Organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviour: the mediating role of psychological ownership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a model that examines psychological ownership as an intervening variable between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviour drawing on the social exchange theory, equity theory and event mediated model. Design/methodology/approach The study was based on a cross-sectional research design, with a sample of 301 full-time employees from various information technology organizations in India. Amos software was used to test the validity of the hypothesised model, and PROCESS macro was used to test the mediation of psychological ownership. Findings The findings showed that organizational justice impacted both psychological ownership and organizational citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, psychological ownership impacted the organizational citizenship behaviour of employees. The key finding of this study is the partial mediation of psychological ownership in the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviour. Practical implications Besides enriching the organizational behaviour literature, the findings of the study offer valuable messages to the organizational leaders in creating sustained competitive advantage through employee behaviours like organizational citizenship behaviour and psychological ownership. Originality/value Even though the literature reports the impact of organizational justice on organizational citizenship behaviour, the majority of this research is based on a western context. There is little research work done to examine the direct relationship between these variables in a non-western context, especially in an emerging economy like India. This study bridges this research gap and enriches the literature by elucidating how organizational justice impacts organizational citizenship behaviour by evincing the mediating mechanism of psychological ownership. Moreover, this is one of the primary studies that explore the mediating role of psychological ownership in the relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviour.