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This study explores the dimensionality of organizational justice and provides evidence of construct validityfor a new justice measure. Items for this measure were generated by strictly following the seminal works in the justice literature. The measure was then validated in 2 separate studies. Study 1 occurred in a university setting, and Study 2 occurred in a field setting using employees in an automobile parts manufacturing company. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a 4-factor structure to the measure, with distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice as distinct dimensions. This solution fit the data significantly better than a 2- or 3-factor solution using larger interactional or procedural dimensions. Structural equation modeling also demonstrated predictive validity for the justice dimensions on important outcomes, including leader evaluation, rule compliance, commitment, and helping behavior.

 

Individuals are the subject of decisions virtually every day of their organizational lives. Some of these decisions deal with the salaries individuals make, some deal with the projects they perform, and some deal with the social settings in which they function. These decisions have both economic and socioemotional consequences, many of which form the foundation for why individuals work in organizations in the first place (Cropanzano & Schminke, 2001). The importance of those consequences causes individuals to judge the decision making they experience with a very critical eye. Thus, one of the first questions they ask in the wake of decisions is “Was that fair?”

The notion of fairness, or justice, has become an increasingly visible construct in the social sciences over the last 3 decades. Initially, researchers focused on the justice of decision outcomes, termed distributive justice (Adams, 1965; Deutsch, 1975;