by creating appropriate internal environments.Originality/value -The study adds to research on organizational change by providing a better understanding of an unexplored driver of negative workplace emotions (i.e., informational injustice with respect to change) and explicating when such informational injustice is more or less likely to enhance these emotions.

Perceived organizational injustice and counterproductive work behaviours: mediated by organizational identification, moderated by discretionary human resource practices

“…In the presence of unfair organizational treatment, employees also may become angry and convinced that their employer does not deserve their identification with it (Barclay and Kiefer, 2019). That is, they may interpret the partiality of their organization as a purposeful strategy designed to impose selective control over their job functioning, without respect for their individual well-being (De Clercq and Saridakis, 2015), which provides a justification for why they should not psychologically identify with their employer. We therefore hypothesize:…”

No news, no excitement, no creativity: Moderating roles of adaptive humour and proactivity

“…With a contingency perspective, we specifically detail how the risk of diminished creative behaviours, in response to unfair organizational information provision and subsequent job dissatisfaction, might be mitigated to the extent that employees are humourous (Romero & Cruthirds, 2006) or proactive (Kim, 2019). Prior research identifies conditional, harmful effects of informational unfairness on employees' work emotions, as informed by their access to supportive structural and relational contextual features (De Clercq & Saridakis, 2015). To expand this research, we focus on the mitigating roles of two personal resources.…”

“…To the extent that employees believe that the people in charge are forthcoming and fair in their information provision, they tend to experience higher‐quality relationships with those leaders (Walumbwa et al, 2009) and trust them (Kernan & Hanges, 2002). If instead employees perceive their organization as unfair because it fails to provide them with adequate or complete information, they generally feel frustrated and skeptical (De Clercq & Saridakis, 2015; Judge & Colquitt, 2004). As mentioned in Section 2, our focus is specifically on (1) how the translation of unfair organizational information provision into tarnished creative behaviour can be explained by employees' job dissatisfaction and (2) how this counterproductive dynamic can be contained by two key personal resources, adaptive humour and proactivity.…”

“…In line with COR theory, the disappointments that employees experience when their organization holds back valuable information likely reduces the positive emotional resources they have available to function properly at work (Hobfoll & Shirom, 2000; Taggar & Kuron, 2016). Convictions about the inadequacy of how organizational leaders communicate evoke energy‐depleting effects, which cause employees to ruminate on and question the quality of their work functioning overall, such that excitement about their jobs diminishes (Aslam et al, 2018; De Clercq & Saridakis, 2015). According to prior research, employees tend to feel unhappy about their job situation when they are overburdened by negative energy, as might occur if organizational leaders deprive them of valuable information (Byrne et al, 2012; Shin, Seo, Shapiro, & Taylor, 2015).…”

“Hey everyone, look at me helping you!”: A contingency view of the relationship between exhibitionism and peer-oriented helping behaviors

“…If organizational authorities are open in their communication, employees also tend to receive organizational guidance about how to manage their time effectively (Colquitt et al, 2001;Georgalis et al, 2015), which increases their ability to leverage their energy, obtained from their exhibitionistic tendencies, as voluntary peer-oriented helping behaviors (Quinn et al, 2012). Conversely, if they lack critical organizational information, exhibitionistic employees may have a harder time avoiding a situation in which their peer-oriented helping efforts hinder the completion of their formal job obligations, so they may be less likely to extend such efforts (De Clercq and Saridakis, 2015).…”