Protective effects of interactional justice on job insecurity of Chinese workers: evidence from a large-scale state-owned telecom company

Abstract

The study attempted to explore protective effects of procedural justice on job insecurity and job attitudes of Chinese workers in the face of an impending organizational change. In a large-scale state-owned telecom company and its four subsidiary companies in China where a fundamental organizational change was about to take place, 592 employees were randomly sampled and surveyed. The results of hierarchical regression analysis show that procedural justice could bolster employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment partially through reducing their job insecurity. Further analysis of this partial mediating effect, in terms of two components of procedural justice, revealed a protective effect of interactional justice instead of formal procedure on job insecurity of Chinese employees in the face of the forthcoming organizational change. Implications for measures protecting employees’ psychological well-being in the decision-making process of human resource management leading up to organizational change are discussed later.