Does Organizational Justice Influence Job Satisfaction and Self-Perceived Performance in Saudi Arabia Work Environment?

[Abstract] The purpose of this paper was to examine the influence of organizational justice perceptions on job satisfaction, and self-perceived performance in the Saudi Arabia. Using a self-administered questionnaire, 793 employees, both Saudi and foreign workers working in different organizations, in Saudi Arabia were randomly selected and surveyed. Correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the data. The study revealed that perceptions of organizational justice influence job satisfaction for both Saudi employees, and foreign workers. For the Saudi employees, none of the justice dimensions showed a relationship with self-perceived performance. For the foreign workers, all the justice dimensions have significantly influenced self-perceived performance. While the distributive justice was the best predictor of self-perceived performance for foreign workers, the procedural justice showed a negative effect on it. The results were discussed in the light of the literature, and the context of the Saudi Arabian work environment. [Keywords] justice; satisfaction; performance; Saudi Arabia; foreign workers Introduction Increasing attention has been paid in recent years to the issue of organizational justice and its impacts on organizational outcomes. The concept of justice is central to understanding a wide range of human behaviors in the organizational setting (Hartman, et al., 1999). Organizational justice, a term coined by Greenberg (1987) refers to employee perceptions of fairness in the workplace. It has shown to be associated with several outcomes such as job satisfaction, work motivation (Suliman, 2007; Fernandes & Awamleh, 2006; Cropanzano, et al., 2001; Moorman, 1991), intention to turnover (Colquitt, et al., 2001), work performance (Suliman, 2007; Fernandes & Awamleh, 2006; Phillips, et al., 2001), commitment (Folger & Konovsky, 1989), organizational citizenship behavior (Moorman, 1991). While there is a large amount of research in this area in the West, little research has been conducted to assess employees' perception of fairness in the Arab world and Saudi Arabia being no exception. It should be noted that cross-cultural research has begun to demonstrate that while the concept of organizational justice is important and valued across cultures, the interpretation and effect may not be (Reithel, et al., 2007). Cross-cultural studies are very important for justice theory development as Leung and Stephan (2001) have persuasively argued that research on organizational justice must go beyond the Euro-American cultural boundaries if the aim is to develop more universal and generalizable theories in justice. This study is designed to assess the influence of organizational justice perceptions on job satisfaction and self-perceived performance in the Saudi Arabia by focusing on the two main groups of employees that represent the majority of workforce in Saudi Arabia namely, Saudi employees, and foreign workers (Arab and Asian). The term organizational justice is used in this study to denote the degree to which employees perceive the overall organizational rules, procedures and policies that are related to their work to be fair. It encompasses three components, principally, distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice. Job satisfaction is used to refer to the degree to which employees feel positively or negatively about their jobs. It is based on assessing the job and job-related experience with some degree of favor and disfavor (Locke, 1976). Work performance is the degree to which employees are carrying out their jobs in a given work setting (Suliman, 2007). This study contributes to a better understanding of fairness perceptions by employees in a multiculturalism society where foreigners play major role in economic development process. The Context Saudi Arabia encompasses 2.25 million square kilometers with a population over 24 million. …