Hospital employees' perceptions of fairness and job satisfaction at a time of transformational change

Abstract

Objective. This study examines the relationships between job satisfaction and organisational justice during a time of transformational change. Methods. Data collection occurred immediately before a major regional hospital's move to a greenfield site. Existing measures of job satisfaction and organisational justice were used. Data were analysed (n = 316) using descriptive, correlation and regression methods together with interactions between predictor variables. Results. Correlation coefficients for satisfaction and organisational justice variables were high and significant at the P < 0.001 level. Results of a robust regression model (adjusted R2 = 0.568) showed all three components of organisational justice contributed significantly to employee job satisfaction. Interactions between the predictor variables showed that job satisfaction increased as the interactions between the predictor variables increased. Conclusions. The finding that even at a time of transformational change staff perceptions of fair treatment will in the main result in high job satisfaction extends the literature in this area. In addition, it was found that increasing rewards for staff who perceive low levels of organisational justice does not increase satisfaction as much as for staff who perceive high levels of fairness. If people feel negative about their role, but feel they are well paid, they probably still have negative feelings overall.