Effect of organizational justice on work engagement with psychological safety as a mediator: Evidence from China

Abstract

I explored the impact of organizational justice on work engagement, which is a positive organizational behavior construct, and the underlying psychological mechanism. I hypothesized on the basis of a literature review that organizational justice would have a positive effect on work engagement and that psychological safety would act as a mediator. Participants comprised 254 teachers working in compulsory schools in eastern China. The survey was conducted using organizational justice, psychological safety, and work engagement scales. Data analysis showed that the 3 dimensions of organizational justice, namely, distributive, procedural, and interactional, had a positive effect on teachers' work engagement. In addition, psychological safety played a partial mediating role in the association between organizational justice and work engagement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.

Analyzing the Psychological Unsafety in Schools in Terms of Individual and Institutional Variables

“…Obtained results of this study are consistent with that of prior ones. (Edmondson et al, 2004;Edmondson et al, 2016;Lyu, 2016;Yıldırım and Yenipınar, 2017). It was also found in the research conducted by Sağnak (2017) that teachers have medium level perception of psychological unsafety and there are considerable similarities between views of participants.…”

“…Need for analyzing the impact of individual and institutional characteristics on the perception of psychological unsafety in different cultural contexts appears. In previous researches perception of psychological unsafety of school employees, especially teachers, was found moderate (Edmondson et al, 2016;Lyu, 2016;Sağnak, 2017;Yıldırım and Yenipınar, 2017). Limited numbers of studies analyzing perception of psychological safety (Sağnak, 2017;Yıldırım and Yenipınar, 2017) are found in Turkey and there are none on impacts of individual and institutional qualifications of employees on the phenomenon in question.…”

“…Studies on psychological un/safety include items as: "It's easy to speak up anything on your mind" Garvin et al, 2008), "I am not afraid to express my opinions here" (Lyu, 2016), "People, here, can bring up problems and difficult situations and don't hesitate to take risks" (Hernandez et al, 2015), "If you make a mistake here it is held against you afterwards" (Edmondson et al, 2004). "Institutional Psychological Unsafety Scale" which was developed and its validity and reliability analysis conducted by Yıldırım and Yenipınar (2017) was used.…”

“…Psikolojik güvencesizlik algısı üzerinde kurumsal ve bireysel özelliklerin etkisinin farklı kültürel bağlamlarda incelenmesi ihtiyacı belirmektedir. Önceki çalışmalarda özellikle öğretmenler olmak üzere okul çalışanların psikolojik güvence algısının orta düzeyde olduğu belirlenmiştir (Edmondson vd., 2016;Lyu, 2016;Sağnak, 2017;Yıldırım ve Yenipınar, 2017). Türkiye'de psikolojik güvence algısını ele alan sınırlı sayıda çalışmaya (Sağnak, 2017;Yıldırım ve Yenipınar, 2017) erişilmiştir ve çalışanların bireysel ve kurumsal niteliklerinin söz konusu fenomen üzerindeki etkilerini inceleyen bir çalışmaya rastlanmamıştır.…”

“…Psikolojik güvence/sizlik üzerine yapılan çalışmalarda "Burada kafanızdakileri dile getirmek kolaydır" (Garvin vd., 2008), "Burada düşüncelerimi ifade etmekten korkmam" (Lyu, 2016), "Buradakiler problemleri ve güç meseleleri gündeme getirebilirler ve risk almaktan çekinmezler" (Hernandez, Luthanen, Ramsel ve Osatuke, 2015). Eğer burada bir yanlışlık yaparsanız, daha sonra bu size karşı kullanılır (Edmondson vd., 2004) gibi maddelere yer verilmektedir.…”