The effects of organizational justice on the job satisfaction of administrative staff in Sri Lankan state universities

Abstract

Employees' job satisfaction is considered to be a key variable that impacts the performance of organizations. Organizations (ike universities need satisfied administrators to achieve their objectives. An important but understudied stakeholder in higher education is administrative staff members. However, the level of job satisfaction among administrative staff was observed to be low. Organizational justice was found to be an important factor that drives satisfaction among administrative staff. At the same time, the low level of job satisfaction among the administrative staff seemed to be unaddressed and therefore the need for filling this research gap was felt necessary. Hence, the purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between justice perception and Job satisfaction among administrative staff members in Sri Lankan state universities.

The study was conducted during the period from May to November 2013. The total number of participants in this study was 139 administrative staff working in various state universities in Sri Lanka. The study used a correlational design to examine the relationship between the dimensions of organizational justice i.e., distributive justice, procedural justice and the interactional justice and the dimensions of job satisfaction variable i.e., intrinsic satisfaction, extrinsic satisfaction and overall satisfaction. The findings of the study revealed that the administrative staff members in Sri Lankan state universities were generally satisfied with their job. However, their satisfactions with the level of pay and promotion opportunities were low. The results found a significant relationship between the organizational justice perception and job satisfaction.

This study has some potential implications for human resource managers, leadership, and institutional policy decision makers. With the understanding of the influence of organizational justice perception on job satisfaction, leadership of universities can effectively improve administrative staff perception of organizational justice by establishing two way communications during decision making process and by creating and maintaining a procedurally fair climate to apply rules and regulations fairly and consistently to all employees. The findings of the study are also consistent with the previous studies and thereby contribute to the relevant literature.