The Relation Between Organizational Justice and Counter-Productive Work Behavior Among Health Care Professionals in Jimma Zone Public Health Institutions

Abstract

Background

Counterproductive behavior costs organizations and their members which will ultimately affect work-related outcomes and organizational success. Organizational justice has the potential to affect the level of counter productive behavior. However, there is a paucity of studies to show the link between counterproductive behavior and organizational justice dimensions in the Ethiopian health care system context. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to look into the link between organizational justice, and counterproductive work behavior among health care professionals.

Methods

The 395 study participants were chosen using a facility-based cross-sectional study methodology. A proportionate stratified systematic random sampling technique was deployed to select study participants from health facilities. Data was gathered using a structured self-report questionnaire by CWB Scale that was developed by Spector and Fox (2005) with Cronbach’s alpha of an average of (0.84–0.87). Data was obtained, cleaned, and entered by Epidata3.1. Finally, for descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, the data was exported to SPSS version 23.0.

Results

According to the findings, 159 (40.3%) of the study participants engaged in counterproductive job activities. Organizational justice was assumed to be fair by about half of the respondents, 202 (52.2%). Distributive Justice (=−0.141, p.05) was found to be a significant and negative predictor of counterproductive work behavior in the regression analysis. Age (β=−0.014, p< 0.05), the average number of hours worked every week (β=−0.009, p< 0.05), and experience (β=0.016, p< 0.05) were found to be significant predictors of the counterproductive work behaviors.

Conclusion and Recommendation

This study indicated that distributive justice show significant contribution in reduction of counterproductive work behaviour.As a result, improving organizational justice can aid to reduce counterproductive work behavior which in turn increases the facility’s productivity.

Keywords:

• counterproductive
• work behavior
• organizational justice
• health care professional
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgments

The cooperation of Jimma University for this research project is much appreciated. We would also like to thank all of the study participants and data collectors.

Disclosure

The authors have declared that they have no conflicts of interest in this study.