The Impact of Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, and Affective Commitment on Turnover Intention among Public and Private Sector Employees in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper examined the impact of distributive and procedural justice on turnover intention via affective commitment. Specifically, it is predicted that when the distributive and procedural justice relating to compensation are perceived to be fair, employees are more affectively committed to the organization and expressed lower turnover intention. A total of 226 respondents throughout Malaysia participated in this study. Partial least squares of structural equation modeling was used in the study. The results showed that distributive and procedural justice was significantly and positively related to affective commitment, which in turn was significantly and negatively related to turnover intention. It also revealed that affective commitment fully mediates the relationship between distributive and procedural justice with turnover intention. The results also showed that the type of organization that an employee works in does not moderate the relationship between affective commitment and turnover intention. It is therefore important for organizations from both the public and private sectors to reward its employees equitably and to implement fair compensation procedures to foster higher affective commitment in order to improve employees' retention in the workplace.