Concept of organizational justice in the context of academic achievement

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce and empirically validate the applicability of the concept of organizational justice, developed by Greenberg for the purpose of studying in organizational settings, into a domain of students' achievement. As organizational justice refers to the perception of fairness in working context and has an influence on other organizational aspects including work outcomes, it is reasonable to presume a relation between the perceived justice in school with achievements in school, and later at university. Theoretical considerations of the paper include acknowledging particularities of the organizational justice construct, its multidimensionality and dependability on different situational and personality variables. Also, some results from previous research that linked justice theory with academic achievement are presented. Two main hypotheses were tested empirically using a modified Colquitt's four dimensional scale (Colquitt, 2001) expanded with 30 items of actual unjust experiences in the school setting. The first hypothesis, referring to the positive correlation between all dimensions of justice with school achievement, is proven, while the second, where positive correlation between justice perception and university grades were expected, was significantly correlated only for the distributive aspect of organizational/school justice. Two concurrent explanations for these findings were offered, one based on postulates of equity theory and specifics of educational settings, and the other focusing on a lack of correlation between university grades and procedural, interpersonal and informational justice that was assessed according to the high school experiences. So, it was presumed that these experiences are more situational and therefore less transferrable to a new context. Finally, some dilemmas concerning the construct were mentioned with the purpose to open questions for further research that would clarify and enrich the topic.