2014 Research Academy of Social Sciences

http://www.rassweb.com 494
International Journal of Management Sciences
Vol. 2, No. 11, 2014, 494-500

The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement between the
Relationship of Distributive Justice and Organizational Citizenship
Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Aviation Sector of Pakistan



Zohaib Hassan
1
, Dr Muhammad Arif khattak
2
, Zafar Saleem
3
, Ansar Ali Rajput
4


Abstract
The aim of this study was to find out the impact of Distributive Justice on Organizational Citizenship
Behavior with the mediating role of Employee Engagement in Aviation sector of Pakistan. Data was
gathered from airport employees of aviation companies in Islamabad and Peshawar International Airport.
200 questionnaires were distributed &155 were collected. Results confirmed that Employee Engagement
mediates the relationship between Distributive Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. This
research fulfilled gap in the literature by investigating Employee Engagement as a mediator between
distributive justice and organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover this study have implications for
aviation sector manager and supervisor that they can increase the effectiveness of their organization by
treating their employees in fair way.
Keywords: organizational Justice, distributive Justice, employee engagement, organizational citizenship
behavior, aviation sector.

1. Introduction
This global world is looking for high performance organizations and institutions for enhancing the
economy of the entire world. This is only possible when the organizations provide their workforce with
satisfied work place, fair treatment and appraisal for their hard work. In today world issues of fairness are
important concepts to most people. In businesses, it could be seen as a reward to contribution ratio and to the
extent that decision making procedure are in a fair manner.
Organizational justice is dominated topic in organization life (Cremer, 2005). It may be defined as
Perceptions of employees about treating fairly by their organizations and their behavioral responses towards
such perception (James, 1993). Organizational justice is consisted of three items which are:-distributive
justice, procedural justice and interactional justice (Colquit, 2001).According to Moorman (1991)
Distributive justice is concerned with fairness of outcomes which an employee receives i.e. salary and
promotion and procedural justice describes fairness of procedures which are used in determining employee
outcomes. Interactional justice is described as the kind of the interpersonal behavior between employees
(Bies & Moag, 1986). This study will engage only one dimension of organizational justice i.e. distributive
justice to explore its impact on organizational citizenship behavior using employee engagement as mediator.
The survival of organization mainly depends on the employees working in it. The feeling, thinking,
attitude towards work and behavior of these individual have a far reaching effect on the success of
organization. Employees perception of fairness in organization effect their attitude and extra role behaviors,
their intention to stay with or leave the organization. These extra role behaviors are called organization

1
MS Scholar, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University Islamabad
2
Assistant Professor, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University Islamabad
3
National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad
4
Associate Professor, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University Islamabad

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495

citizenship behavior which results from treating employees in a fair manner. Damirchi, Talatapeh and
Darban (2013) and Iqbal et al. (2012) conducted research on exploring the link between organizational
justice and organizational citizenship behavior and they found positive association between these two
constructs.
According to Saks (2006) distributive justice is one of the antecedents of employee engagement. Kahn
(1990) implied that employee engagement as the physical, emotional and mental presence of employee in his
job. When employees perceive themselves that they are fairly treated, theyre likely to feel more gratified
and will show fairness in performing their duties through engagement.
Alvi and Abassi (2012) conducted a research in Pakistan and concluded that organizational justice
perform a key role in enhancing employee engagement in corporate sector. Rurkkhum, Kenneth and Bartlett
(2012) discussed that employees who are more engaged are likely to show extra role behaviors which are
known as organizational citizenship behavior.
Research Question
Does employee engagement mediates the relationship between distributive justice and organizational
citizenship behavior?

2. Literature Review
Distributive Justice
According to Moorman (1991) Distributive justice is concerned with the fairness of outcome an
employees receives such as pay and promotions (Moorman, 1991). Distributive justice is the first of the
justice types which is appearing in literature. Adam (1965) work on equity theory becomes the base from
which most of the research regarding distributive justice is derived. He suggested that employees in
organizations are more concerned with fairness of job related outcome relative to their inputs. That is, if a
person is getting high salary then his other colleague, that person is said to be inequitably overpaid and the
other employee is said to be inequitably underpaid. Greenberg (1990) implies that same outcomes are
theoretically said to give equality and job satisfaction.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Organizational citizenship behavior is voluntary action by employees that is not clearly mentioned in the
formal system of reward and punishment in the organization and wholly supporting the effectiveness and
efficiency of the organization (Organ, 1988). Citizenship behavior improves performance of the organization
by increasing effectiveness through greasing the engine and reducing the friction (Podsakoff et al, 1997).
Previous literature shows that organizational justice has three components namely distributive justice,
procedural justice and interactional justice. These justice components are linked to various outcomes, which
are satisfaction, citizenship, withdrawal and commitment (Colquitt et al., 2001). Iqbal, aziz and tassawar
(2012) examine correlation between distributive justice and organizational citizenship behavior and found
that distributive justice is correlated positively with organizational citizenship behavior. Similar results are
found in the study of Damirchi, Talatapeh and Darban (2013), the results show that all dimensions of
organizational justice are significantly and highly related with organizational citizenship behavior.
Organ (1988) argues that people engage in organizational citizenship behavior in response to the
perceptions of being fairly treated by their organization. Results of a study conducted on entrepreneurial
firms in Pakistan shows that distributive justice is related with organizational citizenship behavior (Hussain
et al. 2012).
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is extensively used and it is most popular topic in research. Employee
engagement is defined in many different ways. According to Kahn (1990) employee engagement is the
attachment of organization employees to their work role and in engagement individual employ and express
themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally during their work performance. The mental aspect of
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496

engagement mean that what are employees beliefs about the organization and emotional aspect means what
employees feels and whether those employees hold positive or negative attitude about the organization and
its leaders. The physical aspect of employee engagement means the physical energies used by employees to
accomplish their roles.
According to Gallop organization engaged employees are those who work with enthusiasm and passion
and feeling a strong connection with their company and drives innovation and to moving the organization in
forward way(GMJ, 2006).
According to a research conducted by Alvi and Abbasi (2012) distributive justice is considered as the
predictor of employee engagement. Results of this study reveal that distributive is related significantly with
employee engagement. Saks (2006) also proved that distributive justice is positively associated with
employee engagement. Maslach, Schaufelli and Leiter (2001) concluded that positive perceptions of justice
can enhance engagement.
Ahmad, Rasheed and Jahanzaib (2011) identified key predictors of organizational citizenship behavior
through a qualitative approach based study and these key predictors are commitment, employee engagement,
job satisfaction, and human resource development climate. It is proposed that well established predictors of
Organizational citizenship behavior might promote required behaviors of employees for the improvement of
their performance.
A study was conducted on 522 employees from four big companies of Thailand for exploring
relationship of employee engagement and OCB. The result of that study shown that employee engagement is
positive related to organizational citizenship behavior (Rurkkhum & Bartlett, 2012).

3. Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses
Our model is supported by social exchange theory developed by Geoge Homans in 1960s. This study
examines a model of employee engagement between distributive justice as antecedent (from organization)
and organizational citizenship behavior (from employees) as a result of this exchange.




IV MV DV

Four hypotheses were developed from this model following Barron and Kenny (1986) assumptions to
test the mediating relationship.
H1: There is significant positive impact of distributive justice on organizational citizenship behavior.
H2: There is significant positive impact of Distributive Justice on Employee engagement.
H3: There is significant positive impact of Employee engagement on Organizational Citizenship
Behavior.
H4: Employee Engagement mediates the relationship between Distributive Justice and Organizational
Citizenship Behavior.

4. Methodology
The study is conducted on Aviation sector of Pakistan. Data was collected from Benenzir Bhutto
International Airport Islamabad and Bacha Khan International Airport Peshawar. Convenient sampling
technique was used. The sample size for the study is 155. Five point likert scale questionnaire ranging from
Distributive
Justice
Employee
Engagement
Organizational
Citizenship
Behavior
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Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree was used. SPSS V.20 software was used for the analysis of data.
Initially 200 questionnaires were distributed and 155 were received back. The response rate was 77.5%.
Instrumentation
Structured, close ended questionnaire measuring the response of three variables on five point likert scale
which range from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. 1= strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3= neutral, 4=
agree, 5= strongly agree. These variables obtained under examine were used from diverse sources.
Distributive Justice Measurement
Instrument used in this study for distributive justice is developed by Niehoff and Moorman (1993). This
instrument consisted of 5 items. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of this instrument was 0.87.
Employee Engagement Measurement
Employee engagement was measured through 12-items scale developed by Gallop Work place audit
(GWA). Cronbach alpha reliability of this measure was .90.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior Measurement
The instrument used for Organizational Citizenship Behavior was developed by Podsakof, McKenzie,
Moorman and Fetter (1990). This instrument consists of 12 items. Cronbach alpha reliability of this measure
was .87.

5. Results

Table 1
Correlation Analysis
DJ EmpEng OCB
Distributive Justice 1
Employee Engagement .410** 1
Organizational Citizenship Behavior .399** .381** 1

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Correlation analysis revealed that distributive justice had a significant positive relationship with
employee engagement (r=0.410**, p<0.01), organizational citizenship behavior (r=0.399**, p<0.01) which
means that employee engagement increases with the increase in distributive justice.
The above table also revealed that employee engagement had a significant positive relationship with
organizational citizenship behavior (r=0.381**, p<0.01) which means that organizational citizenship
behavior increases with increase in employee engagement.
Regression Analysis
For testing of hypothesis developed in this study linear regression was run. Barron and Kenny (1986)
assumptions were used for testing mediation.
H1: There is significant positive impact of distributive justice on organizational citizenship behavior.

Table 2
R-Square F-value P-value
Distributive Justice 0.159 28.909 0.399 0.000
Dependent Variable: organizational citizenship behavior

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In the above table the value of R Square shows that 15.9% variation in Organizational citizenship
Behavior is due to Distributive justice. The value of F (28.909, p<.001) shows that the model possess
significant overall strength. This ensures the correctness of the model. Beta coefficients shows that
Distributive Justice (Beta= .399, p<0.001) is positively related to Organizational Citizenship Behavior.
Hence the results support H1.
H2: There is significant positive impact of Distributive Justice on Employee engagement.

Table 3
R-Square F-value P-value
Distributive Justice 0.168 30.980 0.410 0.000
Dependent Variable: employee engagement

In the above table the value of R square shows 16.8% variation in Employee engagement is due to
Distributive Justice. F-statistics was carried out to find the overall strength of the model. The value of F
(30.980, p<0.001) shows that the model possess significant overall strength. This ensures the correctness of
the model. Beta coefficients shows that Distributive Justice (Beta= .410, p<0.001) is positively related to
Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Hence the results support H2.
H3: There is significant positive impact of Employee engagement on Organizational Citizenship Behavior.

Table 4
R-Square F-value P-value
Employee
Engagement
0.145 25.986 0.381 0.000
Dependent Variable: employee engagement

In the above table the value of R Square shows that 14.5% variation in Organizational Citizenship
Behavior is due to employee engagement. The value of F (25.986, p<0.001) shows that the model posses
significant overall strength. This ensures the correctness of the model. Beta coefficients shows that employee
engagement (Beta= .381, p<0.001) is positively related to Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Hence the
results support H3
H4: Employee Engagement mediates the relationship between Distributive Justice and Organizational
Citizenship Behavior.
Table 5
R-Square F-value P-value
Employee Engagement,
Distributive Justice
0.216 20.911 0.291 0.000
Dependent Variable: employee engagement

The above table shows that the value of R Square shows 21.6% variation in Organizational Citizenship
Behavior by Distributive Justice after controlling the mediating variable. The value of F (20.911, p<0.001)
shows that the model possesses significant overall strength. After controlling the mediating variable
Employee Engagement the beta coefficient is reduced from 0.399 to 0.291 but it is still significant p>0.001
which shows partial mediation, so we can say that Employee Engagement partially mediate the relationship
between Distributive justice and Organizational Citizenship behavior which supports H4.

6. Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendation
The aim of this research was to check the mediating role of employee engagement on the relationship
between distributive justice and organizational citizenship behavior in aviation sector of Pakistan. The
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499

empirical analysis revealed distributive justice and organizational citizenship behavior are significantly
positive related. When employee perceive that their organization is treating them fairly, they will engage
their selves in organizational citizenship Behavior in response to that just treatment. In Aviation sector of
Pakistan when employees are fairly treated and the development of all stakeholders is concerned with the
employees. By treating employees in fair way the Organizational Citizenship Behavior of employees
increases. The current findings aligned with the finding of (Damirchi, Talatapeh and Darban 2013; Iqbal,
aziz and tassawar, 2012; Hussain, 2012; Colquitt et all., 2001; Organ, 1988). The analysis also shown a
significant positive relationship between Distributive Justice and Employee engagement. In Aviation sector
of Pakistan perceptions of distributive justice enhance employee engagement through which employees
physically, cognitively and emotionally get attached to their roles. The current findings are aligned with the
finding of (Alvi and Abbasi, 2012; Saks, 2006; Maslach, Schaufelli and Leiter, 2001).
The analysis revealed a significant relationship between Employee engagement and organizational
citizenship behavior. Engaged employees in aviation sector of Pakistan shows organizational citizenship
behavior which they perform above their job responsibilities. When employees get engaged in their roles,
they then not only perform their formal tasks but put more extra time in other activities which is beyond their
formal task requirements. The current findings are aligned with the finding of (Neeta, 2013; Rana and
Chhabra 2011; Rich, 2006; Rurkkhum and Bartlett, 2012). Our results revealed that employee engagement
partially mediates the relationship between distributive justice and organizational citizenship behavior. The
current findings are new which fulfill a literature gap in the study of distributive justice. Employees when
perceive that they are fairly treated they show employee engagement where they get passionately attached
and fell deep connection with the organization which in turn engage them in organizational citizenship
behavior. Literature is silent about the mediating role of employee engagement between the relationship of
distributive justice and organizational citizenship behavior. All previous researchers have checked direct
relationship of distributive justice with other work variables.
This study has found that distributive justice plays an important role in enhancing employee engagement
and organizational citizenship behavior. Therefore, Aviation companies should pay more attention to
developing specific human resource policies that ensure equitable distribution of rewards and resources
among employees.
Organizational Justice is not a widely explored area. In Pakistan the research in the field of
organizational justice is very low. Due to this the main limitations of this study are Lack of awareness about
distributive justice by employees, cross-sectional nature of the data and small sample size.
Future researcher could investigate it through large sample size and also can introduce other variable in
the model and explore other area for more generalize results.

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