Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Higher Education Institution

Introduction In highly competitive environment, the organization effectiveness is a crucial factor for the organization's sustainability and profitability. Therefore, achieving the effectiveness is the responsibility of each individual within the organization. Hence, it can be said that, behavior (OCB) is the key factor for achieving the effectiveness (Farh, et al. 1997). Bateman and Organ (1983) were the first in using this term organizational citizenship in order to define the worker behavior which was not prescribed but occurred freely to help others in achieving the different task and mission. According to Organ (1988a), OCB is the vital and important factor that can help the organization to survive. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the various variables that contribute significantly and positively in forming this favorable behavior within the organization (Organ, 1988b). Greenberg (1990b) suggested that justice researches may have the potential to explain many of the outcome variables. It is concerned with the ways in which employees determine if they have been treated fairly in their jobs and the ways in which those determinations influence other work related variables (Moorman, 1991). It implies that when subordinates are treated fairly throughout the organization, they are likely to feel the need for a reciprocal social exchange relation with the organization (Giap et al., 2005). However, little works have focused on the relation between justice and extra role behavior (OCB). Furthermore, most of the researches have been conducted in the developed country settings and very few researches have studied this relationship in the developing countries (Liu et al., 2004). Hence, taken this opportunity into account, current study aims to fill-up the gap by trying to explore the relationship among three types of justice (distributive, procedural and interactional) with two dimensions of OCB behaviors (OCBO and OCBI) in a developing country context, like Malaysia. In addition, this study will focus upon the Higher Education Institution (HEI) context as researchin the field of OCB has been neglected in education institutions (Erturk, 2007). Employees' voluntary behavior is quite important in education organizations as it is in where the extra role behavior is performed as well as the official works. Therefore, this study has tried to understand the nature of the relationship among justice and OCB in the higher education context. Objective of the Study The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of justice upon the behavior in the Higher Education Institution context; more specifically, to examine the effect of three types of justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional justice) upon two dimensions of behaviors (OCB), i.e., OCBI and OCBO in the Higher Education Institution context. The following sections will be divided into five parts. First, a brief literature review has been discussed. Secondly, based on the literature, a conceptual model has been proposed followed by the methodology, discussion and findings, and managerial implications and limitations. Theoretical Framework Two theories have been used to support and consolidate the relationship between justice and OCB. First, the equity theory (Adam, 1965), which states that people assign values for their input on a job and the output they receive from their job. These values are used to calculate ratio (input to output). This ratio then compared with input to output to referent (someone the employee see him has similar skills, tenure, experience, and so forth). According to equity theory, Adam (1965) proposed that condition of unfairness will create tension within a person, which he will try to reduce. …