Organizational justice, age, and performance connection in Malaysia

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to examine the links between organizational justice (distributive justice and procedural justice) and job performance (task performance and contextual performance). The moderating role of age in the above‐mentioned relationship was also investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered using self‐administered questionnaires from a sample of 136 customer‐contact employees within the telecommunications industry of Malaysia.

Findings

The results demonstrated that distributive justice had a significant and positive relationship with task performance. In a similar vein, procedural justice was found to be significantly and positively related to contextual performance. Age, however, did not moderate the justice‐performance relationships.

Research limitations/implications

The participants in this study were customer‐contact workers employed by one established telecommunication company in Malaysia. Thus, generalization of the results may be limited. Besides, other variables relating to the organization, job, and individual could be included in future studies. Using multiple raters for assessing job performance is also recommended.

Practical implications

The results from this study can be used to gain a better insight into how justice perceptions affect job performance of Malaysian employees.

Originality/value

The impact of organizational justice dimensions as direct antecedents to performance has been examined in many studies across industries and countries. Nonetheless, to the best of one's knowledge, this is the first study that has sought to test the moderating role of age in the justice‐performance connection in a Malaysian setting.

Citation

Nasurdin, A.M. and Lay Khuan, S. (2011), "Organizational justice, age, and performance connection in Malaysia", International Journal of Commerce and Management, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 273-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/10569211111165316