How Do Employees’ Perceptions of Workplace Fairness Affect Organizational Commitment?

[We’re pleased to welcome M. Ángeles López-Cabarcos of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She collaborated with Ana Isabel Machado-Lopes-Sampaio-de Pinho and Paula Vázquez-Rodríguez on their article “The Influence of Organizational Justice and Job Satisfaction on Organizational Commitment in Portugal’s Hotel Industry,” which was recently published in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.]

• What inspired you to be interested in this topic?

Employees’ identification with and involvement in their organization is very important in competitive environments like the hospitality industry, which is characterized as a service-oriented industry with high employee turnover. Because in the hotel industry it is necessary to adapt to customer’s needs, it is important to analyze the role that each employee plays in delivering the service. This is especially necessary considering that the employee is the first-hand representation for the customer of the organization’s vision. To achieve a higher level of service, managers need committed employees that promote the organization’s values, while providing a high-level of service quality, which in turn brings positive results for the organization. For this reason, research on employees´ organizational commitment is quite pertinent to aid the hotel industry in maximizing quality results. Furthermore, it is crucial that researchers identify specific variables that increase employee commitment in organizations. This is particularly important for the Portuguese hotel industry, as the hypothesized model has not been examined in this specific context.

• Were there findings that were surprising to you?

The special characteristics of the context can explain the results obtained: i) rewards and the justification and explanation of managerial decisions are not the only factors that influence the commitment of hospitality-industry employees; ii) if hospitality-industry employees are satisfied with their jobs, they are likely to develop affective and normative commitment; (iii) rewards received and the quality of interpersonal relationships can influence job satisfaction; (iv) in order to achieve employee commitment, managers should make a special effort to explain all the procedures and systems used to their employees and ensure that they are satisfied with their jobs; and v) job satisfaction is a key variable when it comes to obtaining employees with affective and normative commitment, also, rewards and interpersonal relationships are significant variables that result in satisfied employees.

• How do you see this study influencing future research and/or practice?

Firstly, this study tries to make a contribution to the “increasingly crowded conceptual marketplace” (Pfeffer 1993), replicating some hypotheses supported in previous studies, and testing hypotheses supported previously but not in the context of the hospitality industry to shed light on relationships that have mixed findings in the literature. According to Davis (2010), this study is a “quasi-experiment” and the organizational results “need not be general, predictive or precise to be useful” (p. 33). The value of the present research lies in its substantive importance for the functioning of the Portuguese hotel industry rather than for its contribution to theory.

On the other hand, the hotel industry cannot aspire to high competitive levels of quality in service if its employees are not committed to it. Therefore, when employees are committed to their work, they can focus their energies on customer service and are more willing to help and cooperate. Hence, the major challenge of human resource management lies in studying, creating, and implementing appropriate management tools through which employees develop commitment to organizational objectives and integrate them into their own. So, future lines of research in hotel industry context should analyze the role of several control variables, other variables related to organizational commitment, as well as other possible moderators thereof. Other studies could be carried out in other geographical areas in order to offer more generalizable results across different regions.

Click here to read “The Influence of Organizational Justice and Job Satisfaction on Organizational Commitment in Portugal’s Hotel Industry” for free from Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. Want to know when the latest research is available from Cornell Hospitality Quarterly? Click here to sign up for e-alerts!

M. Ángeles López Cabarcos, Ph.D. Business Administration by Santiago de Compostela University (Spain). Professor at Faculty of Business Administration (Santiago de Compostela University) and UOC. Her research interests focus on organizational behaviour, labour climate, human research management, and bullying at work.

Ana Isabel Machado-Lopes-Sampaio-de Pinho, Ph.D. Business Administration by Santiago de Compostela University (Spain). Professor at Instituto Superior da Maia (ISMAI) do Porto (Portugal). Her research interests focus on organizational behaviour, labour climate, human research management, and bullying at work.

Paula Vázquez Rodríguez, Ph.D. Business Administration by Santiago de Compostela University (Spain). Professor at Faculty of Business Administration (Santiago de Compostela University). Her research interests focus on organizational behaviour, labour climate, human research management, and bullying at work.