Social-exchange as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and workplace outcomes

The purpose of this research was to examine the mediational role of social-exchange constructs in the relationship between different facets of organizational justice and workplace outcomes. Procedural and distributive justice facets were hypothesized to influence the employee's perceptions of organizational support. Conversely, interactional justice was hypothesized to have stronger effects on the quality of leader-member exchange. These exchange relationships were then hypothesized to affect organizational outcomes that were more directed towards organizational or individual-level targets. Data were collected from working undergraduates (N = 400) at two points in time using a survey. Supplemental data was also collected from a portion of the participants' supervisors. The results of the structural equation modeling analyses support the premise that different facets of organizational justice affect workplace outcomes through different social-exchange mechanisms. Additionally, interactional justice appeared to influence the nature of the leader-member exchange relationship through its influence on employees' affective evaluation of their supervisor. Implications of these findings are discussed.