Introduction

Organisational justice refers to the extent to which employees perceive workplace procedures, interactions and outcomes to be fair in nature (Baldwin 2006). It has been considered as an important contributor to employees’ commitment towards an organisation (Rahman et al 2016).

In nursing, Kuokkanen et al (2014) found that organisational justice was correlated with empowerment, and that organisational justice increased the extent to which nurses felt empowered in their role, as well as their commitment to their job and motivation to work. Ponnu and Chuah (2010) found that organisational justice contributed to nurses’ intentions to leave their role, as well as their job satisfaction and commitment to their organisation.

Organisational justice has three main components: distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice (Altahayneh et al 2014):

Because organisational justice is strongly linked to an individual’s commitment to an organisation and overall job satisfaction, it can also be linked to organisational citizenship behaviours, and the likelihood of an employee demonstrating these behaviours. Organisational citizenship behaviours were described by Organ (1988) as the ‘good soldier syndrome’ and have been defined elsewhere as ‘behaviours that an employee voluntarily engages in that promote the effectiveness of the organisation but are not explicitly rewarded by the organisation’ (Velickovska 2017). Informally, organisational citizenship behaviour may be described as a willingness of an employee to go beyond their job description’s official responsibilities or undertake extra responsibilities in the interests of the organisation (Velickovska 2017).

Bismala (2019) found that job satisfaction was a factor that influenced organisational citizenship behaviours, along with the quality of leadership and the climate of the organisation. The links between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviours suggest that nurses who have a strong perception of organisational justice within their place of work are more likely to be satisfied in their job role, and therefore are more likely to demonstrate organisational citizenship behaviours.

This article describes a study that investigated nurses’ job satisfaction and perceptions of organisational justice in their workplace, and whether this was related to their organisational citizenship behaviours.

Significance of the study

Nurses are becoming more aware of their rights and their right to be treated equally, and this means they need to believe that processes and organisations are fair. When healthcare organisations treat their nurses equally and fairly, they are more likely to be committed to their work and experience enhanced job satisfaction. Both organisational justice and job satisfaction are essential to encourage organisational citizenship behaviour in nurses. Nurses who do not believe there is organisational justice at their place of work, or who are not satisfied with their job, are unlikely to engage in organisational citizenship behaviour. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine staff nurses’ perception of organisational justice at their place of work, their level of job satisfaction, and its relationship to their levels of organisational citizenship behaviour.

Aim

To investigate staff nurses’ perceptions of organisational justice and job satisfaction and its relationship to their levels of organisational citizenship behaviour.

Method

Results

Table 1 shows the sociodemographic characteristics of the 175 participants.

The participants’ perceptions of organisational justice, as measured using the Organisational Justice Scale, is displayed in Table 2. Figure 1 displays the participants perceived levels of overall organisational justice. Procedural justice has the lowest mean score of the three dimensions of organisational justice. However, no significant differences were found between the two settings for any of the three dimensions.

Figure 1.

Perceived levels of organisational justice

Table 2.

Participants’ perceptions of organisational justice

Table 3 shows the mean scores of the organisational citizenship behaviour scale, which depicts participants’ perceived levels of organisational citizenship behaviours. No significant differences in organisational citizenship behaviour were found between the two hospital sites.

Table 3.

Mean scores of the organisational citizenship behaviour scale

Organisational justice, job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour, split by high, moderate and low scores, as applicable, are displayed in Table 4. Figure 2 displays the participants’ levels of job satisfaction. Figure 3 shows the demonstrated levels of organisational citizenship behaviour. In terms of organisational justice, there was no statistically significant difference between the study settings. Table 4 also shows that most nurses across both hospitals were dissatisfied with their job, and that the majority also demonstrated low levels of organisational citizenship behaviour.

Figure 2.

Level of job satisfaction

Figure 3.

Level of demonstrated organisational citizenship behaviour

Table 4.

Participants’ perceptions of organisational justice, job satisfaction, and organisational citizenship behaviour

Table 5 demonstrates the results of the Spearman correlation coefficient – that is, the correlation between organisational justice and job satisfaction; organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour; and job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour. There was a positive, significant correlation between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour (r_s=.407, P=.000). Additionally, there was a positive significant correlation between staff nurses’ job satisfaction and their levels of organisational citizenship behaviour (r=.153, P=.043).

Discussion

This study aimed to assess organisational justice and job satisfaction, and investigate whether there is a link between one or both of these elements and organisational citizenship behaviours. It found that most nurses in both hospitals had a moderate perception of organisational justice. This is similar to findings from Mohamed et al (2018), whose study also found that nurses had a moderate level of perceived organisational justice.

The current study did not investigate reasons behind the nurses’ perceived organisational justice levels, or if there was a link between sociodemographic characteristics and perceived organisational justice. However, previous work by Ghasi et al (2020) found that nurses perceive differences in pay, access to hospital resources, training, work schedule, participation in decision-making, and enforcement of policies between doctors and other healthcare professionals as unfair. Al-Zu’bi (2010) found a relationship between an employee’s age and their perceptions of organisational justice.

Previous studies have found that organisational justice can predict a nurse’s intention to leave their job. Tourani et al (2016) found a significant negative correlation between perceived organisational justice and turnover intention, suggesting that lower levels of perceived organisational justice increase the likelihood of a nurse leaving their role.

The majority of nurses in this study were found to be dissatisfied with their job. This is unsurprising, since in the authors’ experience, nurses in Egypt often face challenging working conditions, with little institutional recognition or support. They also experience a lack of motivation due to low salaries, as well as other challenges, such as staff shortages, high workloads, and inadequate equipment. Elsherbeny and El-Masry (2018) found that over 60% of nurses working at a hospital in Egypt expressed low job satisfaction, with lack of communication with their colleagues and minimal supervisor support cited as predictors of low rates of job satisfaction.

The current study found no correlation between organisational justice and job satisfaction. However, previous work has identified a link. Nia (2016) found a positive relationship between these two elements, and stated that job satisfaction was a significant predictor of organisational justice. The author claimed that if workers feel organisational justice exists in their workplace, they will be more satisfied with their salaries, future opportunities to progress, work schedule, co-workers and supervisors (Nia 2016). Similarly, Al-Zu’bi (2010) found a positive correlation between job satisfaction and perceived organisational justice, suggesting that an employee’s job satisfaction depended directly on the perceived level of organisational justice.

Job satisfaction has also been linked to nurses’ commitment to their organisation, and it can act as a mediator between commitment and their performance in the role (Hakami et al 2020).

An employee’s commitment to an organisation has been associated with organisational citizenship behaviour, with higher levels of some components of organisational commitment leading to higher levels of organisational citizenship behaviour (Khaleh and Naji (2016). In turn, this means that job satisfaction may also directly and indirectly influence organisational citizenship behaviour. George and Jones (2012) discussed the link between the two, stating that satisfied employees have higher rates of organisational citizenship behaviour because they belong to an organisation where they are treated well. This has been supported by research into other sectors, for example the banking industry (Prasetio et al 2017).

The nurses in the current study demonstrated low levels of organisational citizenship behaviour, and this was significantly correlated with job satisfaction. Improving job satisfaction could therefore lead to improvements in both a nurse’s commitment to the organisation, and their likelihood in engaging in organisational citizenship behaviour.

Conclusion

This study found that nurses in two hospitals in Egypt perceived moderate levels of organisational justice in their place of work, and that perceived levels of organisational justice were correlated with organisational citizenship behaviours. In addition, job satisfaction was also found to be correlated with organisational citizenship behaviours.