SURVEYING THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE, ETHICAL CLIMATE

ALBERTIANA ISSN 0169-4324 2015; VOL. 82; SPECIAL ISSUE; PP. 237-242 SURVEYING THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE, ETHICAL CLIMATE AND ADMINISTRATIVE HEALTH ON JOB STRESS (EVIDENCE FROM IRAN) MANDAN MOMENI* *CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Faculty of Management, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran Email: Mandan.Momeni@Gmail.Com FARIBA FARROKHI Faculty of Management, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran ABSTRACT In complex and stressful world, people almost live with high level of stress and their exhaustion is too high. Therefore managers in the organization have to remove the stress to make employees more empowered and increase their performance and productivity. The main purpose of writing the current paper is to survey the influence of organizational justice, ethical climate and administrative health on job stress. The research which is applicable from goal view and descriptive from data collection, for data collection a questionnaire in four separated parts was utilized. Also data gathering method is library and fieldwork. For measuring organizational justice, three main dimensions include distributive justice; procedural justice and interactional justice were applied. Statistical society includes 643employees of "producing and developing transportation substructures company" (an Iranian one) and decreased into 241 ones applying sampling formula. The results of applying Pearson and Regression tests illustrated that organizational justice, distributive justice, interactional justice and administrative health affect significantly and negatively on job stress in which the influence of administrative health was more than the others. KEYWORDS: ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE; ADMINISTRATIVE HEALTH; ETHICAL CLIMATE; JOB STRESS. 1- INTRODUCTION In their executive update about stress on the job, DeFrank and Ivancevich (1998) reported some sobering statistics about the magnitude and effects of workplace stress. For example, 79% of employees surveyed reported that the year prior was one of their most stressful years ever and that work was the primary source of that stress (HR Focus, 1996). Stress-related complaints have also become a common source of Workers Compensation claims filed by current and past employees (DeFrank & Ivancevich, 1998). The authors concluded, The potential ramifications of stress for companies and their employees are so substantial that it Received at 23 February, 2015 Revised at 10 May, 2015 Accepted at 6 June 2015 is crucial that managers act to aid their employees in the development of coping skills and to reduce the excessive stress in the job itself. While its definition has long been debated, stress can generally be defined as an aversive or unpleasant emotional and physiological state resulting from adverse work experiences, particularly experiences that are uncertain or outside the employee s control (Beehr & Bhagat, 1985; Hart & Cooper, 2001). The work experiences that give rise to stress are often referred to as stressors, while the effects of stress (in terms of health and employee behavior) are referred to as strain (Hart & Cooper, 2001; Kahn & Byosiere, 1992). Past research has

examined several different kinds of stressors, including aspects of the employee s role, particular job demands and characteristics, and facets of the physical work environment (Hart & Cooper, 2001; Kahn & Byosiere, 1992). 2-LITERATURE REVIEW Other stressors are of a more interpersonal nature. For example, Spector and Jex (1998) described the interpersonal conflict at work stressor, which captures the degree to which other people are rude to a given employee. Similarly, their organizational constraints stressor includes items tapping inadequate leadership or lack of necessary information. Marshall and Cooper s (1979) model of work stressors included relationships with superiors and a lack of social support, while Kohli (1985) focused on supervisory misbehavior. Each of these stressors seems to be capturing, in part, the interpersonal and informational facets of organizational justice. Still other stressors seem to overlap with procedural justice. Marshall and Cooper s (1979) model includes lack of participation and managers inability to delegate as stressors, while others have focused on a lack of autonomy (Chesney et al., 1981). Thibaut and Walker (1975) argued that influence was a vital component of procedural justice, and Leventhal (1980) argued that procedures should be representative of employees views and opinions. Both assertions are violated when participation and autonomy are lacking in supervisor subordinate interactions. Clearly there appears to be some conceptual overlap between organizational justice and specific stressors examined in past research. There are also theoretical reasons to expect a significant relationship between justice and stress. Thibaut and Walker s (1975) instrumental model suggests that procedural justice is valued because it makes long-term outcomes more controllable and predictable. Similarly, uncertainty management theory suggests that all forms of justice are valued because they provide information needed to navigate uncertain work situations (Lind & Van den Bos, 2002; see also their earlier work on fairness heuristic theory: Lind, 2001; Van den Bos et al., 2001). Lind and Van den Bos summarized the key tenet of the theory by writing, What appears to be happening is that people use fairness to manage their reactions to uncertainty, finding comfort in related or even unrelated fair experiences and finding additional distress in unfair experiences. In all of these models, justice has the ability to reduce the uncertainty and lack of control that are at the heart of feelings of stress. In fact, the stress mechanism appears (at least implicitly) in many of the models in the justice domain. For example, equity theory posits that individuals evaluate distributive justice by comparing their ratio of inputs to outcomes with those of relevant comparison others (Adams, 1965; Adams & Freedman, 1976; Greenberg, 1982; Walster et al, 1973). Walster et al. summarized the key prediction of the theory by stating, When individuals find themselves participating in inequitable relationships, they become distressed. The more inequitable the relationship, the more distress individuals feel. A more recent review by Mowday and Colwell (2003) provided a more succinct summary: InequiTable treatment causes tension or distress, and people are motivated to do something about it. Thus, equity theory includes a stress mechanism, though this mechanism is rarely measured in tests of the theory and may be accompanied by other mediating variables (Greenberg, 1984). Stress is also found to be correlated with organizational health in various studies. Cox and Thomson (1999) showed that the health of an organization can affect employee health both through the design and management of its work systems and procedures and through the experience of stress and the organization s impact on employee behavior at work. Sabancı (2011) also found out that stress is an important variable that has an effect on the organizational health. Nanda and Narayan (2010) also confirmed that he dimensions of perceived organizational health are significant predictors of organizational stress which was also supported in the study conducted by Ismail, Yao and Yunus (2009) who revealed that physiological stress acts 238

as an important determinant of job satisfaction in the organizational sector. Levy and Dubinsky (1983) state that when employees come across with ethical challenges, the level of their work related stress might increase. Although Jaramillo et. al. (2013) did not find a direct impact of ethical climate on work related stress in their studies, the findings showed that ethical climate had a significant positive impact on experienced meaningfulness which leads to lower stress. Jaramillo, Mulki and Boles (2013) and Briggs, Jaramillo and Weeks (2012) suggest that a salesperson s perceptions of ethical climate have a direct effect on their work related stress and attitude. Although a great number of studies demonstrate that ethics has an important role in stress perceptions, the research on ethical climate associated with work related stress is limited. Figure 1 illustrates conceptual framework of the research. In the model, organizational justice and its dimensions, ethical climate and administrative health are independent variables and Job stress is dependent one. Distributive justice Procedural justice Interactional justice Job stress Ethical climate FIGURE 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Administrative health 1. There is positive and significant correlation between administrative healths with job stress. 2. There is positive and significant correlation between Ethical climates with job stress. 3. There is positive and significant correlation between organizational justices with job stress. 3.1. There is positive and significant correlation between distributive with job stress. 3.2. There is positive and significant correlation between procedural justices with job stress. 3.3. There is positive and significant correlation between interactional justices with job stress. 3-RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Statistical society of the current research is 643 employees of "producing and developing transportation Substructures Company" which decreased into 241 ones applying sampling formula. Current study can be considered as a descriptive survey if we observe it from data collection aspect and it would be an applied research if the goals of the study are considered. To collect the data, library method (refer to books, articles, libraries, etc...) and fieldwork (questionnaire) were used. To analyze the data, SPSS 19 and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Pearson and Regression test along with Entropy technique were applied. Management experts were asked to evaluate the validity of questionnaires. To do this, the questionnaires were given to some university professors and experts in management. Then, they confirmed the applied modifications and the questionnaires were given to the participants. To determine the questionnaires' reliability, the 'Cronbach Alpha technique' was applied. For this purpose, 30 people were chosen randomly (from the participants) and the questionnaires were given to them. The 'Cronbach s Alpha' value for all dimensions are shown in Table 1. As Cronbach's Alpha for all variables are more than 0.7, therefore reliability of data collection tool was accepted. Ethical climate Administrative health Job stress TABLE 1: THE RESULTS OF RELIABILITY Cronbach's Alpha 0.774 0.893 0.819 0.762 4-DATA ANALYSIS First of all to survey normality of data distribution in statistical society, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied. Table 2 shows that normality of data 239

distribution in statistical society was accepted. Therefore some parametric tests were applied. TABLE 2: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING K-S TEST Distributive justice Procedural justice Interactional justice Ethical climate Administrative health Job stress 0.197 0.113 0.170 0.081 0.222 0.061 0.50 To survey the relationship between organizational justice and its dimensions, ethical climate along with administrative health on job stress, Pearson correlation test was applied. Table 3 shows that there are significant correlation between organizational justice, distributive justice, interactional justice and administrative health with job stress in which all correlations are negative. TABLE 3: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING PEARSON CORRELATION with job stress Distributive justice with job stress Procedural justice with job stress Interactional justice with job stress Ethical climate with job stress Administrative health with job stress 0.277 0.281 0.041 Statistics -0.376-0.283-0.070-0.590 0.070-0.132 Results To survey the influence of organizational justice, distributive justice, interactional justice and administrative health on job stress, Pearson correlation test was applied. Table 4 indicates that the remained independent variables affect significantly and negatively on job stress. No No TABLE 4: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING REGRESSION TEST on job stress Distributive justice on job stress Interactional justice on job stress Administrative health on job stress 0.041 Statistics -0.551-0.085-0.309-0.744 Results Finally to rank the driving affecting factors on job stress, Entropy technique was applies. Table 5 shows that administrative health is the most important variable and distributive is the last one. TABLE 5: THE RESULTS OF APPLYING ENTROPY TECHNIQUE Distributive justice Interactional justice Administrative health Wi 0.219 0.177 0.275 0.329 Final rank 5- CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS The paper with the purpose of surveying the influence of organizational justice and its dimensions, ethical climate and administrative health on job stress was done in a society includes 241 employees of "producing and developing transportation substructures' company". The results showed that procedural justice and ethical climate do not affect job stress. Among other variables administrative health was the most important one. Attending to the results, managers are advised to: Punishing people who blurt unethical behavior Engaging employees in organizational decision makings Protecting employees against clients to improve their work face Utilizing empowered employees in different departments of organization Representing fair procedures in the organizations Just distributing payment and salaries procedures Trying to make workplace more serious and disciplined REFERENCES [1] Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267 299). New York: Academic Press. [2] Adams, J. S., & Freedman, S. (1976). Equity theory revisited: Comments and annotated bibliography. In L. Berkowitz & E. Walster (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 9, pp. 43 90). New York: Academic Press. 3 4 2 1 240

[3] Beehr, T. A., & Bhagat, R. S. (1985). Human stress and cognition in organizations: An integrated perspective. New York: Wiley. [4] Briggs, E., Jaramillo, F., and Weeks, W. A. (2012). The influences of ethical climate and organization identity comparisons on salespeople and their job performance. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 32:4, 421-436. [5] Chesney, M. A., Sevelius, G., Black, G., Ward, M., Swan, G., & Rosenman, R. (1981). Work environment, Type A behavior, and coronary heart disease risks. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 23, 551 555. [6] Cox T. & Thomson L. (1999). Coping, health and organizations. (Dewe, P. Editor). Independence, KY, USA: Taylor & Francis, Incorporated, http://site.ebrary.com/lib/akdeniz/doc?id=100950 55&ppg=205. [7] DeFrank, R. S., & Ivancevich, J. M. (1998). Stress on the job: An executive update. Academy of Management Executive, 12, 55 66. [8] Greenberg, J. (1982). Approaching equity and avoiding inequity in groups and organizations. In J. Greenberg & R. L. Cohen (Eds.), Equity and justice in social behavior (pp. 389 435). New York: Academic Press. [9] Greenberg, J. (1984). On the apocryphal nature of inequity distress. In R. Folger (Ed.), The sense of injustice: Social psychological perspectives (pp. 167 186). New York: Plenum Press. [10] Hart, P. M., & Cooper, C. L. (2001). Occupational stress: Toward a more integrated framework. In N. Anderson, D. S. Ones, H. K. Sinangil, & C. Viswesvaran (Eds.), Handbook of industrial, work, and organizational psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 93 114). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [11] İsmail, A., Yao, A. and Yunus, N. K. Y. (2009). Relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction: An empirical study in malaysia. The Romanian Economic Journal, 34 (4), 3-27. [12] Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J. P. and Boles, J.S. (2013). Bringing Meaning to the Sales Job: The Effect of Ethical Climate and Customer Demandingness. Journal of Business Research, 2013, pp. 2301-2307. [13] Kahn, R. L., & Byosiere, P. (1992). Stress in organizations. In M. D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 571 650). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. [14] Kohli, A. K. (1985). Some unexplored supervisory behaviors and their influence on salespeople s role clarity, specific self-esteem, job satisfaction, and motivation. Journal of Marketing Research, 22, 424 433. [15] Leventhal, G. S. (1980). What should be done with equity theory? New approaches to the study of fairness in social relationship. In K. J. Gergen, M. S. Greenberg, & R. H. Willis (Eds.), Social exchange: Advances in theory and research (pp. 27 55). New York: Plenum. [16] Levy, M., and Dubinsky, A. J. (1983). Identifying and addressing retail salespeople's ethical problems: A method and application. Journal of Retailing, 59(1), 46 66. In Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J. P. and Boles, J.S. (2013). Bringing Meaning to the Sales Job: The Effect of Ethical Climate and Customer Demandingness. Journal of Business Research, 2013, pp. 2301-2307. [17] Lind, E. A. (2001). Thinking critically about justice judgments. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, 220 226. [18] Lind, E. A., & Van den Bos, K. (2002). When fairness works: Toward a general theory of uncertainty management. In B. M. Staw & R. M. 241

Kramer (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 24, pp. 181 222). Boston: JAI Press. [19] Marshall, J., & Cooper, C. (1979). Work experiences of middle and senior managers: The pressure and satisfaction. International Management Review, 19, 81 96. [20] Mowday, R. T., & Colwell, K. A. (2003). Employee reactions to unfair outcomes in the workplace: The contributions of Adams equity theory to understanding work motivation. In L. Porter, G. Bigley, & R. M. Steers (Eds.), Motivation and work behavior (7th ed., pp. 222 254). Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill. [21] Nanda, B. U., Narayan, B. S. (2010). Organizational health, stress and commitment during global financial crisis. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations. 46(1). [22] Sabanci, A. (2011). The effect of teachers stress on educational organizations health. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(11), 91-100. [23] Spector, P. E., & Jex, S. M. (1998). Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal conflict at work scale, organizational constraints scale, quantitative workload inventory, and physical symptoms inventory. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 3, 356 367. [24] Spector, P. E., & Jex, S. M. (1998). Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal conflict at work scale, organizational constraints scale, quantitative workload inventory, and physical symptoms inventory. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 3, 356 367. [25] Thibaut, J., & Walker, L. (1975). Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. [26] Thibaut, J., & Walker, L. (1975). Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. [27] Van den Bos, K., Lind, E. A., & Wilke, H. A. M. (2001). The psychology of procedural and distributive justice viewed from the perspective of fairness heuristic theory. In R. Cropanzano (Ed.), Justice in the workplace: From theory to practice (Vol. 2, pp. 49 66). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. [28] Walster, E., Berscheid, E., & Walster, G. W. (1973). New directions in equity research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25, 151 176. 242