Organizational justice as a factor in the formation of vertical trust in an organization (the case of an oil and gas company)

Abstract

The phenomenon of trust is currently under focus in sociological discourse. Interest in the topic of organizational trust is due to an increasing number of studies proving its positive role in performance of organizations and employees, in increasing the economic efficiency of enterprises, stimulating the processes of its technical and technological modernization. In this regard, there is a need to search for factors conducive to building trust. One area of such research is the study of interaction of trust and organizational justice. However, existing publications do not give a definite answer regarding a direction of influence of these phenomena: some authors argue that trust is formed under the influence of organizational justice, others believe that the influence is vice versa. An additional argument in favor of the relevance of this topic is that the existing studies poorly reflect the specifics of Russian enterprises, since the topic of organizational trust is still under-examined in the domestic scientific literature. This article aims to empirically test hypotheses about the relationship between trust and organizational justice based on research materials carried out at one of the largest Russian enterprises. The objectives of the study were as followed: characterization of trust and organizational justice in various groups of personnel, assessment of impact of various types of organizational justice on vertical organizational trust. The empirical basis of the study is the materials of structured interviews of workers of the main production unit and engineering workers, conducted at one of the largest oil and gas industrial enterprises of the Perm Krai in 2021 (n = 792 people). The authors used the method of a continuous survey of workers at their workplaces in subdivisions. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, based on the materials of a survey of Russian workers, the relationship between trust and organizational justice at different stages of a career in an organization was empirically analyzed. Furthermore, the contribution of various types of organizational justice to the formation of employee trust in management was illustrated. In accordance with the results of the study, the authors found out that organizational justice affects vertical trust in an organization: the more fair the organizational conditions are perceived by employees, the higher the level of trust in management. The authors point out that interpersonal and procedural justice have the major influence on the formation of vertical trust in an organization, but their role changes depending on length of service. It is concluded that in order to increase the level of vertical trust, the internal social policy of an organization should include technologies for both organizational analysis and the development of justice of intra-organizational relations, which, in turn, will contribute to an increase of productivity and efficiency of an organization.