Organizational justice, psychological ownership and organizational embeddedness: a conservation of resources perspective

Abstract

Purpose

This paper draws on the conservation of resources (COR) theory to understand how organizational embeddedness develops through psychological ownership and organizational justice. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of three dimensions of organizational justice on organizational embeddedness and psychological ownership and the effect of psychological ownership on organizational embeddedness. The mediating role of psychological ownership between organizational justice and organizational embeddedness was also examined.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 300 engineers in Pakistan's power sector using a three-wave quantitative survey. Partial least squares path modeling was used to analyze the data.

Findings

The results show that distributive and procedural justice results in the development of organizational embeddedness. Simultaneously, psychological ownership mediates the link between all three dimensions of organizational justice and organizational embeddedness.

Practical implications

By highlighting the importance of organizational justice and psychological ownership, this study offers managers with two distinct strategies for enhancing their employees' organizational embeddedness.

Originality/value

There is a lack of research investigating the distinct effects of three dimensions of organizational justice on the three dimensions of organizational embeddedness. Further, research to investigate the intervening mechanisms that connect organizational justice and embeddedness is scarce. Finally, the COR theory has been utilized to explain how embeddedness works. However, it had not been utilized previously to understand the process through which embeddedness is accumulated. This study fills these gaps by examining the distinct effects of three dimensions of organizational justice on three dimensions of organizational embeddedness and examining these relationships' mediation through psychological ownership.

Citation

Mehmood, S.A., Malik, M.A.R., Saood Akhtar, M., Faraz, N.A. and Memon, M.A. (2021), "Organizational justice, psychological ownership and organizational embeddedness: a conservation of resources perspective", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 42 No. 8, pp. 1420-1439. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-06-2020-0296