Organizational Justice and Employee Citizenship Behaviour in the Civil Service in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of organizational justice on organizational citizenship behaviour of civil servants in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: to assess the influence of distributive justice on organizational citizenship behaviour of civil servants in Kenya; to assess the influence of procedural justice on organizational citizenship behaviour of civil servants in Kenya; to assess the influence of interpersonal justice on organizational citizenship behaviour of civil servants in Kenya; to assess the influence of informational justice on organizational citizenship behaviour of civil servants in Kenya, and to assess the mediation effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviour of civil servants in Kenya. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to study all civil servants spread across the country. Purposive sampling technique was used to select ten key ministries in the government of Kenya. A target population of 11671 employees was then identified using stratified sampling technique. Through simple random and convenient sampling technique a sample population of 375 respondents selected as participants. A structured five-point Likert questionnaire was used for data collection. Data analysis was done using the statistical package for social sciences Version 22 (SPSS. Ver.22). Percentages, frequencies, mean, and standard deviation were obtained and used for descriptive statistics while Correlation and Regression coefficients were applied in inferential statistics to identify variable relationship. The results from average mean scores indicated that respondents agreed with the measures for all the variables. The mean standard deviations indicated that similarities in opinions of respondents. The Pearson correlations coefficients (r) indicated positive and high significant relationships between independent and dependent variables. Procedural justice had the highest correlation(r=.682, P=0.000), informational justice (r=.671, p=0.000); distributive justice (r=.625, P=0.000); and interpersonal justice (r=.571, P=0.000). The coefficients of determinant (R2), the f-values and the t-values indicated that the models were well fitted, the relationships were highly significant and the total variance in the dependent variable explained by independent variables: Procedural justice (R2=0.466), Informational justice (R2=0.451), Distributive (R2=0.391) and Interpersonal justice (R2=0.326) were moderate. Job satisfaction was found to have a partial mediation effect on the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviour. The study concluded that organizational justice was positively and significantly related to organizational citizenship behavior of civil servants in Kenya. The study recommended that the government and the management of civil service in Kenya adopt and apply organizational justice in the management of civil servants in Kenya as this will improve their job satisfaction and hence organizational citizenship behaviour. This will improve performance of the civil service. Other researchers can interrogate further the relationships in the study and validate the results by through using other study designs such as comparative design to compare public and private sector and use more organizations to validate the model of this study.