Moderation of Doing and Mastery orientations in relationships among justice, commitment, and trust: A cross-cultural perspective

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how two individual value orientations – Doing (the tendency to commit to goals and hold a strong work ethic) and Mastery (an orientation toward seeking control over outside forces) – moderate: the relationship between organizational justice and affective organizational commitment, and the mediation role of organizational trust in this relationship.

The authors collected data from 706 employees working in 65 universities across China, South Korea, and Australia. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were employed to examine the cross-cultural equivalence of the measures. Hierarchical regressions were performed to test moderating effects of the two cultural value orientations.

Results from the full sample showed that Doing and Mastery moderated the distributive justice-commitment relationship and the procedural justice-trust relationship. Comparisons between countries demonstrated limited cross-cultural differences.

The present study adds to the understanding of the impact of individual and cultural differences on the relationship between justice and commitment, helping managers understand how employees’ reactions to justice are influenced by cultural value orientations.

This study is a pioneer in empirically integrating the value orientation framework (e.g. Doing and Mastery orientations) and justice research in a cross-cultural context based in the Asia Pacific region. It also advances cross-cultural justice research through using a mediation-moderation combination.