Organizational justice and work stress: The mediating role of negative, but not positive, emotions

Abstract

Organizational justice involves employees' perceptions of the fairness of resource allocation in an organization. The negative emotional impact of justice perceptions leads to an attitudinal and behavioral response by employees that can seriously affect the effectiveness of the organization. From organizational psychology, an attempt has been made to explain the possible relationship between inequity and well-being, conceptualizing organizational justice as part of the stress phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to examine whether emotions played a role as mediators in the relationship between organizational justice perceptions and work stress in a sample (N = 465) of employees who work in different Spanish organizations. Results indicated that emotions mediated the relationship between employees' justice perceptions and work stress. The mediation models of organizational justice perceptions (distributive, procedural and interactional) and work stress mediated by emotions were quite similar. In all three cases, the mediation role of emotions consists of a higher frequency of negative emotions. Moreover, the indirect effect of procedural justice through positive emotions was also statistically significant. The findings are discussed in order to suggest interventions and future research avenues.