The mediating effects of organizational and supervisor identification for interactional justice: the case of Sichuan civil servants in China

Interactional justice is an important management issue for government agencies because it arises from daily interpersonal interactions and thus affects subsequent working outcomes of civil servants. This study is aimed to investigate the differential mediating effects of organizational identification and supervisor identification to explain why interactional justice affects both organization-focused and supervisor-focused outcomes. Specifically, we predicted that organizational identification would mediate the association between interactional justice and organization-focused outcome (organizational citizenship behaviors directed at the organization), whereas supervisor identification would mediate the association between interactional justice and supervisor-focused outcomes (supervisor evaluation and organizational citizenship behaviors directed at the supervisor). To examine our hypotheses, we carried out a filed survey study and collected data from local civil servants in Sichuan province of China. Results supported our hypotheses. We discussed our study’s conceptual contributions and its practical implications for human resource management in government agencies, and pointed out directions for further research.