The Contingent Effect of Justice on Foci Commitment for Teachers of Public Universities: An Empirical Test of the Moderating Role of Trust

Abstract

In public university setting, whether trust in supervisor would attenuate the relationship justice and commitment is not certain. In addition, past commitment research focused on organizational commitment, but neglected the foci of commitment. This study investigated the moderating role of trust in supervisor in the relation of distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice with foci commitment (commitment to school, commitment to supervisor, and commitment to colleagues). It was expected that the relationships between three types of justice and foci commitment were weaker for those with high trust in their supervisor. This study uses teachers in public universities as the research sample, collects data by questionnaire survey, and analyzes data through hierarchical moderator regression. This study finds that whether trust in supervisor has the attenuating effect for the influence of justice on commitment depends on the type of justice and commitment. Trust in supervisor can attenuate all relationships between three types of justice and commitment to supervisor. However, regarding commitment to colleagues, trust in supervisor can only attenuate the effect of distributive justice on it.