The impact of organizational justice and job security on organizational commitment exploring the mediating effect of trust in top management.

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of organizational justice and job security on organizational commitment through the mediating effect of trust in top management. On the basis of theoretical linkages among the constructs, a conceptual model and hypotheses were established. The sample consisted of 337 Korean employees who were drawn from six Korean firms. After reliability testing, two dimensions of trust in top management were found not to be reliable in the Korean context. In addition, three items of quantitative job security were not appropriate because of non-linearity. Finally, the factor structure of four measurement models was examined by an overall confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). All items showed an appropriate range of factor loadings. After examining the measurement models, the hypothesized structural model was tested and revised based on modification indices. As a result, the model fit was improved in terms of theoretical relevance and parsimony. The results suggest that both organizational justice and long term job security affected trust in top management and organizational commitment significantly. All hypotheses were supported; however, the mediating effect via trust in top management was not strong enough to link two predictors with organizational commitment. The result of this study suggests that organizations should take care of employees' personal and social needs in order to increase their trust and commitment toward the organization. Especially, social needs (organizational justice) should be maintained, as well as personal and economic needs of employees (job security).