Workplace Relationships, Attitudes, and Organizational Justice: A Hospitality Shift Worker Contextual Perspective

Abstract

Few studies have examined the effect of organizational justice on workplace relationships and attitudes of shift workers. This study uses a full four factor model of organizational justice to investigate justice perceptions of shift workers in the specific hospitality context of employees in registered clubs. Using a social exchange perspective of the employment relationship, responses from 501 employees in three clubs were analysed. Inconsistent results were found across the three clubs on employees’ workplace relationships including leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support and their work attitudes of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and their intention to quit. The inconsistent results may be explained by contextual differences including the nature of the industry and work patterns. The findings provide weak support for past justice studies, raising concern about the generalizability of current organizational justice research to both shift workers and the hospitality industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational justice
• shift work
• social exchange theory
• hospitality industry