The mediating role of work family conflict in the relationship between organizational justice and work-related stress

Although the effects of overall organizational justice on perceptions of work-related stress have been demonstrated in previous studies, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not explicit. Current research suggests that supervisors who are perceived as fair enhance employees' ability to balance their work and family roles, positively impacting their stress levels. The aim of this research is to examine the mediating role of work-family conflict in the relationship between perceptions of overall organizational justice and work-related stress in a Latin-American work context; also analyze gender differences in work-family/work-family conflict. 129 workers belonging to a Chilean public institution participated and answered a self-report questionnaire. Analyses were done using bivariate correlations of Pearson, Tau-b of Kendall, Student t-test and structural equation modeling. The results showed the existence of a significant negative correlation between perceptions of overall organizational justice and work-related stress. Furthermore, this relationship was partially mediated by work-family conflict, which means, perceptions of organizational justice were directly and indirectly associated with work-related stress, through work-family conflict. With respect to the gender variable and the work-family, no significant differences were found. This study contributes empirical evidence regarding the importance of perceptions of overall organizational justice and the work-family conflict on work-related stress, and the results obtained guide the diagnosis and the design of more specific models of prevention and intervention from the perspective of occupational health psychology.