Organizational justice and employee entrepreneurial intentions in South Africa

Abstract

Purpose

Notwithstanding the extensive body of knowledge on entrepreneurial intentions, there seems to be relatively little research on explaining intentions in the corporate entrepreneurship context, nor has organizational justice been previously linked with employee entrepreneurial intentions (EEI). The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent different dimensions of organizational justice are associated with EEI.

Design/methodology/approach

The study context is the financial and services sector where technology enabled banking solutions have become the norm, and the need for entrepreneurial behavior has become essential in this industry. Survey data are collected (n = 204) from full-time employees working in the South African financial services sector. Initially instrument validity and reliability is tested and the hypotheses are investigated using multiple regression analyses.

Findings

Across the dimensions, results reveal positive yet non-significant relationships with EEI. However, as a control variable gender plays an important role in the relationship between procedural justice (PRCJ) and EEI. The findings are supplemented with a qualitative assessment that adds value and helps explain the results.

Practical implications

Corporate managers must foster EEI while at the same time considering perceptions of workplace justice in terms of interactional justice, distributive justice and PRCJ.

Originality/value

By combining insights from two sources of literature – organizational justice and EEI, a clear empirical contribution is made to the literature that opens up avenues for future research. Moreover, given that the original scales have primarily been employed in developed economies, by verifying their psychometric properties in an African market context, this now allows for replication studies to take place in other emerging market contexts.

Citation

Urban, B. and Moloi, J. (2022), "Organizational justice and employee entrepreneurial intentions in South Africa", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 182-202. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-12-2020-0824