Justice at work: The roles of discretionary power and leadership in driving organizational citizenship

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-14-2026

Abstract

Purpose: This study uses a social exchange theoretical (SET) lens to examine how organizational justice influences employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), through the mediating role of discretionary power, and the moderating role of transformational leadership. The rationale is that public and private sector employees often operate with varying degrees of discretion, which may shape how they respond to fairness cues in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 involved a three-wave time-lagged survey of 210 Malaysian public servants, while Study 2 used a scenario-based experimental design to test the model with 240 private sector employees.

Findings: The findings confirm that organizational justice predicts OCB, with discretionary power serving as a significant mediating mechanism. Moreover, transformational leadership enhances the justice-discretion relationship, though it did not moderate the direct link between organizational justice and OCB.

Practical implications: Organizations play a central role in shaping perceptions of justice by adopting participatory decision-making, equitable reward systems and transparent performance evaluations. This practical signal of fairness encourages employees to respond with OCB. Enhancing discretionary power can further amplify the effect of justice over their tasks and decisions.

Originality/value: This study highlights the importance of organizational justice in fostering discretionary power and OCB, especially when supported by transformational leadership. Grounded in SET, the findings demonstrate that when employee perceive fair treatment, they are more likely to reciprocate with OCB. Discretionary power serves as a key mechanism in this exchange, while leadership strengthens justice in supportive environments. Hence, fostering justice through empowering leadership can improve employee performance and effectiveness.

Keywords

Organizational justice, Discretionary power, Transformational leadership, Organizational citizenship behavior, Social exchange theory

Publication Title

Personnel Review

ISSN

0048-3486

DOI

10.1108/PR-06-2025-0652

Volume

55

Issue

1

First Page

70

Last Page

90

Publisher

Emerald

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