THE EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE ON CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR OF EMPLOYEES IN NIGERIAN BREWERIES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Organizational justice is a key factor associated with the success of every organization. In order to keep employees satisfied, committed, and loyal to the organization, the organization needs to be fair in its system regarding distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. When employees feel that they are treated fairly by the organization in every aspect, they are inclined to show more positive attitude and behaviours like job satisfaction. Issues like allocating monetary resources, hiring employees in organizations, policy making and policy implications that affect decision maker and the people who are affected from such decisions require special attention in respect of justice (Colquitt, Greenberg, & Zapata-Phelan, 2005).

Organizational justice is an essential component and predictor of successful organizations. Organization that is fair and just in its procedures, policies, interactions and distribution systems, employees of that organization give better response to the organization (in terms of their positive behaviours and productivity). Enhancing organizational justice resulted in improved outcomes from employees. Managers should take actions to improve employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment so to decrease employees’ turnover intension with the help of distributive and procedural justice (Elanain, 2009).

Organizational justice refers to an employee’s perception of whether an event or situation is morally right, which is defined by the ethics, religion, equity, fairness or law. It is thus a subjective concept, where one is less concerned with what is just and rather more concerned with what people think or believeis just. Researchers have adopted a descriptive paradigm to study and understand why employees might view certain situations or events to be labelled just or unjust. It is regarded as a personal evaluation about organizational conduct and moral standing.(Cropanzano et al., 2007).

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) can be seen as performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes place (Deww 2011)

According to Nadim, Mohamed and Mahmudul (2004), in OCB, an individual‘s behaviour is discretionary, meaning he may choose to do it or not. This behaviour is not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and in aggregate; it promotes the effective functioning of the organization. It must be very well understood that such behaviour could manifest itself in form of helping colleagues who have not been showing up, communicate with superior in advance if one knows he/she would be absent from work, aid superiors in accomplishing their task, participate in functions that would boost the image of the company.

The Nigerian breweries sector, like any other sector in the country has witnessed spates of increased organizational justice and citizenship behaviour both at local, state and national levels with various degrees of impact on the population (Okafor, 2012). Conflict has become a common occurrence in the existence and operations of organizations in the country, and Nigerian breweries is notleft out. These organizational injustice are often the resultant effects of failure to amicably resolve perceived grievances/disagreement between the different stake-holders in the organization. The responses of employees to the dynamics of change in organizations sometimes hinder or bring closer the occurrence of conflict (Osabuohien, 2010). Since the complex structure of organizations creates opportunity for conflict to occur, the ability of management and employees to handle conflict is a sin qua non for effective productivity.

The Nigerian breweries Industry is one of the largest among allthe industries in the country. It accounts among the largest component of the services sector in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and around 12 per cent ofthe totalemployment. The Nigerian brewery has come forth as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries with several players entering the market.In any breweries organization, the employees deal with thecustomers on a one-to-one basis and thus, are the brand ambassadors of the organization and making it imperative for every organization to have a system wherein, employees are managed, developed, rewarded and retained in an appropriate manner. The present situation for retailers is that they experiencehigh employee turnover, though industry experts point out that there is no lack of labour in the country. But training and developing an employee involves huge costs and time. One measureof increasing productivity,customersatisfaction and sales as an end outcome could be to look at employeeperceptions ofthe organization.Anoften-overlookedconstructis Organizational Justice.Tapping into these perceptions could help organizations formulate policies in a manner, which bestsuits, theorganization as well as the employees.

In today’s competitive world, organizations are constantlytrying their utmost limit to retain the best talent and outdo their competitors by doing the same things differently. Employees have become more aware of their rights and value the employer’s sense of justice and further expect and them to be fair or just at all times. Thus, fairness has become a prime aspect for organizations to take a deep look into – as it directly affects workplace attitudes and behaviour, organizational justice is a determinant towards achieving OCB. It describes the perception and understanding of fairness in the organization.Organizational justice furtherexplains why employees retaliate against inequitable outcomes or inappropriate process and interaction. It is against this background that this study seeks to investigate the effect of organizational justice on citizenship behaviour of employees in Nigerian breweries.

1.2     Statement of Problem

Ithas been debated that organizational justice and citizenship behaviour can be an aversive or unpleasant emotional and physiological state resulting from adverse work experiences, particularly experiences that are uncertain or outside the employee’s control (Hart & Cooper, 2001). OCB refers to behaviour that is not formally requested or directly rewarded but can be functional to the operations of an organization (Smith et al., 1983). The interest of researchers focused on determining the antecedents to OCB (Konovsky and Pugh, 1994). The notion of organizational justice has received considerable attention in industrial psychology, human resource management and organizational behaviour researches. Organizational Justice, as an antecedent to OCB was supported by many studies (Mayer and Gavin 2005). Along with organizational justice, organizational trust has frequently found as an antecedent of OCB (Guh et al., 2013). The relationship between organizational justice and OCB has been identified as a plausible explanation for regulating the impact of organizational Justice on OCB (Guh et al., 2013; Chhetri, 2014).

Chhetri, (2014) described the interpersonal conflict at work stressor, which captures the degree to which citizenship behaviour of a given employee. Similarly, their citizenship behaviour constraints include items tapping inadequate leadership or lack of necessary information. Marshall and Cooper’s (2009) model of work stressors included relationships with superiors and a lack of social support, while Kohli (2005) focused on supervisory misbehaviour. Each of these citizenship behaviour determinants seems to be capturing, in part, the interpersonal and informational facets of organizational justice. Still other citizenship behaviour determinants seem to overlap with procedural justice. Marshall and Cooper’s (2009) model includes lack of participation and managers’ inability to delegate as citizenship behaviour determinants, while others have focused on a lack of autonomy (Chesney 2001). Thibaut and Walker (2005) argued that influence was a vital component of procedural justice, and Levenson (2004) argued that procedures should be representative of employees’ views and opinions. Therefore, it is important for the concept and implications of organizational justice to be more recognizable. Despite the increasing breadth of the literature on organizational justice, there is a gap in the research on the relationship between organizational justice and citizenship behaviour levels in an organization. The importance of this investigation is to help broaden the understanding of organizational justice by highlighting variables that have not yet been investigated; to help the management in organizations better forecast, plan, and compensate for employee wellness issues. Therefore, this study is aimed toward establishing a link between organizational justice and ecitizenship behaviour in Nigerian breweries.

1.3     Objective of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of organizational justice on citizenship behaviour in Nigerian breweries. The specific objective are

1. To examine the effect of distributive justice on employee commitment in Nigerian breweries.
2. To determine the effect of procedural justice on employee commitment in Nigerian breweries.
3. To ascertain the effect of interactional justice on employee commitment in Nigerian breweries.

1.4     Research Questions

The following research questions are drawn to guide this research work;

1. To what extent has distributive justiceaffected employee commitment in Nigerian breweries?
2. To what extent has procedural justice affected employee commitment in Nigerian breweries?
3. To what extent has interactional justice affected employee commitment in Nigerian breweries?

 1.5     Research Hypotheses

H₀₁: There is no significant relationship between distributive justiceand employee commitments in Nigerian breweries

H₀₂: There is no significant relationship between procedural justiceand employee commitments in Nigerian breweries

H₀₃: There is no significant relationship between interactional justiceand employee commitments in Nigerian breweries.

1.6     Significance of the Study

This study examines the effect of organizational justice on citizenship behaviour in Nigerian breweries. The main rational for this research study is therefore to contribute to the broader research community by enhancing existing knowledge and generating new knowledge within the field of industrial and organisational psychology. Furthermore, this study addresses this topic from Nigerian parastatal work context and viewpoint by focusing on the Nigeria breweries. In addition, the study will be of immense benefit to a number of people. These include academics who are interested in furthering their knowledge of organisational justices and citizenship behaviour as the results obtained are capable of adding new insights to the present state of knowledge in the field and may therefore be found useful for teaching and for developing a body of management theory. This study will also be of great benefit to the government to providing useful insight in managing and strengthening the performance of government institutions.

The findings of this study would lead to the improvements in workplaces to help employees become more committed to their jobs. Theoretically, it is imperative to enhance our understanding of how organizational justice affects citizenship behaviour in a non-western country. Finally, the study will help managers in decision making especially in the areas of recruitment, selection, promotion, training, motivation, and instituting change in the organization

This study will also contribute to the body of existing knowledge on the role of organizational justice and citizenship behaviour.

1.6     Scope of the Study

This study seeks to assess the effect of organizational justice oncitizenship behaviour in Nigerian breweries. The scope of the study will cover Nigerian breweries (Ama plant 9^th mile) from 2012 – 2016, due to time, finance, size of the organization and proximity of the facility.

1.7 Operational Definitions of Key Terms

Organizational Commitment: This refers to a psychological state that binds the individual to the organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990).

Organizational Justice: An umbrella term used to refer to individual’s perceptions about the fairness of decisions and decision-making processes within an organization and the influences of those perceptions on behaviour (Martison et al. 2006).

Citizenship Behaviour: this can be described as performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes place.