Date of Award
5-2017
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Psychology
Advisor/Committee Chair
Sylvia G Roch Ph.D.
Abstract
Social Exchange Theory positions employee felt obligation as a mechanism by which organizational justice leads to positive organizational outcomes such as decreased turnover and increased job satisfaction. However, little has been done to test the empirical value of this theoretical claim. Additionally, although organizational politics is generally negatively correlated with justice, investigation of the mechanism by which politics might influence justice is lacking. Here, I look at whether politics has a moderating role on procedural justice and felt obligation, and thus turnover intentions and job satisfaction, or in words, whether politics reduces the positive relationship between procedural justice and felt obligation. In the current study, a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk users (N = 294) were compensated to take an online survey measuring procedural justice, felt obligation, politics, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction. Evidence was found to support the claim that felt obligation partially mediates procedural justice-turnover and -job satisfaction relationships. Additionally, the relationship between felt obligation and job satisfaction offers empirical support for value theory. The presence of felt obligation may indicate employee needs are being fulfilled, thus leading to greater satisfaction. No evidence was found to support politics as a moderator of the justice-felt obligation relationship. The current study should prompt further research into felt obligation as a mediator for justice-outcome relationships. Future studies should also clarify the influence of politics on justice.
Recommended Citation
Briggs, Caitlin, "Investigating the Roles of Felt Obligation and Politics in the Context of Procedural Justice-Outcome Relationships" (2017). Psychology. 13.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_psych/13