Procedural justice, distributive justice: How experiences with downsizing condition their impact on organizational commitment

Previous research demonstrates that both procedural justice and distributive justice are important predictors of work attitudes. This research, however, fails to examine conditions that affect the relative importance of each type of justice. Here we argue that prior experiences with regard to downsizing shape individuals' workplace schemas, which in turn affect the relative salience of each type of justice for organizational commitment. We test hypotheses using data from a nationally representative sample of workers. Only distributive justice predicts organizational commitment among victims of downsizing, while procedural justice is the stronger predictor among survivors of downsizing and unaffected workers. Comparisons across models indicate that procedural justice is a more important predictor of organizational commitment for survivors and unaffected workers than for victims, while distributive justice is more important for victims than for either survivors or unaffected workers. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of our findings.