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Multidimensionality in Organizational Justice-Trust Relationship for Newcomer Employees: a Moderated-Mediation Model

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Abstract

Justice-trust relationship has been well acknowledged in the organizational behavior research so far. However, the existing research on justice-trust paid little attention to the process-dynamics of trust formation in the newcomer employees (Colquitt and Rodell in Academy of Management Journal, 54(6), 1183–1206, Colquitt and Rodell 2011; Schoorman et al. in Academy of Management Review, 32(2), 344,354, Schoorman et al. 2007). The present study intends to unfold the trust formation phenomena of the newcomer employees where organizational justice perception leads to trust through organizational trustworthiness. Interactions between the dimensions of organizational justice perception and trustworthiness towards trust are the focal point of the study. We further propose that a moderated mediation model explains the trust formation phenomena comprehensively. Findings suggests that supervisor referent interpersonal justice moderates the indirect relationship between organizational justice and trust. Procedural and interactional justice also have significant relationships with trust through all the three dimensions of trustworthiness. The results indicated a full mediation for procedural justice and a partial mediation for interactional justice. The findings have important theoretical implications for uncertainty management, and psychological contract fulfillment theory.

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Notes

  1. OJ was formed as second order factor from all the three dimensions of justice. The moderated-mediation effects were separately checked for OPJ and OIJ dimensions of OJ and were found to be significant for both OPJ and OIJ through benevolence and integrity.

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Correspondence to Shashank Mittal.

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We state that the manuscript is an original work and it has not been submitted to nor published anywhere else. We didn’t receive any financial assistance for conducting this research. Data were collected from private enterprises. However, we have disguised the name of the companies for maintaining the confidentiality. The authors have approved the paper and met the criteria for authorship as suggested by this esteemed journal.

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Mittal, S., Shubham & Sengupta, A. Multidimensionality in Organizational Justice-Trust Relationship for Newcomer Employees: a Moderated-Mediation Model. Curr Psychol 38, 737–748 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9632-6

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