Justice theory & intention to quit: the case of IT/ITES & BFSI employees.

AuthorMaheshwari, Sunil
PositionStatistical data

The debate of fair treatment and justice originates from the notion of social justice. Even though fair treatment may be implemented in the organizations, the employees may perceive that they are not being treated fairly by their employers. This paper analyzes the impact of perceptions of distributive and procedural justice on intention to quit among employees from IT/ITES and BFSI sector. Primary data was collected from 401 employees by using a mailed questionnaire for data collection. The results indicate that both procedural and distributive justice have significant effect on employee's intention to quit.

Introduction

Many researchers have explored the linkage between justice perceptions and intention to leave. As per Justice Theory, treatment fairness can be conceptualized in terms of distributive justice and procedural justice. Distributive justice refers to individual's perceptions of the fairness of outcomes they receive relative to the contributions they make to the employing organization (Adams, 1965). These outcomes include, for instance, pay, promotions, and special awards. Procedural justice represents individual's perceptions of the fairness of the process used to make decisions affecting them, such as those relating to pay, promotions and punishment (Thibaut & Walker, 1975). Intention to leave is one of the strongest predictors and immediate precursor of employee turnover (Dick et. al., 2004). There are not many studies on highly skilled workers such as information technology (IT/ITES) professionals or engineers, even though retention of these resources is often referred to as the most critical (Ang, Slaughter& Ng, 2002). Hence understanding the factors contributing to intention to quit will enable the organizations plan better HR interventions to retain highly qualified skilled force in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and IT/ITES space.

Literature Review

Organizational justice as a term was coined by Greenberg (1987) and is defined as an individual's perception of and reactions to fairness in an organization. Researchers typically divide organizational justice into two categories: distributive justice and procedural justice. Distributive justice refers to the fairness of the outcomes an employee receives; and procedural justice describes the fairness of the procedures used to determine those outcomes (Folger & Greenberg, 1985). Another perspective of procedural justice was suggested by Bies and Moag (1986), who illustrated concerns about the fairness of decision maker's behavior during the enactment of procedures called interactional justice. Interactional justice refers to both what is said to individuals during the decision process and how it is said (Tyler & Bies, 1990).

The existing literature shows mixed results on linkage between justice perceptions and intention to quit. Some studies suggested that in response to low distributive justice employees chose to quit their job in order to end the inequity (Hendrix, Robbins, Miller& Summers, 1998). Others reported that procedural justice was negatively related to turnover beyond any specific outcomes since procedural justice reflected organizational norms of decision making (Dailey & Kirk, 1992). Coulson and Chonko (1999) found that distributive justice variables have higher impact on turnover intent than that of procedural justice variables.

Distributive Justice & Intention to Quit

Neihoff and Moorman (1993) developed a five item subscale to describe the extent to which an employee believes that his or her work outcomes are fair. These include pay level, work schedule, work load and job responsibilities. Other variables which impact justice perceptions resulting in turnover intention are reward allocation (Price, 2001), promotions (Gould, 1979), training (Owens, 2006), voice (Withey & Cooper, 1989). Hence, we hypothesize that:

H1: Higher justice perceived in work schedule will lead to lesser intention to quit.

H2: Higher justice perceived in level of pay decisions will lead to lesser intention to quit.

H3: Higher justice perceived in rewards would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H4: Higher justice perceived in job responsibility would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H5: Higher justice perceived in promotions would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H6: Higher justice perceived in postings on key assignments would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H7: Higher justice perceived in nominations for important training programs would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H8: Higher justice perceived in opportunity to voice one's concerns would lead to lesser intention to quit.

Procedural Justice & Intention to Quit

Employee's perception is impacted by how a procedure is followed to take decision in an organization (Majumdar, 2012).Other variables injustice research which impact perceptions of justice resulting in intention to quit are Consistency(Sheppard & Lewicki, 1987; Tyler & Bies, 1990), Opportunity to Perform and Job Performance (Cropanzano & Greenberg, 1997), Job Relatedness (Leventhal, 1980, Sheppard & Lewicki, 1987), Voice (Thibaut & Walker, 1975), Timely and informative Feedback (Tyler & Bies, 1990), Truthfulness (Bies & Moag, 1986) and justification for a decision (Leventhal, 1980). Hence we hypothesize that:

H9: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor's decision making abiiity would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H10: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor's ability in consistency of administration would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H11: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor's ability to provide opportunity to perform would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H12: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor's ability to provide job relatedness would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H13: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor providing opportunity to voice one's concerns would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H14: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor's ability to provide timely feedback would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H15: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor's truthfulness would lead to lesser intention to quit.

H16: Higher perceptions of justice in supervisor's ability to provide adequate information would lead to lesser intention to quit over and above other primary variables.

Dependent variable

The focus of the study is to understand how the perception of fairness leads to intention to quit and hence the paper treats Intention to quit as the dependent variable.

Independent Variable

These variables can be categorized as related to:

  1. Distributive Justice

  2. Procedural Justice

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

After evaluating the Justice Theory variables, the research framework is as in fig. 1.

Data Collection

Questionnaire-based survey was used for data collection across IT/ITES and BFSI organizations across six locations in India. Total number of 17 variables was studied with 56 items in the survey questionnaire. Data from 401...

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