The Effect of Organisational Justice, Academic Identification and Legitimacy of Academic Authorities on Student Loyalty

Abstract

Our work contributes to existing research on student loyalty by testing a model that includes organisational justice as a predictor. In Study 1 (n = 257, Polish sample), students' perceived organisational justice of their university was a positive predictor of their loyalty. In Study 2 (n = 522, Polish sample), we replicated these findings and observed that academic identification accounted for the relationship between university's organisational justice and students' loyalty. In Study 3 (n = 500, American sample), we replicated findings from Study 1 and Study 2 and tested perceived legitimacy of university staff and authorities as another mediator of the investigated relationship. We conclude that the experience of organisational fairness at university translates into stronger academic identification and greater perceived university legitimacy, both of which lead to increased loyalty. Thus, we recommend that evaluation tools in higher education institutions more explicitly measure student perceptions of fairness.