The Role of Organizational Justice and Job Rotation in Job Satisfaction and Work Attitudes: An Exploratory Study in Indonesia

Abstract

The goal of the research is to identify the relationship between organizational justice, job satisfaction, and work attitudes in the context of job rotation. The competence and loyalty of the employees of an organization are critical to the organization's success. Therefore, organization should invest in developing their employees, including creating effective procedures and human resource management policies. A job rotation program is one of the critical policies in developing employees, as through this program employees can develop and actualize their abilities. However, there are some challenges in practice regarding implementing the procedures of job rotation. One of the challenges is related to the concept of organizational justice, which then impacts on employees' job satisfaction and work attitudes. This study was conducted in focused group discussions. The sample is 272 of a state-owned organization. In this study, the concept of organizational justice, with the dimensions of distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice, were used along with the discussion of job satisfaction and other work attitudes. The results were issues of fairness in perceiving organizational justice in the job rotation context, and the most significant response lies in procedural justice.

1. Introduction

Employees, especially talents, are essential in the organization, as their performance will become its performance. As a result, many organizations pay adequate attention to their employees, their well-being, and their career development. Meanwhile, several problems confront the HRM division in pursuing this talent’s development and even forcing them to resign from their company. They believe the company has denied them the opportunity to reach their full potential. Mulligan and Taylor (2019) supported this claim, stating that a lack of opportunities for advancement is the top reason employees leave their companies.

Meanwhile, a job rotation is a program to develop employees’ career. During this job rotation program, employees are exposed to various challenging experiences that will enrich their wisdom in managing the organization by holding many different positions and posting in many different areas. Consequently, a perfect program is needed. However, a program of job rotation faces many challenges like many other human resource programs. The issue of fairness, openness, and objectivity primarily arises in implementing the program. These issues have a close relationship with employees’ perception of management’s policies regarding procedural justice, distributive justice, and interactional justice.

Justice is a prerequisite for social life, work, and organization. Previous research showed that many components of organizational justice have impacts on employees’ work attitudes (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Colquitt et al., 2001). Aryee et al. (2013) also mentioned that justice is a significant issue for employees and organizations. The social exchange theory mentioned that people would react according to what they receive. Consequently, if people perceive injustice and unfair treatment, they will take revenge (Aquino et al., 2001). In other words, organizational justice can be regarded as a predictor of employees’ attitudes and behavior in the organization (Müller & Djuatio, 2011). Justices also play an essential role in organizations while making necessary decisions on the issues of job role allocations, promotions, and many other benefits.

There is a growing interest in organizational justice, and several organizational psychologists have studied on perception of organizational justice on the various organizational aspects (Dowden & Tellier, 2004; Kwong & Leung, 2002; Lines, 2005). Nevertheless, the data showed that a limited number of researchers had studied the connection between organizational justice, job rotation, and its impact on employees’ work attitudes. This present study will discuss the impact of organizational justice in job rotation concerning job satisfaction and work attitudes.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Job Rotation

One of the human resources development programs is to retain and develop their employees by conducting a job rotation program. Job rotation happens when employees shift from one job to another in the same organization or rotate to another job with similar skills requirements. When the job is no longer challenging to a certain employee, then he/she is moved to a different job, with the same level or with similar skills requirements (Fiester et al., 2008). The job rotation program is quite popular amongst HR management, as it offers employee’s specific assignments that allow them to get a broad picture of the entire operation of the organization. The experience in a new job or even a new place will also decrease their boredom, enhancing their satisfaction with the organization (Hsieh & Chao, 2004; Fiester et al., 2008; Dhanraj & Parumasur, 2014). Job rotation also addresses employees’ monotony and fatigue due to the job simplification and specialization. As a result, empowering workers to work together and help each other is a must (Hsieh & Chao, 2004). Job rotation may also develop an opportunity for career promotion and development, as, by job rotation, employees have the opportunity to grow and optimize their potential (Casad, 2012). In terms of employee development, the job rotation program increased skills development. Employee development includes employees’ self-awareness about their potency and competencies, which will give the organization a greater understanding of employees’ strengths (Kampkötter et al., 2016). Thus, job rotation program will develop the employees’ competencies and might improve the development of their careers. Consequently, the subordinates have to learn new things and different jobs by being provided of fair job rotation opportunities (Mulligan & Taylor, 2019) and the organization’s needs.

Understanding job rotation and its impacts on employee development makes every employee realize that they should have equal information, treatment, and opportunities about job rotation. Adequate information related to job rotation, such as the criteria, duration, place, and much other important information, is needed. Then, suppose there is a justice perception of job rotation, the employees will be more loyal to the institution and its leaders, willing to stay, develop their careers, and dedicate themselves to the organization.

2.2. Organizational Justice

Organizational justice refers to fairness in perceiving the organization’s employees in terms of procedures, interactions, and outcomes (Baldwin, 2006). Organizational justice is an individual employee’s perception of their hierarchical superior, their peer, or the organization’s system in general (Dunaetz, 2010). Organizational justice also defines people’s perception of how they have been treated in one organization (Muchinsky, 2016). There are three dimensions of organizational justice: a) Distributive justice, which is concerned with fair treatment for all workers in terms of rewards and benefits allocation, b) Procedural justice, which refers to how the process of rewards is allocated and established certain principles in governing the decision making processes, and c) Interactional justice, which has two components; first is informational justice, which refers to a truthful, adequate justification and information when things go wrong; and the second is called interpersonal justice, which relates to the respect of one treating another. Both are important, as interactional justice emphasizes one-on- one transactions (Colquitt et al., 2001). Interactional justice also concerns how people’s behaviors react in the workplace (Chou, 2009).

Previous research has shown that procedural justice can mitigate the harmful effects of unfavorable outcomes in the organization and the management, and interactional justice refers to how one person treats another and appropriately shares information with others without any favoritism. In this study, the profile of organizational justice will be calculated for each dimension concerning the process of job rotation.

2.3. Organizational Justice and Job Satisfaction

Researchers on HRM stated that job satisfaction consists of various aspects such as salaries, facilities, career development, supervisors, and team members (Ivancevich & Matteson, 2005). Further, fringe benefits, working conditions, procedures, and policies were also components of job satisfaction. In this regard, previous studies showed that organizational justice and job satisfaction were positively correlated (Kwong & Leung, 2002; Fairbrother & Warn, 2003; Shokerkon & Neamii, 2003; Irving et al., 2005; Cedwyn & Awameleh, 2006; Bakhshi et al., 2009; Loi et al., 2009). Based on these discussions, the first proposition is as follows:

Proposition 1: Organizational justice leads to job satisfaction.

There are also various research results regarding justice and job satisfaction, such as Cohen-Charash and Spector (2001), which stated that distributive justice is the most significant predictor of job satisfaction. Meanwhile, previous research showed that procedural justice is a critical variable (Colquitt et al., 2001). Further, Clay-Warner et al. (2005) also mentioned a connection between job satisfaction and procedural and distributive justice. Moreover, studies also showed that distributive, procedural, and interpersonal had influenced employee job satisfaction (Loi et al., 2009). Based on these discussions, the second proposition is as follows:

Proposition 2: Distributive, procedural, and interactional justice lead to job satisfaction.

2.4. Organizational Justice and Work Attitudes

Employees’ work attitudes include organizational citizenship behavior, employee organizational commitment, turnover intention, and organizational performance (Cohen- Charash & Spector, 2001). Previous study found that there is a positive relationship between organizational justice and employees’ work attitude (Shokerkon & Neamii, 2003) and organizational performance (Clay-Warner et al., 2005). Further, previous research also found that three dimensions of organizational justice were correlated with organizational commitment (Kwong & Leung, 2002; Fairbrother & Warn, 2003; Dowden & Tellier, 2004; Judge & Colquitt, 2004; Lambert et al., 2005; Griffin et al., 2008; Bakhshi et al., 2009). Similar research also showed that procedural and interactional justice had correlated to organizational commitment (Klendauer & Deller, 2009).

Further, studies also showed a relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior (Bhupatkar, 2003; Muhammad, 2004; Chegini, 2009; Orlowska, 2011; Jafari & Bidarian, 2012). With the perception of the lack of justice in the organization, people were reluctant to conduct extra work. Lack of organizational justice could also demote employees and harm morale (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Colquitt et al., 2001; Viswesvaran & Ones, 2002; Sutanto et al., 2018; Robbins & Judge, 2017). In this regard, employees are just doing their jobs and business as usual without a sense of passion and need for achievement.

Employees’ perceptions of a lack of fairness and justice will also impact low employee engagement (Ghosh, Ray, & Sinha, 2014). Various studies (Maslach et al., 2001; Saks, 2006; Kittredge, 2010) also showed that organizational justice has a relationship with employee engagement, and procedural justice predicts employee engagement (Saks, 2006; Kittredge, 2010; Karatepe, 2011). Moreover, the perception of a lack of justice will also have an impact on low employee engagement (Ghosh & Sinha, 2014) (Ghosh, Ray, & Sinha, 2014). Previous studies also showed that employees might intend to leave the organization due to the perception of lack of justice and fairness. (Hassan, 2002; Loi et al., 2006). Based on the above discussion, proposition 3 is as follows (Figure 1):

Proposition 3: Organizational justice leads to work attitudes.

The research model is as follows:

Figure 1: Research Model

3. Methodology

This research used a qualitative approach, and the participants were collected through purposive random sampling, with a non-probability sampling procedure (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). The total number of participants was 272 persons, consisting of the Directors, Deputy Directors, and Head of Branches in many level types of branches.

The research design is qualitative, and focused group discussion (FGD) was used to gather the data. The FGD will explore participants’ insights, views, and contributions to identify their perceived organizational justice in job rotation, which influences their work attitudes. The FGD was conducted in 15 times online and three hours for each time. The utilization of digital recording and note-taking was applied to capture the data. Then, the data were analyzed and interpreted using qualitative content analysis to find patterns in the transcriptions and make categorization and relation to other variables.

4. Results

The result is categorized by the types of organizational justice that appeared during the FGD and the profile of work attitudes. The types of organizational justice found during FGD are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The Types of Organizational Justice

Table 1 shows that from 381 responses, there were consists of 81.1% procedural justice, 13.65%, interactional justice and 5.25% distributive justice. It concludes that there is a strong feeling and perception about the lack of organizational justice, and more strongly in procedural justice.

The profile of organizational justice is shown in Figure 2. It shows that most job rotation issues and promotions lie in procedural justice (81.1%). The rest issues are split between interactional justice (13.65%) and distributive justice (5.25%).

Figure 2: Profile of Organizational Justice

Table 2 shows that employees were expressing negative work attitudes in response to
the lack of organizational justice they have experienced in the organization concerning job rotation. These results supported the previous concept that organizational justice is related to job satisfaction. Thus, Proposition 1 was supported, which states that a high perception of organizational justice leads to high job satisfaction, or a low perception of organizational justice leads to low job satisfaction.

Table 2: Profile of Work’s Attitude and Employee’s Feeling

The results also showed that three types of organizational justice in these findings related to feelings of job satisfaction, and it also showed that procedural justice was the strongest. Based on these findings, the second proposition stated that three types of organizational justice, namely: distributive, procedural, and interactional justice, positively correlated with job satisfaction is supported.

Furthermore, results also showed that many negative work attitudes were expressed during the discussion regarding low organizational justice. Many negative work attitudes were expressed during the discussion in terms of a relationship between lack of organizational justice and low affective organizational commitment; low organizational citizenship behavior, such as unwillingness to work after office hour. Low employee engagement, low motivation, and high continuance commitment tend to leave the organization. These findings supported the third proposition, which stated that organizational justice positively relates to work attitudes.

5. Discussion

An exemplary implementation of a job rotation program will establish experience and knowledge of various tasks and the acquisition of skills, which can be used to broaden the scope of knowledge and skills. In return, these kinds of sharing knowledge and experiences will provide challenges, reduce boredom, and stimulate new ideas, which will develop personal growth and develop and groom the talents in the organization. Moreover, previous studies also found that job rotation positively impacts employee well-being (Origo & Pagani, 2008). Further, previous studies also revealed that job satisfaction is a symptom shown due to perceived organizational justice (Al-Zu’bi, 2010).

This study showed that lack of organizational justice would lead to low job satisfaction, and effective job rotation with high organizational justice might increase job satisfaction. The findings of the study supported the previous studies, which showed that organizational justice and job satisfaction positively correlate (Kwong & Leung, 2002; Fairbrother & Warn, 2003; Shokerkon & Neamii, 2003; Lambert al., 2005; Cedwyn & Awameleh, 2006; Bakhshi et al., 2009; Loi et al., 2009).

In this regard, people with high job satisfaction will deliver a positive attitude towards their job. Contrary, a dissatisfied person in their job might show a negative attitude towards their job (Wells et al., 2007). Not only that, job satisfaction might influence absenteeism, organizational citizenship behaviors, and turnover. The findings showed that high organizational justice would lead to positive work attitudes, or low organizational justice would lead to hostile work attitudes. These findings support the previous findings (Farmer et al., 2003; Taxman & Gordon, 2009, Crow et al., 2012) and confirm a positive relationship between organizational justice and commitment. Furthermore, it is shown that organizational justice lead to organizational commitment, which supports the previous finding on the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment (Kwong & Leung, 2002; Fairbrother & Warn, 2003; Dowden & Tellier, 2004; Judge & Colquitt, 2004; Lambert et al., 2005; Griffin et al., 2008; Bakhshi et al., 2009).

Moreover, procedural and interactional justice had led to organizational commitment; this supports the findings that showed organizational justice had correlated with organizational commitment (Klendauer & Deller, 2009). Through the perception of justice, employees will develop a sense of attachment with the organization and have an affective commitment to the organization. Moreover, with the trust of the management, employees will develop a sense of affective commitment to change (Mangundjaya, 2019).

Meanwhile, the lack of organizational justice might develop a sense of hatred for the organization, which might lead to the intention of quitting the organization or staying in the organization due to the good facilities offered by the organization (continuance of organizational commitment). The studies support the findings on the intention to leave the organization (Hassan, 2002; Loi et al., 2006). Studies conducted by Mulligan and Taylor (2019) also showed that talents would leave the organization in less than one year if fewer employee development opportunities were.

Moreover, the findings showed that employees’ perceptions of a lack of fairness would lead to the perception of a lack of justice. This condition impacts low employee engagement. The results of the study also supported the previous research on the relationships between organizational justice and employee engagement (Maslach et al., 2001; Saks, 2006; Bakhshi et al., 2009; Kittredge, 2010; Ghosh & Sinha, 2014) and procedural justice has predicted employee engagement (Saks, 2006; Kittredge 2010; Karatepe, 2011).

Further, this study also supported the previous study about the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior. Previous research conducted by (Bhupatkar, 2003; Muhammad, 2004; Chegini, 2009; Orlowska, 2011; Jafari & Bidarian, 2012) showed a relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and organizational justice. The studies showed that the lack of procedural justice made employees reluctant to do extra work and only treated them as routine jobs with less passion.

Studies also showed that lack of organizational justice could make people demotivated and would make low morale, and supported the previous findings (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Colquitt et al., 2001; Viswesvaran & Ones, 2002; Sutanto et al., 2018; Robbins & Judge, 2017). In this regard, employees are just doing their jobs and business as usual without a sense of need for achievement.

Meanwhile, if employees perceive a lack of organizational justice, especially procedural justice, this will lead to dissatisfaction, and they will leave the organization (turnover). This phenomenon is in line with the study of Dhanraj and Parumasur (2014). Previous researchers also showed that injustice might provoke lower performance and harm morale (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Colquitt et al., 2001; Viswesvaran & Ones, 2002). These kinds of dynamic work attitudes are also found in this study. The study conducted by Mappamiring, Akob, and Putra (2020) found that the level of attention of the organization pays to career development, with flexibility in regulations and rules, will enhance the millennial’s willingness to stay in the organization.

Findings also showed some expressions of low organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), such as unwillingness to do extra work. This relation supported the previous findings by Jafari and Bidarian (2012). Further study is recommended to identify the relations of distributive, procedural, and interactive justice with OCB dimensions to gather a more detailed profile of this relationship. Furthermore, the current investigations revealed that procedural justice in the context of job rotation causes the most dissatisfaction in terms of perceived organizational justice.

The previous findings showed that people perceive high procedural and interactional justice when the results of evaluating and determining the outcome’s distribution are fair (Colquitt et al., 2001; Brockner, 2002; Skitka & Crosby, 2003; Brockner et al., 2008). Prior research also indicated that employees’ perception of fairness in the distribution of payment and their perception of the process will have an affect on the employee’s commitment to the organization’s goals (Taxman & Gordon, 2009). Meanwhile, in this study, employees perceive unfairness in procedural justice, which affects their job satisfaction and affective commitment to the organization, as they stay in the organization due to a good salary and facilities compared to other organizations. Astuty and Udin (2020) studies showed that Perceived Organizational Support (POS) had a significant effect on affective commitmento the organizationt. The participants’ responses also indicated there are dissatisfaction and demotivation. This finding supported the previous research by Sutanto et al. (2018), which found that lack of organizational justice impacted the low motivation of the employees.

Mulligan and Taylor (2019) mentioned that one of the leader’s jobs is establishing a good relationship with their team member. A harmonious relationship between superiors and subordinates will also create a conducive organizational climate. In general, a good relationship between employees and with the position holder in human resources management and job rotation placement officers is needed, as these officers will establish interactional justice. Furthermore, Cropanzano, Prehar, and Chen (2002) and Rupp and Cropanzano (2002) showed that how supervisors treat their subordinates will influence interactional justice. If there is a strong relationship, then, in turn, it will motivate employees to higher job performance. The good relationship will also create a conducive organizational climate for all employees.

The limitations of the study are lies on the approach of data collection tool, and the demographic profile. The first limitation is the qualitative approach used as a tool of data collection in the FGD will not be possible to involve many respondents in one group and discuss many variables of organizational justice in the job rotation in each session. It recommends using quantitative measurement such as surveys, which can analyze and interpret cause and effect. The second limitation is the demographic profile of the participants who are the leaders possess positions in their work units. They are from the supervisory level to the director level. In this case, further study, the participants should be enlarged with staff to capture more opinions about organizational justice perception in the job rotation and promotion program. Moreover, this study only discusses the relationship between organizational justice, job satisfaction, and work attitudes. Meanwhile, as there is a fast-changing change in the environment that demands organizational changes and agility, studies about organizational justice and people’s attitude toward organizational change, (both readiness and commitment to change, ) are also needed. The previous study showed that charismatic leadership and resilience had some impact on affective commitment to change (Mangundjaya & Amir, 2021). However, there were no studies yet about the role of charismatic leadership and organizational justice in the affective commitment to change, future studies about this is also recommended.

6. Conclusion

This study aims to identify organizational justice in an organizational framework, especially job rotation. This study also explored the role of job rotation and organizational justice in developing employees’ work attitudes in a public service organization. Moreover, as an organization is changing, employees should also have a positive attitude toward organizational change or usually called a commitment to change. This study supported the previous study that showed lack of justice have an impact on affective commitment to change (Saunders & Thornhill, 2003; Klendauer & Deller, 2009). Or in other words, people with low organizational justice might also have low affective commitment to change. Developing organizational justice requires management to take the ideas and opinions from the perspective of employees. In this regard, management needs to understand what sorts of events and behavior that might develop this subjective feeling of organizational justice (Cropanzano, Bowen, & Gilliland, 2007).

The findings from the study are also expected to make a significant contribution to the existing literature on organizational justice. It was found that procedural justice has the most substantial impact on job satisfaction and work attitudes. Based on these findings, the organization is recommended to pay attention to and consider developing organizational justice throughout the job rotation programs to develop a sense of job satisfaction, positive work attitudes and retain talent in the organization.