Abstract
Purpose – Transformational leadership (TL) is one among the leadership behaviors that is important in a period of uncertainty and continuous change. The behavior affects employees’ job satisfaction ( JS) and performance. Nevertheless, there is an inconclusive debate over how organizational justice (OJ) can help transformational leaders to influence employees’ ( JS). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of OJ on the relationship between TL and employees’ JS. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a quantitative research design based on crosssectional strategy. Structured questionnaires were distributed and data were collected from a sample of 418 middle managers of public organizations in Nigeria. Multiple regressions aided by structural equation modeling were employed to test four hypotheses. Findings – The regression results support the mediating role of OJ, such as distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice between TL and JS. Equally, the relationship between TL and JS, TL and OJ, and OJ and JS are all positive and significant. Overall, the influence of TL and OJ has a strong explanatory effect on JS. Originality/value – This study adds to the literature of human resource management and organizational behavior by empirically validating and integrating TL theory with the four dimensions of OJ theory. The study will be beneficial to the top management and middle-level employees in public organizations.
6. Conclusion
Transformational leaders are needed in a period of uncertainty and change to utilize the four dimensions of OJ theory in order to improve employees’ JS. The application of TL behavior is expected to be more effective if leaders display the virtues of distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice across the organization. Greenberg (1993) found that organizations that violate the norms of OJ, by not providing fair treatment, will receive negative reactions from their employees. Therefore, it makes good sense if leaders of public institutions should govern with justice. Therefore, public administrators should leverage OJ to the advantage of their organizations.
This paper has both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the paper adds to the few literatures of TL and JS. Another unique contribution of this paper is the integration of OJ theory to explain the relationship between TL and JS. The findings suggest that the effect of TL on employees’ intrinsic and extrinsic JS depends on leaders’ fairness and moral judgments in the workplace. This statement is consistent with the human resource management and organizational behavior literatures which state that the perception of leadership and their level of fairness have implications for employee satisfaction.
