The role of organizational justice in the customer orientation–performance relationship

Abstract

PurposeWhile companies have increasingly encouraged employees to adopt a customer orientation, less attention has been given to the impact that customer orientation has on employees' job outcomes and performance. Previous research has used job demands-resource theory (JD-R) and proposed several mechanisms through which customer orientation influences performance, yet the intervening variables in the process have shown inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contextual role of organizational justice on the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. In this way, offering more understanding of the contingent effects that intervene in the customer orientation–performance relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing a structural equation model (SEM) in a sample of 249 marketing, sales and management managers in Chilean companies, this paper tested different hypotheses concerning the role of work engagement, organizational justice and customer orientation in relation to perceived performance.FindingsThis study informs that organizational justice (procedural and distributive justice) moderates the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. Precisely, the findings reveal that at lower values of organizational justice, changes in customer orientation negatively influence work engagement and in turn performance.Originality/valueThe results contribute to strengthening customer orientation theory by integrating a contextual variable often omitted: organizational justice. By exploring the moderation effect of organizational justice on customer orientation, this paper reveals contingent effects of employees' perceived fairness on the organization in the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. The findings encourage managers to look after employees' perceived organizational justice when they implement customer-oriented approaches, in particular, of those employees who work in the frontline sales and service positions.

The effects of organizational justice, trust and supervisor–subordinate guanxi on organizational citizenship behavior: a social-exchange perspective

“…The current results provide several theoretical implications related to the application of social exchange theory to organizations in the insurance industry. First, we contend that organizational justice, in the forms of distributive, procedural and interactional justice, strengthens trust effects (trust in supervisor and trust in subordinate) and is basically consistent with previous research findings that organizational justice positively affects trust and OCB (Pillai et al, 2001;Aryee et al, 2002;Katou, 2013;Cong et al, 2017;Trincado-Munoz et al, 2020;Sharma and Kumra, 2020;Pimentel et al, 2020;Hsu et al, 2019;Kim and Qu, 2020;Chang and Busser, 2020;Meira and Hancer, 2021;Guan and Frenkel, 2019;Narzary and Palo, 2020). Therefore, in fiercely competitive insurance markets, insurers that seek to attract and retain sales representatives must provide organizational justice.…”

“…Owing to its contribution to organizational survival, effectiveness and efficiency, organizational justice is an important topic in the field of industrial and organizational psychology (Bolat, 2010; Shao et al , 2013; Biswas and Kapil, 2017; Trincado-Munoz et al , 2020). In general, organizational justice has three forms: distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice (Sharma and Kumra, 2020; Pimentel et al , 2020).…”

“…An important research stream has been the investigation of OCB predictors. Organizational justice is considered one of the most robust predictors because of its ability to explain organizational behavior outcomes (Trincado-Munoz et al , 2020; Pimentel et al , 2020). Organizational justice refers to an individual’s perception of whether they receive fair treatment from their organization (Sharma and Kumra, 2020; Pimentel et al , 2020).…”

Crucial Factor Affecting Generation Y’s commitment to the Malaysian IT sector: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Employees might be committed to the organization, team, strategic planning, immediate supervisors, work and employment type, career path, and organizational change. In this paper, the commitment to the organization is the most important thing (Arora & Dhole, 2019;Trincado-Munoz et al, 2020).…”

“…The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2025, Generation Y and its successors will constitute more than half of the world population and 75% of the labour force. Dr. Karie Willyerd, founder of the 2020 Workforce -How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Retain Tomorrow's Employees Today, adds that by 2015, over fifty percent of the workforce in Malaysia will consist of Generation Y employees (Trincado-Munoz et al, 2020).…”