The synergistic effects of LMX and procedural justice climate on employee motivation and customer loyalty in a retail service context

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to test how leader–member exchange (LMX) interacts with procedural justice climate to influence three types of employee motivation (i.e. achievement striving motivation, status striving motivation and communion striving motivation). Furthermore, this study empirically examines the indirect effects of LMX on customer loyalty through employee motivation and service orientation.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a matched sample of 188 retail service employees and 376 customers from a large shopping mall in South Korea to test the empirical model. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrapping method were employed to test a series of proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that LMX significantly enhances customer loyalty through two motivational dimensions and service orientation. In particular, this study shows that achievement and status striving motivation are directly related to service orientation, but communion striving motivation does not affect customer-focused service attitude. In addition, procedural justice climate serves as a critical moderator and synergistically interacts with LMX to influence achievement and status striving motivation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers new insight regarding how managers' roles in both individual (leader–member exchange) and organizational (procedural justice climate) level affect different forms of retail service employee motivation and service orientation, which in turn, result in customer loyalty.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that when retail service employees perceive procedural fairness at retail stores, they are more motivated to work hard to complete their assignments and achieve their sales goals in conjunction with leader support. Therefore, managers must provide a clear guideline and procedure regarding salary raises and performance evaluations or engage in thorough discourse on such matters with employees prior to announcements of such decisions. Moreover, as retail service employees interact with customers in the frontline, and how they serve customers plays a key role in creating customer loyalty. Managers should encourage retail service employees to engage in service-oriented behaviors.Originality/valueThe results suggest that LMX facilitates more formal task-related motivation to achieve either tasks or status while it is less related to relationship-building motivation, which is a unique contribution of this study. The results offer better understating of how LMX differentially leads to specific types of employee motivation in the existing literature.

Does procedural justice climate increase the identification and engagement of migrant workers? A group engagement model perspective

PurposeMigrant workers often suffer from social exclusion in the workplace and therefore identify less with their organization and engage less with their work. To address this issue, the authors integrate research on migrant workers with research on the group engagement model to create a model for understanding and enhancing migrant worker engagement. This allows us to provide insight into how organizations can design their human resource management systems and practices to increase the work engagement of migrant workers.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a survey study with over 4,000 employees from more than 500 workplaces in Australia to test the model.FindingsThe results of the multilevel analysis indicate that a procedurally fair work environment increases organizational identification, which in turn is associated with higher work engagement. The results also indicate that procedural justice climate is more important for migrant workers and increases their organizational identification and engagement.Originality/valueTo increase work engagement of migrant workers, organizations can establish a procedurally fair work environment in which cultural minorities experience unbiased policies and procedures, are able to express their opinions and participate in decision-making.

When and why skill variety influences employee job crafting

PurposeThe literature on job crafting has paid scant attention to the role of skill variety, one dimension of job characteristics, as a predictor of employee job crafting. By integrating regulatory focus and social exchange perspectives with job crafting literature, the authors investigate how skill variety promotes employee job crafting and the moderating roles of employee's promotion focus and procedural justice climate.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two questionnaire surveys, one with a sample of 205 employees from a variety of organizations in China, and the other one with a sample of 265 employees within 44 work groups at a state-owned enterprise in China, to examine the hypotheses.FindingsResults suggest that a high level of skill variety within a job promotes employee job crafting, that such an effect is stronger when the employee's promotion focus is high rather than low, and that procedural justice climate mitigates the negative influence of a low level of promotion focus.Originality/valueThe authors' findings suggest that both self-regulatory and social exchange mechanisms play a critical role in promoting employee job crafting when individuals are engaged in jobs that entail a high level of skill variety.

Do workplace contextual factors engender abusive supervision?

Drawing upon affective events theory (AET), this study seeks to investigate the effects of workplace contextual factors – such as procedural justice climate (PJC), or a lack thereof – on subordinates’ ‘perception of abusive supervision’ (AS), which is largely overlooked in the domain of AS. The data (213 subordinates across 51 work groups) showed that subordinates’ perception of AS and their feelings of anger, in turn, mediated the deleterious effects of PJC (or a lack thereof) on subordinates’ organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). The study contributes to the AS literature by highlighting and investigating PJC, building on understanding around subordinates’ perceptions of AS. Also, by incorporating a two-stage mediating mechanism (stage 1: AS, stage 2: anger), this study investigates the full impact of the cascading effects of AS. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. JEL Classification: C3, C31, C91, D23

Ethical Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: the Mediating Role of Ethical Climate, Trust, and Justice

This study analysed and showed that how the Top Managements’ Ethical Leadership Influences Organization Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). We proposed that Ethical leadership affects OCB by promoting ethical climate and trust in an Organization. Thus, such factors gives a rise to Procedural Justice Climate and Distributive Justice, which resulted in OCB. This theoretical framework was empirically tested by gathering data of 210 employees who are working in different sectors in Pakistan by means of close ended Likert scale type questionnaires. Numerous statistical techniques for instance descriptive statistics, (CFA) confirmatory factor analysis and (SEM) structural equation modelling were used to analyse the results. As proposed in our theory, the results indicates a positive impact of Top Management Ethical Leadership on Ethical Climate and Trust in an Organization. Moreover, the result also indicates a significant positive impact of trust on both Procedural Justice Climate & Distributive Justice. Furthermore, both of these completely intercedes the consequences of top management ethical leadership on organizational citizenship behaviour. From a different viewpoint, the impact of ethical climate on Procedural Justice Climate is significantly positive, however; the relationship between ethical climate and Distributive Justice was found to be insignificant. Hence, this investigation provides a credible theoretical description as well as observed support of a contrivance through which ethical leadership of top management boosts Organizational Citizenship Behaviour. Therefore, managers in organization can rise Firm level OCB by enhancing the overall environment of the corporation and participatory factors in an ethical manner.

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF TEAM COLLABORATION BETWEEN PROCEDURAL JUSTICE CLIMATE AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PERFORMANCE

The management of innovation and technology (MIT) literature has emphasised several determinants of team collaboration in new product development (NPD) projects. However, the literature lacks the evidence which supports the relationship between procedural justice climate (PJC) and team collaboration in NPD projects. The literature also has limited evidences about the mediating role of team collaboration in NPD projects. To address these gaps, this study collected the data from 133 NPD teams. The results strongly suggest that (i) PJC is positively related to team collaboration, (ii) effective collaboration among NPD team members leads to superior NPD performance, and (iii) team collaboration fully mediates between PJC and the indicators of NPD performance. Suggestions are further made regarding new responsibilities for team leaders.