Title

Impact of organizational justice perceptions on participation in career-related development activities

Date of Completion

January 2008

Keywords

Business Administration, Management|Psychology, Industrial

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

Organizations have increasingly focused their attention on Career Management processes like Succession Planning to ensure long-term health. In an effort to increase employee involvement in managing their own career, many organizations are sharing career-related feedback with the employees. This has been done, however, without a full understanding of the impact this feedback has on an employee's intention to participate in Career-related Developmental Activities (CDAs). The current study integrates Ajzen's (1985, 1991, 1993) Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB) with research on Organizational Justice to gain greater understanding the impact of sharing such information with employees. A field study was conducted whereby 641 employees responded to a survey instrument following a career-related discussion with their managers. The survey measured their attitude and perceived subjective norm toward participation in CDAs and their perceived behavioral control over this participation. Respondents were also asked to evaluate the fairness of the managerial interaction. Data were also collected on intentions to participate in CDAs, and follow-up data collection measured actual participation. Beyond the typical Theory of Planned Behavior hypotheses, it was predicted that organizational justice components would produce an overall fairness judgment which in turn moderated each of the belief-intention relationships. Through path analysis, support for the bulk of the TpB hypotheses was obtained. Two hypothesized moderation effects were observed, but failed to be cross-validated in a holdout sample. Results suggest that the Theory of Planned Behavior is a useful framework for evaluating outcomes associated with Succession Planning and similar processes, and that managerial fairness may play a role in obtaining desired organizational outcomes. ^

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