The Mediating Role of Work Commitment on the Relationship between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: The French Police Case
Issues of justice and equity remain a major concern for employees. However, forms of organizational justice have differential effects on organizational citizenship behaviours. In this article, we look at the mediating role of work commitment. Based on the Job demands and resources framework (Demerouti et al., 2001), we put forward an integrative model that supports the notion that perceived organizational justice acts as an important resource that develops work commitment and, in turn, leads to organizational citizenship behaviours. We hypothesize that different forms of perceived justice have motivational properties that promote high levels of work commitment and, accordingly, high levels of extra-role performance. Our study sheds light on the motivational process, through an examination of work commitment, which occurs between different forms of perceived justice and organizational citizenship behaviours. Our study focuses on the specific context of the French police who, with the introduction of new management tools, face unprecedented problems of equity, rather than equality. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to discuss issues of justice in the context of the French police force. The results of our study, using a sample of 718 police officers, indicate that the dedication of police officers is the principal dimension of work commitment that best explains the effects of perceived organizational justice on organizational citizenship behaviours. The implications in terms of HR practices in the police force are then discussed.