Relationship between Organizational Justice, Job Satisfaction, Perceived Trust, Employee Voice, and Organisational Citizenship Behaviuor. The Mediation Role of Organisational Communication

Patrick Onome Edezaro

Department of Management, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• BACKGROUND 

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has become one of the most widely debated topics in organizational psychology and human resource management since the 1970s and has played a significant role in enhancing understanding of the link between employee commitment and performance (Pickford & Joy, 2016). 

There is a commonly held belief that employees who demonstrate OCB are more likely to support their organisations in change management, especially during crises (Pickford & Joy, 2016). The assumption is that employees who exhibit OCB are more likely to exert extra effort out of personal motivation to ensure that things are done right and well so that the organisation can achieve its long-term business goals. 

OCB thrives well on appropriate management support.  If   the  top  management  creates  an  enabling 

Corresponding Author: Patrick Onome Edezaro

*Cite this Article: Patrick Onome Edezaro (2022). Relationship between Organizational Justice, Job Satisfaction, Perceived Trust, Employee Voice, and Organisational Citizenship Behaviuor. The Mediation Role of Organisational Communication. International Journal of Social Science and Education Research Studies, 2(1), 22-28

environment, OCB can drive far-reaching influence on employee behaviour and performance. Kim et al. (2013) argued that job satisfaction is a key indicator of OCB, given that OCB tends to increase employee morale to perform their jobs. Organisations need to leverage the opportunities that OCB presents for mutual benefit by creating supportive conditions that generate positive OCB behaviours from employees – including enhancing employee commitment, trust, employee voice, etc.

Although factors influencing organisational citizenship behaviour have been widely investigated across time and space, no specific study on this topic has been done in the Nigerian local government industry. Most importantly, no single study has attempted to investigate the mediation role of effective organisational communication in respect of the relationship between the variables under investigation and organisational citizenship behaviour in Nigeria. Hence, literature is lacking on this topic in the Nigerian context. Given this weakness in the literature, the main problem this study seeks to address is to discover how effective organisational communication can be leveraged as a mediator to enhance the relationship between organisational justice, job satisfaction, employee voice, and employee and organisational citizenship behaviour.

Nigeria is the largest and the most populous country in Africa, and the seventh-most populous country in the world. As of 2019, Nigeria’s population was about 206 million people, according to the World Bank. The total landmark area of Nigeria is 923,769 km2 (or 356,669 sq. miles), divided into 36 states and 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs). In order of hierarchy, the Nigerian governance system is divided into three (3) separate levels or layers – the federal government, the state government, and the local government.

Leaders at the local government levels in Nigeria are elected officials called “Chairperson” or Chief Executive who heads the local government unit with other elected officials called Councillors. Whereas the local government leaders are politically elected, their duties or functions are not limited to only political tasks/roles but include administrative functions (Uche, 2014). The Nigerian local government is managed by the Local Government Council, which is further divided into a minimum of ten (10) and a maximum of twenty (20)

Wards.

Since the local government takes the governance system to the doorstep of the people, it can be argued that they (local government) are positioned at the very centre of development. Thus, the efficiency and effectiveness of local government take the governance system to the doorstep of the people. This suggests that the effectiveness and efficiency of local government institutions in Nigeria are critical to the socio-economic development of Nigeria. 

A robust local system is needed to drive the needed development that local government institutions desire. Since employees are key partners to organisational success, it is important to explore how local government institutions can leverage their level of commitment beyond the scope of their prescribed work requirements (organisational citizenship behaviour) to support the local government institutions to achieve their development goals. The objective of the study was to investigate how organisational justice, employees job satisfaction, employee voice, trust factors contribute to organisational citizenship behaviour in Nigeria. 

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between organisational justice, job satisfaction, employee voice, and employee and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) through the mediation role of effective communication in selected public service institutions in Nigeria. 

• LITERATURE REVIEW 

The link between perceived organisational justice, job satisfaction, perceived trust, employee voice, and organisational citizenship behaviour with communication as a mediator has been widely investigated in management and communication research in a different organisational context. It has been argued that clarity is still lacking on the relationship between communication construct and that of organisational citizenship behaviour construct (Chan & Lai, 2017). 

Chan & Lai (2017) argue that the extent to which employees are satisfied with the level of overall communication architecture in the organisation has a far-reaching effect on their level of job satisfaction which in turn, could lead to organisational citizenship behaviour. The authors also observe that communication satisfaction and its resultant effect on organisational citizenship behaviour to some extent has a direct or indirect impact on employee job and financial performance (Jahromi & Jahromi, 2021). It is worth noting that employee performance is a major determiner of organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

Since organisational citizenship behaviour is a construct that influences employees to work beyond the job duties prescribed in their contractual agreement, the common belief is that effective communication can play an intervening role between factors such as perceived organisational justice, job satisfaction, perceived trust, employee voice, and the former (organisational citizenship behaviour) construct. 

Khaola & Rambe (2021) have found out that whereas extensive research has been done on the relationship between leadership styles (e.g., transformational leadership) and organisational citizenship behaviour in human resource management, the mechanisms on which this relationship exists have not been neglected. They point out that perceived organisational justice tends to mediate the relationship between leadership styles and organisational citizenship behaviour. 

As a point of departure, this study argues that effective communication is more likely to mediate the relationship between perceived organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour, given that communication is the lifeblood that runs through the circulatory system of any organisation (De Nobile, 2017). Organisational justice – a concept introduced by Greenberg as far back as 1987, describes the employees’ “judgment” or evaluation of the organisation’s behaviour which in turn influences the response behaviour or attitude of the employees (Greenberg, 1987). 

“Justice” is a concept that defines whether a decision is right or wrong on moral, ethical, religious, and/or spiritual grounds. In the organismal context, justice is the perception that employees hold about fairness in the workplace (Khaola & Musiiwa, 2021). Justice is closely linked to employee’s perception of fairness, equity, transparency, or the law. People are more likely to positively or negatively react or respond to actions, events, or situations based on their perception of whether there is justice or not. For example, if an employee is denied promotion without justifiable reason, the is a higher tendency that the employee may change his/her behaviour by not committing to the job which in turn may reduce his/her level of productivity or performance. 

Organisational justice can increase the level of employee commitment or loyalty – leading to the overall increase in organisational performance. There are four (4) dimensions of organisational justice – distributive, procedural, informational, and interactional. Each of these justice dimensions aims at ensuring fairness and equity and complements one another (Abisuga, Wang & Sunindijo, 2021).

The relationship between job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour has been widely investigated in behavioural psychology and human resource management. Kaur, Malhotra & Sharma (2020) point out that job satisfaction is a predictor between employer branding and organisational citizenship behaviour. However, this study argues that job satisfaction is a key predictor of organisational citizenship behaviour, given that people who are satisfied with their jobs or their organisation are more likely to perform or take up tasks that are outside the scope of their job description voluntarily. In this case, job satisfaction directly influences organisational citizenship behaviour and not the other way around. 

According to Eyupoglu & Tashtoush (2020), human resource practices such as job satisfaction is statistically significant with organisational citizenship behaviour, with employee commitment playing a mediating role. From the foregoing, it can be concluded that job satisfaction is a predictor of organisational citizenship behaviour.

There is substantial evidence pointing out that employee voice is a major determinant   of organisational citizenship behaviour. For example, Nakagawa (2021) argues that employee voice is closely associated with employee loyalty – a key indicator of organisational citizenship behaviour. This suggests that employees who perceive that their voices are heard are more likely to be loyal or committed to the organisation. The implication is that a committed employee is more likely to work beyond the scope of his/her formal job duties outlined in the job description leading to high organisational citizenship behaviour, and vice versa.

According to Kao et al (2021), motivating employees to speak up is closely linked to employee job performance since employee voice creates a supportive environment for employee engagement which in turn could lead to organisational citizenship behaviour and the subsequent effect on job performance. It is important to note that employees are no longer motivated by only a monthly paycheck but they want their voice to be heard. This study argues that organisations that can leverage effective communication to promote employee voice are more likely to cultivate in their employees the sense of organisational citizenship behaviour than do those who fail to exploit effective communication. In essence, effective communication is an intervening (mediating) variable between employee voice and organisational citizenship behaviour.

According to Fischer, Hyder, & Walker (2020), trust between employees and the management or employers is a pre-requisite for organisational citizenship behaviour. Using a meta-analysis technique to analyse eleven (11) published works on the relationship between trust and organisational citizenship behaviour, they discovered that human societies are losing confidence or trust in major institutions. As a result, it is critical to understand employee trust concerning organisational citizenship behaviour in the workplace for organismal success and competitive advantage. 

However, studying the relationship between trust and organisational citizenship behaviour in isolation is not likely to provide a clearer picture of how trust is built. Effective communication has emerged as a key intervening variable between trust and organisational citizenship behaviour (Fischer, Hyder, & Walker, 2020). They further note that trust is a major determining factor of employee commitment, and commitment is closely linked to organisational citizenship behaviour. 

• METHODOLOGY AND DATA SOURCE

This study was conducted in the Nigerian public service – specifically, in three (3) local government assemblies in Abuja, the Federal Capital City of Nigeria using a correlational research design. A correlational design approach is a non-experimental quantitative technique which widely used when the objective of the research is to establish a relationship between two variables without controlling or manipulating any of the variables (Steinberg, 2018). This approach was applied to this study since the objective is to measure the relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable. 

A simple random sampling technique was used to draw 139 respondents consisting of 97 males and 42 females who were employees of the selected local assemblies for data collection (Arnab, 2017). The objective of using simple random sampling, the method was to ensure fairness and reduce researcher bias so that every potential respondent (employee of local government) was given an equal chance of being selected to participate in the study. A total of 24 structured questionnaires (excluding demographic variable items) was designed onto a Google Form and distributed to the respondents through a WhatsApp group created purposely for data collection purposes.

Each variable contained 4 questionnaire items. Data was collected online due to the need to avoid person-to-person contact due to the recent global Covid-19 pandemic – an infectious public health disease (Yatimue, 2020). Besides, online data collection has been found very effective for collecting data from hard-to-reach or widely dispersed respondents where it is very difficult for the researcher to reach every respondent easily.  

• RESULTS 

Both descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (correlations and multiple linear regression) were applied to analyse the data using SPSS version 23.0. First, demographic variables – including age, gender, marital status, highest educational qualification, and type of employment (full-time, part-time, contract, or other) were analysed and then followed by reliability analysis to establish internal consistency of the constructs (Papadopoulos & Giovanis, 2018). All the respondents were full-time workers. 

Next, correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed to establish whether there was a statistically significant relationship between each independent variable (perceived organisational justice, job satisfaction, perceived trust, employee voice) and the dependent variable (organisational citizenship behaviour). Finally, mediation analysis was performed to determine whether communication factor mediated the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable or not.  Andrew S. Hayes PROCESS macro v3.5 in SPSS version 23.0 by changing from model 1 to 4 which is a simple mediation model (Hayes & Rockwood, 2017). The results of the study from data analysis are presented as follows:

Cronbach’s Alpha from the reliability statistics analysis for all variables – including the 4-independent variable, dependent variable, and the mediating variable = .886, indicating that the constructs were internally consistent. Pearson’s correlation was performed to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between each independent variable and the dependent variable. 

The results of the study found that there is a significant and positive relationship between all the independent variables and the dependent variable. A moderate positive relationship was found between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour (r = .611 < .70), a moderate relationship was found between job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour (r = 640 < .070), and a moderate relationship was found between organisational communication and organisational citizenship behaviour (r = 559 < .070). however, a strong positive relationship was found between employee voice and organisational citizenship behaviour (r = 864 > .70), and a stronger positive relationship was found between employee trust and organisational citizenship behaviour (r = .872 > .70). 

The correlation statistics indicate that employee trust had the strongest relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour, followed by employee voice, job satisfaction, and organisational justice while organisational communication had the lowest relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour (see Table 1).

Since assumption for regression was met in correlation statistics, multiple linear regression was performed to establish how each independent variable predict the outcome variable in the model. The R-square from the multiple regression test = .824 (82.4%), F = 156.589 and ANOVA was significant at .001 level. The standardised Beta Coefficient for organisational justice (β) = .105, p = .033 < .05; β (job satisfaction) = .099, p = .049 < .05; β (employee voice) = .361, p = .001 < .05; β (employee trust) = .441, p = .001 < .05. Employee trust contributes the highest to the model, followed by employee voice and organisational justice. Job satisfaction contributed the lowest to the model (see Table 2).   

Dependent variable: Organisational Citizenship Behaviour

The results of mediation analysis statistics showed that organisational communication negatively mediated the relationship between the independent variables (organisational justice, job satisfaction, employee voice, and employee trust) and the outcome variable (organisational citizenship behaviour). For example, the total effect of X (perceived trust) on Y (organisational citizenship behaviour) was found to be = .3384, SE = .0591, t = 5.7218, p = .001; direct effect of X on Y = .3797, SE = 0584, 6.4999, and p = .001. The indirect effect of X on Y (mediation) was found to be = – .0413. The reason for the negative mediation is unknown (see Table 3). 

Table 3. Mediation Analysis

• DISCUSSION

The positive correlation between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour is consistent with the findings of Khaola & Musiiwa (2021) and Abisuga, Wang & Sunindijo (2021) that employees’ perception of fairness and equity is closely linked with organisational citizenship behaviour. This implies that employees who perceive that they are being treated fairly by their organisation are more likely to go the extra mile to perform tasks or responsibilities that are outside the scope of their jobs, and vice versa. The positive correlation between job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour agrees with the findings of Malhotra & Sharma (2020) and Eyupoglu & Tashtoush (2020) that job satisfaction is strongly associated with employee commitment which in turn increases organisational citizenship behaviour among employees.

Furthermore, the stronger positive relationship between employee voice and organisational citizenship behaviour confirms the findings of Nakagawa (2021) and Kao et al (2021) that employee voice is positively correlated with organisational citizenship behaviour. This implies employees who perceive that their voices are heard are more likely to work extra harder beyond the scope of their job responsibilities. 

Additionally, the strong correlation between employee trust and organisational citizenship behaviour supports the earlier findings by Fischer, Hyder & Walker (2020) that employee trust is a major determiner of organisational citizenship behaviour in the workplace. However, the negative mediation of organisational communication in the relationship between organisational justice, job satisfaction, employee voice, and employee trust tend to disagree with the findings of Chan & Lai (2017) that organisational communication is a mediator between job satisfaction and in index correlation between organisational citizenship behaviour. 

It is important to point out that the negative mediation in this study is not a piece of conclusive evidence to suggest that organisational communication plays a negative role in the relationship between the independent variables under study and organisational citizenship behaviour. The negative relationship could have occurred by chance, and so, any attempt to generalise this finding could be misleading.   

• CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This finding of the study indicates that organisational managers in both public and private organisations (including human resource managers) should develop cutting-edge strategies to enhance or improve organisational justice, level of job satisfaction of employees, employee voice, and employee trust, among others. 

Whereas effective organisational communication tends to negatively play a mediation role, organisational managers need to enhance the level and effectiveness of their communication infrastructure to ensure that employees’ voices are heard. Since effective communication within the organisation (internal communication) is the only best way by which managers and organisations can enhance employee voice and build trust with the employees. The Local Government and Local Assemblies of Nigeria will find the findings of this useful for policy development and implementation to improve practice.  

This study was limited in scope in terms of the number of local assemblies investigated (only 3), the number of respondents (139), and the research methodology. As such, the findings of this study may not be generalised to all the 774 local assemblies in Nigeria. Future researchers can broaden the scope of this study by investigating different variables and different local government institutions in Nigeria to generate evidence that can be used to validate the current findings. 

 
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