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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 2

Publication Date: February 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.82.9748.

Ocra, B. T. (2021). The Nexus between Organisational Justice, Job Satisfaction, and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour: The Case of

Barclays Bank. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(2) 411-424.

The Nexus between Organisational Justice, Job Satisfaction, and

Organisational Citizenship Behaviour: The Case of Barclays Bank

Ben T. Ocra

University of Professional Studies, Accra

ABSTRACT

This study examined the nexus between organisational justice, OCB,

and job satisfaction. It also attempted to control for relevant covariates

to contribute to the literature. The study was a correlational design,

and its population was employees at the head office of Barclays Bank

Ghana Limited (BBGL). All two hundred and seven (207) employees

who met some selection criteria participated in the study. A self- administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was

analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation test, and Structural

Equation Modelling (SEM) were used to present findings of the study.

Organisational justice made a positive effect on job satisfaction and

organisational citizenship behaviour. Job satisfaction also made a

significant positive effect on organisational citizenship behaviour. It is

concluded that increasing the level of justice delivered can improve the

level of job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour.

Keywords: Organisational justice, job satisfaction, organisational

citizenship behaviour, Barclays Bank (Ghana) Limited

INTRODUCTION

The performance and growth of an organization depend on employee productivity – employees’

productivity is a requirement for organizational success. Many organizations therefore prioritize

effective management of human resources or personnel in a quest to make the best of their

employees. One of the various roles of human resource managers is to influence employees in a

way that engender the highest possible level of productivity (Foote & Tang, 2008; Dajani, 2015;

Kashif et al., 2016). One fundamental attributes of a workforce that human resource managers try

to favorably influence is ‘behaviour’ (Mathur & Padmakumari, 2013; Chhetri, 2015). Every

employee has his or her way of behaving on the job. More importantly, the behavior of an

employee and that of co-workers affect how he or she plays specified job roles (Mathur &

Padmakumari, 2013). Similarly, satisfactory performance requires favorable behavior from the

employee and his or her co-workers. As a result, productivity on the job can be said to be a

function of the behavior of self and others in the organization. In view of these arguments, some

researchers (Tabatabei et al., 2015; Nandan & Azim, 2015) are cognizant of the need for

organizations to ensure that Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) contributes to

productivity.

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Ocra, B. T. (2021). The Nexus between Organisational Justice, Job Satisfaction, and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour: The Case of Barclays Bank.

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(2) 411-424.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.82.9748. 413

OCB is the determined and unrestricted behavior of workers that influences organizational

effectiveness and functioning (Nandan & Azim, 2015). It is considered the basis of employee

actions and inactions (Mathur & Padmakumari, 2013), which are a prerequisite to job

accomplishment. Without behavior, there is no action on the job, and without action there is no

accomplishment. Hence, the nature of OCB forms the basis of employee productivity. Of course, a

large collection of studies (Chegini, 2009; Banerjee & Banerjee, 2013; Tabatabei et al., 2015;

Nandan & Azim, 2015) has confirmed that OCB is associated with performance indicators such as

employee performance, commitment, and satisfaction. Research has shown that one of the

determinants of OCB is organizational justice (Al-Zu’bi, 2010; Chhetri, 2015). In other words, OCB

is influenced by organizational justice within an organization. This assertion squares with the

empirical confirmation of the effect of Organizational Justice (OJ) on organizational citizenship

behavior in several studies (Chegini, 2009; Banerjee & Banerjee, 2015; Chhetri, 2015). Studies

which have examined the OJ-OCB nexus had either drawn their data from individual organizations

or a group of organizations in one or multiple sectors. Researchers (Williams, 2007; Allwood,

2012) have reasoned that research findings better form the basis of decision making and problem

solving in an organization when they are drawn from this organization alone. This being the case,

it may be necessary for studies to focus on specific organizations in testing the relationship

between OJ and OCB if there are unique problems in these organizations that need to be remedied.

Barclays Bank Ghana Limited (BBGL) is one of the commercial banks that have always enhanced

their organizational justice delivery system to improve OCB and maximize employee satisfaction

(Ghana Banking Survey, 2014). In the light of this effort, it is odd that the organization does not

monitor how OJ is affecting OCB and job satisfaction over time. Ultimately, the bank needs to know

the current effects, hereby called the ‘base effects’, of OJ on OCB and job satisfaction. The base

effects would then serve as the baseline for monitoring the extent to which OJ delivery advances

OCB and job satisfaction over time. Without having knowledge of these effects, management

would be unable to monitor the impact of its effort to improve job satisfaction and OCB by

enhancing OJ delivery. This study attempts to account for these effects. Logically speaking, OJ

delivery would make a positive effect on OCB when it has first resulted in employee satisfaction. If

employees are not satisfied by the bank’s organizational justice system, it is unlikely that this

system will positively influence OCB. Even if this is not the case, job satisfaction would mediate the

OJ-OCB relationship on the basis of the following evidences in the literature: OJ makes a significant

positive effect on job satisfaction (Ibrahim & Parez, 2014); and job satisfaction makes a significant

positive effect on OCB (Foote & Tang, 2008). This notwithstanding, this mediation effect has not

been sufficiently tested in the literature or in previous research (Iqbal, 2013; Ibrahim & Parez,

2014). In BBGL in particular, no identifiable and recent study has assessed this effect. This study

therefore examines the mediation role of job satisfaction in the OJ-OCB relationship.

LITERATURE REVIEW

High performance and growth are primary ends pursued by every organisation. To achieve these

goals, management would have to take relevant steps to empower employees to develop and

implement suitable strategies. Employee development through on-the-job training, compensation,

and motivation are some of the traditional ways to empower employees to contribute to

organisational performance and growth. Within the framework of organisational motivation

procedures is organisational justice delivery, which some researchers (Nandan & Azim, 2015;

Tabatabei et al., 2015) simply refer to as the “capacity of the organisation to be equitably

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.8, Issue 2, Febraury-2021

distribute its wealth, opportunities, and favours”. Every human being desire to be treated fairly. As

a result, employees of an organisation would want their rewards to be fairly balanced with their

quotas. Similarly, they would want to identify with organisations where discrimination along

racial, religious, and tribal grounds are eschewed or frowned at. Yardan et al. (2014) opined long

these lines or argument that being treated fairly is among needs cherished by employees.

Organisational justice delivery is therefore considered in the literature a practice that motivates

employees towards developing job commitment. Many studies (Foote & Tang, 2008; Ibrahim &

Perez, 2014; Dajani, 2015) have also confirmed a positive association between organisational

justice and commitment. But there is more to the impact that organisational justice can make on

employees.

In an organisational setting, a key performance indicator is employee satisfaction. Organisational

commitment has been confirmed empirically to be rooted in job satisfaction (Karim & Rahman,

2012; Dajani, 2015). By implication, employee commitment increases as their level of job

satisfaction increases. From this perspective, job satisfaction is relevant to employee and

organisational performance. Like motivation, satisfaction comes from the ability of the

organisation to meet employee needs and expectations (Mohammed et al., 2011). Thus, the better

the organisation meets the emotional, social, and material needs of its employees, the higher the

level of job satisfaction of these employees. Needs and expectations of an employees are usually

met on the basis of the organisation’s justice delivery policy. A policy that supports equitable

distribution of resources and opportunities would better impress employees as internal

stakeholders and engender their satisfaction. On the basis of some studies (Nandan & Azim, 2015;

Tabatabei et al., 2015) therefore, one feature shared by both commitment and satisfaction is that

they are both influenced by organisational justice delivery. Worth mentioning at this stage is the

fact that job satisfaction influences behaviour (Foote & Tang, 2008), particularly in the

environment where it is determined. Invariably, conditions in an organisation that determine job

satisfaction is likely to influence behaviour of employees in the organisation. Drawing from the

discussion so far, job satisfaction is influenced by organisational justice delivery. This being the

case, organisational justice can be associated with employee citizenship behaviour through job

satisfaction.

As an organisational motivational program, organisational justice delivery can affect employees’

sense of organisational citizenship. When the organisation delivers justice to the benefit of all

employees, this encourages individual workers to develop a stronger sense of attachment to the

organisation, leading to satisfaction and positive organisational citizenship behaviour. This idea is

empirically corroborated by several studies (Chegini, 2009; Damirchi et al., 2013; Yardan et al.,

2014; Nandan & Azim, 2015) that have found that organisational justice is positively associated

organisational citizenship behaviour. The discussion above suggests that organisational justice

delivery can be positively related to job satisfaction and organisational citizenship between.

Owing to the empirically backed relationship between job satisfaction and organisational

citizenship behaviour, the linkage between organisational justice and organisational citizenship

behaviour can be mediated by job satisfaction. The argument so far suggests that there can be a

nexus between OCB, job satisfaction, and organisational justice.

Organisational justice describes what perceptions employees have about the fairness they receive

from their organisation and the behavioural reaction’s that these perceptions evoke (Damirchi et