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Balancing organizational justice and leader–member exchange to engage workforce: Evidence from social cooperatives in Italy

Daria Sarti (University of Florence, Florence, Italy)

Journal of Workplace Learning

ISSN: 1366-5626

Article publication date: 25 March 2019

Issue publication date: 15 May 2019

621

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is, first, to examine the role of two key organizational determinants of work engagement among employees operating in human service organizations – organizational justice and leader–member exchange (LMX) – in nonprofit organizations – i.e. social cooperatives in Italy – and, second, whether any interaction effect exists between these two variables, more specifically if LMX plays a moderating role in the relationship between organizational justice perception and employees’ engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis was developed through the administration of a questionnaire to 290 employees operating in ten nonprofit human service organizations in Italy.

Findings

The results support the hypothesis of a positive relation between both distributive and procedural justice and work engagement. In addition, the aforesaid relation was moreover found to be stronger among employees experiencing high levels of LMX than those reporting little LMX.

Research limitations/implications

Despite some limitations, the paper has both theoretical and managerial implications.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the research on the important role of organizational justice in enhancing employees’ work engagement and the pivotal interacting role of the leader in boosting this relationship.

Keywords

Citation

Sarti, D. (2019), "Balancing organizational justice and leader–member exchange to engage workforce: Evidence from social cooperatives in Italy", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 231-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-09-2018-0116

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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