Multifoci Organizational Justice, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Counterproductive Work Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Emotions

Organizational justice perceptions have been shown to influence several types of work behavior. Recent conceptualizations of organizational justice indicate that there are two foci for justice perceptions, agent- and system-referenced organizational justice. The current study examined the relationship between these two types of organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), counterproductive work behavior (CWB), emotions, and trait affect. Specifically, the mediating effect of emotions in the relationship between organizational justice and OCB/CWB was examined. Additionally, this research investigated the moderating effect of trait affect in the relationship between organizational justice and emotions. Employed adults (N = 185) from a variety of occupations completed measures of the aforementioned variables via online survey. Results showed support for a positive relationship between system-referenced organizational justice and organizational OCB (OCBO). Moreover, the relationship between these variables was mediated by high valence emotions. Also, results displayed a negative relationship between system-referenced organizational justice and organizational CWB (CWBO), and between agent-referenced organizational justice and interpersonal CWB (CWBI). Mediation analyses revealed that low valence emotions mediated the relationship between system-referenced organizational justice and CWBO, and between agent-referenced organizational justice and CWBI. In addition, positive affectivity moderated the relationship between organizational justice and high valence emotions. Finally, an exploratory portion of this study found unique associations for the relationships between valence and arousal levels of emotions and active versus passive forms of OCB and CWB. These findings highlight the importance of multifoci organizational justice and emotions in predicting work behavior, and provide empirical support for affect-mediated models of work behavior. Additional implications for research and practice are discussed.