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Explaining the Justice-Performance Relationship: Trust as Exchange Deepener
or Trust as Uncertainty Reducer?
Article in Journal of Applied Psychology · September 2011
DOI: 10.1037/a0025208 · Source: PubMed
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Journal of Applied Psychology
2012, Vol. 97, No. 1, 1–15
© 2011 American Psychological Association
0021-9010/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0025208
Explaining the Justice–Performance Relationship:
Trust as Exchange Deepener or Trust as Uncertainty Reducer?
Jason A. Colquitt
Jeffery A. LePine
University of Georgia
Arizona State University
Ronald F. Piccolo
Cindy P. Zapata
Rollins College
Georgia Institute of Technology
Bruce L. Rich
California State University San Marcos
Past research has revealed significant relationships between organizational justice dimensions and job
performance, and trust is thought to be one mediator of those relationships. However, trust has been
positioned in justice theorizing in 2 different ways, either as an indicator of the depth of an exchange
relationship or as a variable that reflects levels of work-related uncertainty. Moreover, trust scholars
distinguish between multiple forms of trust, including affect- and cognition-based trust, and it remains
unclear which form is most relevant to justice effects. To explore these issues, we built and tested a more
comprehensive model of trust mediation in which procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice
predicted affect- and cognition-based trust, with those trust forms predicting both exchange- and
uncertainty-based mechanisms. The results of a field study in a hospital system revealed that the trust
variables did indeed mediate the relationships between the organizational justice dimensions and job
performance, with affect-based trust driving exchange-based mediation and cognition-based trust driving
uncertainty-based mediation.
Keywords: justice, trust, social exchange, uncertainty, performance
1975). Still other studies have focused on interpersonal justice,
which reflects the perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment
received as procedures are enacted (Bies & Moag, 1986; Greenberg, 1993).
What explains the significant connection between justice and
job performance? One potential mediator that has been examined
in past research is trust, defined as confident, positive expectations
about the words, actions, and decisions of another in situations
entailing risk (Lewicki & Bunker, 1995; McAllister, 1995). The
notion that trust serves as a mediator of justice effects is partially
responsible for an increased integration of the justice and trust
literatures in recent years. A number of studies have included both
justice and trust in their investigations (e.g., Ambrose &
Schminke, 2003; Aryee, Budhwar, & Chen, 2002; Begley, Lee, &
Hui, 2006; Cropanzano, Prehar, & Chen, 2002; Folger & Konovsky, 1989; Frazier, Johnson, Gavin, Gooty, & Snow, 2010;
Kernan & Hanges, 2002; Konovsky & Pugh, 1994; Pillai,
Schriesheim, & Williams, 1999; Stinglhamber, De Cremer, &
Mercken, 2006). Moreover, meta-analytic reviews have revealed
moderately positive correlations among justice and trust concepts
(Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001; Dirks & Ferrin, 2002).
Despite that empirical integration, there remain many questions
about the justice–trust connection (Colquitt & Mueller, 2008;
Lewicki, Wiethoff, & Tomlinson, 2005), two of which are relevant
to understanding the justice–job performance relationship. First,
Research in the justice literature has linked fair treatment to a
number of beneficial employee attitudes and behaviors (for a
historical review, see Colquitt, Greenberg, & Zapata-Phelan,
2005). For example, research has linked justice perceptions to all
three facets of job performance, including task performance, citizenship behavior, and counterproductive behavior (e.g., Masterson, Lewis, Goldman, & Taylor, 2000; Moorman, Blakely, &
Niehoff, 1998; Rupp & Cropanzano, 2002; Tekleab, Takeuchi, &
Taylor, 2005; Wayne, Shore, Bommer, & Tetrick, 2002). Some of
those studies have focused on distributive justice, which reflects
the perceived fairness of decision outcomes (Adams, 1965;
Homans, 1961; Leventhal, 1976). Other studies have focused on
procedural justice, which reflects the perceived fairness of
decision-making processes (Leventhal, 1980; Thibaut & Walker,
This article was published Online First September 12, 2011.
Jason A. Colquitt, Department of Management, University of Georgia;
Jeffery A. LePine, Department of Management, Arizona State University;
Ronald F. Piccolo, Department of Management, Rollins College; Cindy P.
Zapata, Department of Organizational Behavior, Georgia Institute of Technology; Bruce L. Rich, Department of Management, California State
University San Marcos.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jason A.
Colquitt, University of Georgia, Department of Management, Terry College of Business, 412 Brooks Hall, Athens, GA 30602-6256. E-mail:
colq@uga.edu
1
2
COLQUITT ET AL.
the functional relevance of trust has varied in much of the theorizing utilized in justice research. Social exchange theory argues
that trust is vital to the development and deepening of social
exchange relationships (i.e., relationships where unspecified favors
are exchanged over an indefinite time horizon) because it reduces
uncertainty about a partner’s reciprocation while fostering a sense
of obligation (Blau, 1964). When trust is present, exchange partners are more likely to discharge their obligations, in part because
they believe that such efforts will be reciprocated down the line.
Trust functions in a similar manner in fairness heuristic theory,
which argues that trust guides decisions about whether to cooperate with authorities when there is uncertainty about potential
exploitation (Lind, 2001; van den Bos, 2001a; van den Bos, Lind,
& Wilke, 2001). However, the functional relevance of trust is
decidedly different in uncertainty management theory—a direct
successor to fairness heuristic theory (Lind & van den Bos, 2002;
van den Bos & Lind, 2002). That theory argues that high levels of
justice can mitigate or reduce the effects of virtually any form of
uncertainty, including (but not limited to) concerns about trust and
reciprocation. From this perspective, the sense that an authority is
fair and trusted may engender a reciprocation of obligations, but it
may also instill a sense of comfort that mitigates uncertainty in a
much more general sense.
Second, justice scholars have neglected to incorporate some of
the distinctions drawn by trust scholars between different types of
trust. As Lewicki et al. (2005) noted, “No assessments of the
justice–trust link in the justice literature provide a fine-grained
understanding or analysis of the rich trust literature. None explore
the emerging research suggesting multiple forms of trust (Lewicki
& Bunker, 1995, 1996; McAllister, 1995)” (p. 254). McAllister
(1995) distinguished between affect-based trust, which reflects a
confidence rooted in emotional investments, expressions of genuine care and concern, and an understanding of reciprocated sentiments, and cognition-based trust, which reflects a confidence
rooted in someone’s track record and reputation for dependability,
reliability, and professionalism. Lewicki and Bunker (1995, 1996)
drew a similar distinction in their discussion of identificationbased trust and knowledge-based trust. Because justice scholars
have treated trust as a unidimensional construct in their studies, it
remains unclear which form of trust is related to justice and which
form of trust mediates relationships with job performance.
With these two questions in mind, we conducted this study to
gain a more fine-grained understanding of the role of trust in the
justice–job performance relationship. In particular, we built and
tested a comprehensive model of trust mediation in which procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice predicted both affectand cognition-based trust, with those trust forms fulfilling two
different mediating functions.1 One function was that of “exchange
deepener,” where trust fosters a deeper sense of obligation within
an exchange relationship. We operationalized that function using
normative commitment, which reflects a sense of obligation to
one’s employer (Meyer & Allen, 1997). The other function was
that of “uncertainty reducer,” where trust serves to mitigate a
general sense of work uncertainty. We operationalized that function using perceived uncertainty, which reflects the general sense
that an employee lacks the information or situational understanding needed to accurately predict the future (van den Bos & Lind,
2002). Our model of trust mediation is shown in Figure 1. The
sections to follow describe trust concepts in more detail before
offering hypotheses about the specific linkages in our model.
Justice and Affect- vs. Cognition-Based Trust
As noted above, an increasing number of studies have integrated
justice and trust concepts, often in an attempt to explain relationships between justice and various performance behaviors (e.g.,
Ambrose & Schminke, 2003; Aryee et al., 2002; Begley et al.,
2006; Cropanzano et al., 2002; Folger & Konovsky, 1989; Frazier
et al., 2010; Kernan & Hanges, 2002; Konovsky & Pugh, 1994;
Pillai et al., 1999; Stinglhamber et al., 2006). Given that trust
scholars have criticized some of this work for its casual or simplistic approach to conceptualizing trust (Lewicki et al., 2005),
some more extensive definitional discussion is warranted. There
are at least three approaches to defining and conceptualizing trust
in the extant literature: (a) trust as unidimensional confident,
positive expectations; (b) trust as multidimensional confident, positive expectations; and (c) trust as the willingness to be vulnerable
(see Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, & Camerer, 1998, for more discussion
of such definitional distinctions).
Trust as unidimensional confident, positive expectations is a
perspective found in many of the seminal trust measures in the
organizational sciences. Roberts and O’Reilly (1974) operationalized trust by asking employees how they would expect their
supervisor to act in various situations, such as when they needed to
discuss work problems or when the supervisor needed to make a
decision that was contrary to employee interests. Gabarro and
Athos (1976) assessed trust by asking employees whether they
expected their supervisors to have good motives and intentions, to
be open and upfront, and to act in an honest and predictable
manner. Cook and Wall (1980) measured trust by asking employees whether their supervisor was efficient, made sensible decisions, and made concerted attempts to protect employee interests
in an honest manner. Variations of these measures have been
utilized by a number of justice scholars (e.g., Aryee et al., 2002;
Begley et al., 2006; Cropanzano et al., 2002; Folger & Konovsky,
1989; Kernan & Hanges, 2002; Konovsky & Pugh, 1994), making
the unidimensional confident, positive expectations perspective the
default framework in studies of the justice–trust connection.
Trust as multidimensional confident, positive expectations is a
perspective that gained prominence in the mid-1990s. Drawing in
part on earlier theorizing by Lewis and Weigert (1985), McAllister
(1995) suggested that conceptualizations of trust were actually
1
Our hypothesized model casts the justice dimensions as antecedents of
affect- and cognition-based trust. Although this causal ordering matches
the conventional wisdom in the literature, it does—at first glance—seem
inconsistent with Tyler and Lind’s work on the group-value and relational
models (Lind & Tyler, 1988; Tyler & Lind, 1992). Those models include
a concept—sometimes labeled “trust” (Tyler, 1989), sometimes labeled
“trustworthiness” (Tyler, 1994), and sometimes labeled “trust in benevolence” (Lind, Tyler, & Huo, 1997)—that is viewed as an antecedent of
fairness perceptions. However, a close inspection of the definition and
operationalization of that construct shows that it has little in common with
the trust variables in our study, despite its labeling. Instead, the construct
tends to assess efforts to be fair (Lind et al., 1997; Tyler, 1989, 1994) and
the provision of voice (Lind et al., 1997; Tyler, 1994). Such operationalizations serve as indicators of procedural justice rather than trust.
JUSTICE, TRUST, AND PERFORMANCE
3
Figure 1. Affect- and cognition-based trust as mediators of justice–performance effects.
tapping two distinct concepts, with affect-based trust reflecting
expectations of reciprocal care and concern and cognition-based
trust reflecting expectations of reliability and dependability. Drawing on earlier theorizing by Shapiro, Sheppard, and Cheraskin
(1992), Lewicki and Bunker (1995, 1996) drew a similar distinction, with identification-based trust reflecting expectations of a
reciprocal understanding of wants and knowledge-based trust reflecting expectations of predictability. Given that there remain no published measures of Lewicki and Bunker’s trust types, McAllister’s
trust scales have become the most common operationalization of the
multidimensional version of trust. These scales have been used in two
studies integrating justice and trust. Unfortunately, one study collapsed across affect- and cognition-based trust (Ambrose &
Schminke, 2003) and the other omitted affect-based trust altogether
(Stinglhamber et al., 2006).
Trust as the willingness to be vulnerable is a perspective rooted
in Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman’s (1995) integrative model of
trust. Mayer et al. defined trust as the willingness of a trustor to be
vulnerable to a trustee based on positive expectations about the
trustee’s actions. Those positive expectations, which were used to
capture trust in the perspectives described above, were instead
used to capture three components of “trustworthiness”: (a) benevolence, which captures expectations about caring and supportive
motives; (b) ability, which captures expectations about competence and skills; and (c) integrity, which captures expectations
about a consistent adherence to sound principles. Although the
Mayer et al. and McAllister (1995) perspectives differ in the way
they define the trust concept itself, it is important to acknowledge
that benevolence has much in common with affect-based trust,
whereas ability and integrity have much in common with
cognition-based trust. Our study utilizes McAllister’s conceptualization because the confident, positive expectations version of trust
has been used more frequently by justice scholars (see Colquitt and
Mueller, 2008, for a conceptual discussion of justice and Mayer et
al.’s trust conceptualization). However, all of our affect-based trust
predictions could also be made for benevolence, and all of our
cognition-based trust predictions could also be made for ability
and integrity.
Predictions for Justice and Trust
Although the various justice dimensions are fostered by the
adherence to distinct sets of justice rules, there are conceptual
reasons to expect all of the dimensions to be positively related to
both affect- and cognition-based trust, albeit for different reasons.
Procedural justice is fostered when authorities provide employees
with input into key decisions and when authorities utilize procedures that are consistent, accurate, unbiased, correctable, representative of group concerns, and ethical (Leventhal, 1980; Thibaut &
Walker, 1975). Many of those procedural rules are likely to be
especially relevant to cognition-based trust, as an emphasis on
consistency and accuracy should create the kind of predictable and
dependable track record that underlies that trust form. Procedurally
just decision making also instills a sense of legitimacy to organizational authorities (Tyler & Lind, 1992), which should help
promote a sense of professionalism and regard. With respect to
affect-based trust, an emphasis on allowing employee input and
learning about group concerns should foster the sort of mutual
investment and sharing of information that underlies that trust
form. Procedurally just decision making also fulfills key psychological needs on the part of employees, injecting a sense of
belonging into organizational relationships (Cropanzano, Byrne,
Bobocel, & Rupp, 2001).
Interpersonal justice is fostered when authorities treat employees with dignity and respect and refrain from improper remarks or
comments during the enactment of procedures (Bies & Moag,
1986; Greenberg, 1993). These interpersonal rules are likely to be
particularly relevant to affect-based trust, as it would be difficult
4
COLQUITT ET AL.
for a sense of reciprocal care and concern to develop in a context
where communications were rude, disrespectful, or inappropriate.
Indeed, such actions are associated with a number of negative
emotions, including anger and hostility (Barclay, Skarlicki, &
Pugh, 2005; Rupp & Spencer, 2006). The relevance of interpersonal justice rules is perhaps less immediately apparent to
cognition-based trust. However, it is important to note that many
organizations have climates that emphasize (or at least espouse to
emphasize) social relations, supportiveness, morale, and warmth
(Carr, Schmidt, Ford, & DeShon, 2003). From this perspective,
violations of interpersonal justice rules would be indicative of a
lack of professionalism— one component of cognition-based trust.
Distributive justice is fostered when authorities utilize appropriate allocation norms when doling out key outcomes (Leventhal,
1976). In most business contexts, the appropriate norm is equity,
where outcomes are allocated in accordance with relevant inputs
(Adams, 1965; Leventhal, 1976). Distributive justice is likely to be
relevant to affect-based trust because equity has important affective consequences. Adams suggested that inequitable allocations
will trigger a sense of equity distress, with anger resulting from
underpayment inequity and guilt resulting from overpayment inequity. Those negative emotions are associated with action tendencies such as retaliation or withdrawal (Lazarus & CohenCharash, 2001), both of which could undermine the development
of reciprocal sentiments and investments. Distributive justice
should also be relevant to cognition-based trust. Making decisions
about performance evaluations, salary increases, bonuses, job assignments, and informal spot rewards represents a key job duty for
many organizational authorities. As such, failing to make such
decisions in an equitable fashion could lead to doubts about an
authority’s competence, dedication, reliability, and professionalism.
Ambrose and Schminke’s (2003) field study of employees in
several different industries provides some empirical support for the
predictions laid out above, as procedural and interpersonal justice
had significant unique effects on an index combining affect- and
cognition-based trust (though distributive justice lacked any significant effect). In addition, Stinglhamber et al.’s (2006) field
study of telecommunications employees revealed a significant
linkage between interpersonal justice and cognition-based trust
(though the effects of procedural justice were not modeled and
data were not gathered on distributive justice or affect-based trust).
Aside from these two studies, much of the research linking justice
and trust concepts has utilized the unidimensional confident, positive expectations perspective and has included only one or two
justice dimensions (Begley et al., 2006; Folger & Konovsky, 1989;
Konovsky & Pugh, 1994; Pillai et al., 1999). One exception to that
latter observation is Aryee et al.’s (2002) field study of employees
of an Indian coal company, which showed that procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice all had significant unique effects
on a unidimensional form of trust. We therefore hypothesized
Hypothesis 1: Procedural justice is positively related to
affect- and cognition-based trust.
Hypothesis 2: Interpersonal justice is positively related to
affect- and cognition-based trust.
Hypothesis 3: Distributive justice is positively related to
affect- and cognition-based trust.
Trust as Exchange Deepener or Trust as Uncertainty
Reducer?
Even if the relationships between justice and affect- and
cognition-based trust can be used to explain effects on job performance, a key question remains: What exactly is it about trust that
explains those effects? As noted above, the mediating role of trust
could be explained by two distinct functional mechanisms: trust as
an exchange deepener and trust as an uncertainty reducer.
Trust as an Exchange Deepener
In his discussion of exchange relationships, Blau (1964) described the unique character of social exchanges:
Social exchange, whether it is in this ceremonial form or not, involves
favors that create diffuse future obligations, not precisely specified
ones, and the nature of the return cannot be bargained about but must
be left to the discretion of the one who makes it . . . . Since there is no
way to assure an appropriate return for a favor, social exchange
requires trusting others to discharge their obligations. (pp. 93–94)
Blau’s (1964) description of social exchanges gained more visibility in the justice literature when Organ (1990) used it to describe
why procedural justice might be associated with increased levels
of citizenship behavior. Organ suggested that fair treatment would
be viewed as a favor on the part of a supervisor that deserved
reciprocation by the employee. That citizenship, in turn, would
constitute a favor on the part of the employee that deserved
reciprocation by the supervisor. The reciprocation-inducing effects
of fair treatment can be described from two perspectives. First,
high levels of the various justice dimensions may be the exception
rather than the rule in some organizations, giving fairness a discretionary feel that warrants reciprocation. Alternatively, injustice
may short-circuit the natural or default levels of reciprocation in
many work units.
Konovsky and Pugh (1994) operationalized Organ’s (1990)
assertions in one of the first studies that integrated justice and trust.
They noted that trust provides the basis for social exchange relationships and serves as the key element in the emergence and
deepening of such relationships. Trust is particularly vital during
periods where one party’s contributions outweigh the other’s, as
trust provides some assurance that obligations will balance out
over the long term. Konovsky and Pugh suggested that trust would
predict citizenship because an employee would be more willing to
go the extra mile when the leader could be trusted to balance the
scales down the road. Subsequent studies have continued to use
trust as a means of operationalizing social exchange effects (Aryee
et al., 2002; Cropanzano et al., 2002; Pillai et al., 1999; Stinglhamber et al., 2006), with trust emerging as a definitional component of such exchanges (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005; Shore,
Tetrick, Lynch, & Barksdale, 2006). In their review of the literature, Dirks and Ferrin (2002) referred to such studies as the
relationship-based perspective in the trust literature, given that the
work focuses on how followers come to understand the nature of
their relationship with their manager.
JUSTICE, TRUST, AND PERFORMANCE
Despite the relevance of trust to Blau’s (1964) theorizing, any
study that shows trust to be a mediator of justice–performance
effects can only assume that such mediation represents a social
exchange mechanism. Barring an explicit operationalization of the
exchange-deepening function that trust is purported to foster, that
assumption remains unsubstantiated. The key question therefore
becomes, which construct could best serve as an operationalization
of that exchange dynamic? Blau’s description suggests that the
obligation concept lies at the core of social exchange. Blau (1964)
described social exchange reciprocations as “given and repaid
under obligation” (p. 89), noting that it “is a necessary condition of
exchange that individuals, in the interest of continuing to receive
needed services, discharge their obligations for having received
them in the past” (p. 92). One construct that reflects such obligation is normative commitment, which Meyer and Herscovitch
(2001) described as “the mind-set of obligation” (p. 317). Justice
scholars have suggested that normative commitment could serve as
a construct-valid representation of the exchange dynamic
(Colquitt, Greenberg, & Scott, 2005).
We are not aware of any research linking trust and normative
commitment, as Meyer and colleagues have typically focused on
socialization experiences or organizational investments as antecedents of that commitment form (Meyer & Allen, 1997; Meyer,
Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002). However, Blau’s
(1964) theorizing includes a number of ideas that support significant relationships between affect- and cognition-based trust and
the sense of obligation represented by normative commitment.
With respect to affect-based trust, Blau described how the steady
expansion of mutual investments in a relationship can engender the
sort of trust that encourages obligation. With respect to cognitionbased trust, an authority that provides services such as advice, aid,
or assistance signals that he or she is dependable and reliable,
which makes the discharging of one’s obligations more customary.
Indirect support for these assertions can be taken from Colquitt,
Scott, and LePine’s (2007) suggestion that an authority’s benevolence and ability can serve as exchange currencies that foster a
motivation to reciprocate. In a meta-analytic test, Colquitt et al.
showed that benevolence and ability predicted social exchange
when operationalized as affective commitment, noting that too few
studies focused on obligation-based forms of commitment to include them in their review. We therefore hypothesized
Hypothesis 4: Affect- and cognition-based trust are positively
related to normative commitment.
Meyer and Herscovitch’s (2001) model of commitment can be
used to ground predictions regarding normative commitment and
job performance (see also Meyer & Allen, 1991). Meyer and
Herscovitch suggested that the “mind-set of obligation” binds one
to courses of action that benefit the entity to which one is committed. In particular, they argued that the sense of obligation would
increase efforts to fulfill the focal behaviors of one’s work role.
The sense of obligation can also increase discretionary behaviors,
especially when those behaviors benefit the target of the obligation. Empirically speaking, studies of normative commitment have
lagged behind studies of affective commitment. Meta-analyses of
the few studies that have been conducted have illustrated that
normative commitment has a moderately strong positive relationship with citizenship aspects of job performance and weaker
5
relationships with task performance aspects (Meyer et al., 2002).
On the basis of Meyer and Herscovitch’s (2001) theorizing, we
predicted
Hypothesis 5: Normative commitment is positively related to
job performance.
Trust as an Uncertainty Reducer
Whereas trust is somewhat of a behind-the-scenes player in
Blau’s (1964) discussion of social exchange theory, it is clearly
front and center in discussions of fairness heuristic theory (Lind,
2001; van den Bos, 2001a; van den Bos et al., 2001). Fairness
heuristic theory’s propositions are rooted in the “fundamental
social dilemma” faced by all employees working for authority
figures in organizations (Lind, 2001). This dilemma acknowledges
that an employee’s outcomes are ultimately maximized by cooperating with authorities and fully participating in organizational
activities. However, choosing to do so also opens the door to
potential exploitation, as authorities may abuse their power by
asking employees to perform assignments that will never be rewarded. This fundamental social dilemma therefore creates a sense
of uncertainty that pervades working life, particularly early on in
one’s tenure and during times of organizational change (Lind,
2001).
Fairness heuristic theory suggests that employees should, ideally, cope with this uncertainty by gauging their trust in authorities
(Lind, 2001; van den Bos, 2001a; van den Bos et al., 2001). That
theoretical premise is reminiscent of Luhmann’s (1979) conceptualization of trust as a reducer of complexity. Luhmann noted that
individuals face an ever increasing level of complexity when
navigating the social world, with complexity defined as an overload of possible events and threats to stability. Trust reduces that
complexity by minimizing certain dangers (e.g., exploitation,
breach) while highlighting possibilities for action that would otherwise have been impractical. Also along the lines of Luhmann’s
theorizing, fairness heuristic theory acknowledges that trust must
be learned. That learning process is difficult, however, because the
building blocks of trust may be ambiguous or unobservable. In
response to that difficulty, fairness heuristic theory argues that
employees evaluate the fairness of the authority’s actions, using
justice as a heuristic for guiding decisions about trust and cooperation. In practice, those justice evaluations may be grounded in
procedural, distributive, or interpersonal justice, depending on
which form of justice is first encountered in an organizational
relationship and which is most easily interpreted (Lind, 2001; van
den Bos, 2001a; van den Bos et al., 2001). Regardless, justice is
used as a means of gauging trust, with trust used to help cope with
the uncertainty regarding authority actions.
Uncertainty management theory, cast as the successor to fairness
heuristic theory, broadened the importance of justice, noting that it
could be used to help manage uncertainty in a much more general
sense, whether rooted in authority dynamics, organizational events, or
a pervading sense of anxiety or lack of control (Lind & van den Bos,
2002; van den Bos & Lind, 2002). In fact, previous research has
demonstrated that fairness can help manage a wide range of uncertainty forms, including a general sense of being uncertain or not in
control (van den Bos, 2001b) or even a sense of being uncertain about
one’s own mortality or disruptions in one’s own personal life (van den
COLQUITT ET AL.
6
Bos & Miedema, 2000). The connection between justice and general
uncertainty is purported to exist despite any real association between
the uncertainty experienced and the treatment received. According to
Lind and van den Bos (2002), the connection between fairness and
uncertainty “is so fundamental . . . that it occurs whether there is a
logical link between the fair treatment and the source of the anxiety or
not” (p. 193). Thus, in addition to authority uncertainty, justice and
subsequent trust can help individuals manage more general work
uncertainty.
The theorizing described above does not draw a distinction
between affect- and cognition-based trust, leaving open the question of whether one form is more relevant to uncertainty than the
other. Are both trust forms uniquely relevant to an employee’s
sense that his or her work life is predictable and foreseeable? A
sense that an authority’s behavior is predictable lies at the core of
cognition-based trust, as such predictability is fostered by a track
record of dependability and reliability (Lewicki & Bunker, 1995,
1996; McAllister, 1995). When employees view authorities as
dedicated and competent, they can feel more confident that key
organizational decisions and events will be handled in an effective
manner. The relevance of affect-based trust to uncertainty may be
less apparent than the relevance of cognition-based trust. Still, the
sense that an authority has made emotional investments of reciprocal care and concern into a relationship should signal that employee needs will be protected under conditions of risk, whatever
these may prove to be (Lewicki & Bunker, 1995, 1996; McAllister,
1995). When employees sense that authorities legitimately care for
them, that sense may provide comfort that mitigates even unrelated
sources of anxiety or confusion. We therefore predicted
Hypothesis 6: Affect- and cognition-based trust are negatively related to uncertainty.
between justice dimensions and job performance. The exchange deepener mechanism travels through normative commitment, suggesting
that justice fosters trust, which is important because trust instills a
sense of obligation in exchange relationships (Blau, 1964). The uncertainty reducer mechanism travels through uncertainty perceptions,
suggesting that justice fosters trust, which is important because trust
reduces the sense of uncertainty that employees can feel in their
organizational lives. Taken together, those linkages result in the
following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 8: The relationship between justice and job performance is mediated by trust (both affect and cognition
based) and normative commitment.
Hypothesis 9: The relationship between justice and job performance is mediated by trust (both affect and cognition
based) and uncertainty.
Method
Sample
Participants were 195 employees of a hospital network located
in the southeastern United States. The sample was predominantly
female (86%). One hundred participants were Caucasian, 79 were
African American, six were Hispanic, and three were Asian American, and the remainder indicated multiple ethnicities. Organizational tenure averaged 6.93 years. The sample was diverse in terms
of pay grade (13) and functional background (nursing, medical
technology, physical plant, customer service, records, laboratory
testing, and information systems).
Procedure
Finally, there are a number of conceptual reasons to expect perceptions of uncertainty to predict job performance. First, employees
who experience uncertainty should have less cognitive energy available to dedicate to job performance. As described by trust scholars,
the presence of uncertainty necessitates off-task allocations of time
and attention. Mayer and Gavin (2005) noted that uncertainty can
cause employees to restrict their behaviors, eschew potentially risky
actions, and focus their attention on contingency plans rather than job
success. Similarly, McAllister (1995) suggested that uncertainty creates a need for monitoring and defense behaviors as individuals
attempt to protect their interests. In other words, uncertainty and
worry should result in decreased focus of attention, which can detract
from job performance. In addition, the literature on stress and strain
provides arguments for a relationship between uncertainty and job
performance. Models in that literature often frame uncertainty as a
stressor that can place significant strain on an employee, eventually
harming job performance (Sonnentag & Frese, 2003). We therefore
predicted
Hypothesis 7: Uncertainty is negatively related to job performance.
Summary
In sum, our model of trust mediation, shown in Figure 1, provides
two different mechanisms whereby trust can explain the relationships
Data were collected as part of a training evaluation conducted
for the human resource management department of the hospital
network. We used a longitudinal design with two data collections
separated by 3-month intervals. The first data collection included
the measures of justice, affect- and cognition-based trust, normative commitment, and uncertainty. Participants received $10 to
complete the survey and return it in a self-addressed stamped
envelope. The second data collection gathered information on job
performance from archival data taken from company records.
Missing data on one or more variables resulted in a final usable
sample size of 156 employees.
Measures
The survey items used to measure the justice, trust, normative
commitment, and uncertainty variables are shown in Table 1.
Justice.
The justice dimensions were measured with
Colquitt’s (2001) scales, with all items using response anchors of
1 ⫽ To a Very Small Extent to 5 ⫽ To a Very Large Extent. The
procedural justice scale asked participants to consider the procedures their supervisor uses to make decisions about evaluations,
promotions, and rewards. Its coefficient alpha was .90. The interpersonal justice scale asked participants to consider how they were
treated by their supervisor during the implementation of procedures. Its coefficient alpha was .95. Finally, the distributive justice
scale asked participants to consider the outcomes they received
JUSTICE, TRUST, AND PERFORMANCE
Table 1
Survey Items and Factor Loadings
Survey item
Procedural justice
1. Are you able to express your views during those
procedures?
2. Can you influence the decisions arrived at by those
procedures?
3. Are those procedures applied consistently?
4. Are those procedures free of bias?
5. Are those procedures based on accurate information?
6. Are you able to appeal the decisions arrived at by those
procedures?
7. Do those procedures uphold ethical and moral
standards?
Interpersonal justice
1. Has he/she treated you in a polite manner?
2. Has he/she treated you with dignity?
3. Has he/she treated you with respect?
4. Has he/she refrained from improper remarks or
comments?
Distributive justice
1. Do those outcomes reflect the effort that you have put
into your work?
2. Are those outcomes appropriate for the work you have
completed?
3. Do those outcomes reflect what you have contributed to
your work?
4. Are those outcomes justified, given your performance?
Affect-based trust
1. My supervisor and I freely share our ideas and feelings.
2. I can talk freely to my supervisor about difficulties I
am having at work.
3. We would both feel a sense of loss if one of us was
transferred.
4. My supervisor responds caringly when I share my
problems.
5. My supervisor and I have invested a lot in our working
relationship.
Cognition-based trust
1. My supervisor approaches his/her job with dedication.
2. I see no reason to doubt my supervisor’s competence
for the job.
3. I can rely on my supervisor not to make my job more
difficult.
4. Most people trust and respect my supervisor as a
coworker.
5. My peers consider my supervisor to be trustworthy.
6. If people knew more about my supervisor, they would
be more concerned and monitor his/her performance
more closely. (R)
Normative commitment
1. I do not feel any obligation to remain with my current
employer. (R)
2. Even if it were to my advantage, I do not feel it would
be right to leave my organization now.
3. I would feel guilty if I left my organization now.
4. This organization deserves my loyalty.
5. I would not leave my organization right now because I
have a sense of obligation to the people in it.
6. I owe a great deal to my organization.
Uncertainty
1. There is a lot of uncertainty at work right now.
2. Many things seem unsettled at work currently.
3. If I think about work, I feel a lot of uncertainty.
4. I cannot predict how things will go at work.
Note. n ⫽ 156. (R) ⫽ reverse-worded items.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05.
Loading
.75ⴱ
.73ⴱ
.84ⴱ
.80ⴱ
.84ⴱ
.74ⴱ
.86ⴱ
.96ⴱ
.98ⴱ
.98ⴱ
.88ⴱ
.92ⴱ
.93ⴱ
.98ⴱ
.97ⴱ
.93ⴱ
.93ⴱ
.75ⴱ
.93ⴱ
.88ⴱ
.82ⴱ
.93ⴱ
.86ⴱ
.91ⴱ
.92ⴱ
.39ⴱ
.20ⴱ
.57ⴱ
.65ⴱ
.70ⴱ
.88ⴱ
.75ⴱ
.90ⴱ
.95ⴱ
.91ⴱ
.76ⴱ
7
from their supervisor, including their evaluations, promotions, and
rewards. The coefficient alpha for distributive justice was .96.
One concern when utilizing self-report measures of the justice
dimensions is whether such subjective appraisals truly capture
differences in the objective qualities of treatment. For example, are
procedural justice perceptions truly rooted in objective differences
in the amount of voice, the accuracy of information, the availability of appeals, and so forth? Three different types of data suggest
that self-report appraisals do pick up true variance in objective
treatment. First, laboratory studies in the justice literature routinely
yield strong relationships between objective manipulations of justice concepts and self-report manipulation checks (e.g., Brockner
et al., 2007; De Cremer & Tyler, 2007; De Cremer, Van Knippenberg, Van Knippenberg, Mullenders, & Stinglhamber, 2005; Rupp
& Spencer, 2006; Siegel, Post, Brockner, Fishman, & Garden,
2005). Second, laboratory versus field breakdowns in metaanalyses have shown that self-report justice measures yield outcome relationships that are similar to relationships with manipulated justice (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001). Finally, research
on justice climate illustrates that multiple employees within work
units hold similar appraisals of the way their supervisor or organization treats the unit (Dietz, Robinson, Folger, Baron, & Schulz,
2003; Johnson, Korsgaard, & Sapienza, 2002; Liao & Rupp, 2005;
Naumann & Bennett, 2000, 2002; Sinclair, 2003).
Trust. Affect- and cognition-based trust were measured with
McAllister’s (1995) scales, with all items using response anchors
of 1 ⫽ Strongly Disagree to 5 ⫽ Strongly Agree. The affect-based
trust items were designed to capture the emotional investment,
mutual concern, and deep sentiments that characterize that form of
trust. These items had a coefficient alpha of .93. The cognitionbased trust items were designed to capture the sense of professionalism and dedication that characterize that form of trust. These
items had a coefficient alpha of .88.
Normative commitment. Normative commitment was measured with Meyer and Allen’s (1997) scale, which is a revised
version of the original Allen and Meyer (1990) measure. All items
used response anchors of 1 ⫽ Strongly Disagree to 5 ⫽ Strongly
Agree. The items reflected a sense of obligation toward one’s
employer and the sense that a debt is owed to the organization. The
scale had a coefficient alpha of .75.
Uncertainty. A measure created for this study was used to
assess general perceptions of work uncertainty, in accordance with
uncertainty management theory (Lind & van den Bos, 2002; van
den Bos & Lind, 2002). The items incorporate the elements of
uncertainty described by van den Bos and Lind (2002), Milliken
(1987), and Sitkin and Pablo (1992), including the inability to
predict or control future events, the existence of environmental
volatility, and a sense of environmental complexity or heterogeneity. Note that the items were not referenced to any particular
target (e.g., the supervisor), because the theory clearly states that
its focal construct is very broad and general. The items used a scale
of 1 ⫽ Strongly Disagree to 5 ⫽ Strongly Agree and had a
coefficient alpha of .91.
Job performance. Archival data were used to measure job
performance. The organization’s contact person provided the overall job performance ratings for the participants during the year in
which they completed the survey, once all surveys had been
completed. These ratings were kept in the organization’s Peoplesoft software system and had a scale of 1 ⫽ Unacceptable, 2 ⫽
COLQUITT ET AL.
8
Needs Improvement, 3 ⫽ Effective, and 4 ⫽ Outstanding. On
average, 100 days had elapsed between the participant’s completion of the justice scales and his or her supervisor’s completion of
the performance rating in Peoplesoft. This supports some degree of
temporal precedence for the justice–performance relationships that
underlie our model.
measurement repetition, no coefficient alpha was available for job
performance. In a recent study of organizational justice and customer service attitudes, Ambrose, Hess, and Ganesan (2007) suggested that a .90 alpha be utilized for single-item measures that are
factually based and a .70 alpha be utilized for single-item measures
that represent subjective beliefs. We utilized a coefficient alpha of
.80 for job performance because it was a compromise between
those two levels and represented a more conservative choice than
the .70 value. It should be noted, however, that the choice of alpha
had little impact on our results.
We allowed the exogenous justice dimensions to covary to
represent unmeasured common causes, such as a higher order
organizational justice factor. We also allowed the disturbance
terms for affect- and cognition-based trust to covary, again to
represent unmeasured common causes, such as a higher order trust
factor. We also included direct effects from the justice dimensions
to job performance, because such paths are needed to test our
mediation predictions (MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, &
Sheets, 2002). The resulting model provided a good fit to the data:
␹2(9) ⫽ 20.44, p ⬍ .05, CFI ⫽ .99, SRMR ⫽ .05, RMSEA ⫽ .09.
The unstandardized path coefficients from the default LISREL
output are shown in Figure 2.
Hypotheses 1–3 predicted that procedural, interpersonal, and
distributive justice would be significantly related to affect- and
cognition-based trust, respectively. As shown in Figure 2, all three
hypotheses were supported. Procedural justice was a significant
predictor of affect-based trust (b ⫽ .33) and cognition-based trust
(b ⫽ .34). Interpersonal justice was also a significant predictor of
affect-based trust (b ⫽ .26) and cognition-based trust (b ⫽ .32).
Similarly, relationships with distributive justice were significant
for affect-based trust (b ⫽ .29) and for cognition-based trust (b ⫽
.22). Taken together, these results suggest that the justice dimensions are relevant to both trust forms.
Hypothesis 4 predicted that affect- and cognition-based trust
would be positively related to normative commitment. This hypothesis was partially supported, as affect-based trust was a significant predictor of normative commitment (b ⫽ .51) but
cognition-based trust was not. Hypothesis 5 predicted that normative commitment would be positively related to job performance.
This hypothesis was supported, as normative commitment was a
significant predictor of job performance (b ⫽ .38). Hypothesis 6
predicted that affect- and cognition-based trust would be negatively related to uncertainty. This hypothesis was partially sup-
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on our survey
measures to verify their factor structure and to provide some
evidence of construct validity. We conducted this analysis using
LISREL 8.52 (Jöreskog, & Sörbom, 1996). Our default sevenfactor model provided a good fit to the data: ␹2(573) ⫽ 847.37,
p ⬍ .001, comparative fit index (CFI) ⫽ .98, standardized root
mean residual (SRMR) ⫽ .07, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) ⫽ .05. All factor loadings were statistically
significant and are shown in Table 1. Given the typically high
correlations between the justice dimensions and between affectand cognition-based trust, we compared our default measurement
model with models that collapsed across those dimensions. A
model combining procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice into a single justice factor provided a significantly worse fit to
the data: ␹2(584) ⫽ 1,687.01, p ⬍ .001, ⌬␹2(11) ⫽ 839.64, p ⬍
.001. Similarly, a model combining affect- and cognition-based
trust into a single trust factor provided a significantly worse fit to
the data: ␹2(579) ⫽ 945.14, p ⬍ .001, ⌬␹2(6) ⫽ 97.77, p ⬍ .001.
Our hypotheses were therefore tested following the structure in
Table 1.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
The means, standard deviations, and zero-order correlations
among the study variables are shown in Table 2. Coefficient alphas
are reproduced on the diagonal.
Tests of Hypotheses
Given our sample size, we tested the model in Figure 1 using a
“partially latent” approach in which scale scores were used as
single indicators of the latent variables with error variances set to
(1 ⫺ alpha) * variance (Kline, 2005). Given the absence of
Table 2
Descriptive Statistics and Zero-Order Correlations
Variable
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Procedural justice
Interpersonal justice
Distributive justice
Affect-based trust
Cognition-based trust
Normative commitment
Uncertainty
Job performance
M
SD
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
3.32
4.17
3.24
3.45
3.59
3.06
3.02
3.31
0.91
0.98
1.19
1.09
1.00
0.76
1.06
0.48
(.90)
.55ⴱ
.50ⴱ
.55ⴱ
.55ⴱ
.22ⴱ
⫺.28ⴱ
.15ⴱ
(.95)
.37ⴱ
.65ⴱ
.67ⴱ
.22ⴱ
⫺.38ⴱ
.25ⴱ
(.96)
.49ⴱ
.43ⴱ
.33ⴱ
⫺.43ⴱ
.27ⴱ
(.93)
.77ⴱ
.31ⴱ
⫺.47ⴱ
.28ⴱ
(.88)
.23ⴱ
⫺.55ⴱ
.24ⴱ
(.75)
⫺.19ⴱ
.23ⴱ
(.90)
⫺.17ⴱ
(.80)
Note. n ⫽ 156. Values along diagonal are coefficient alphas. SD ⫽ standard deviation.
p ⬍ .05, two-tailed.
ⴱ
JUSTICE, TRUST, AND PERFORMANCE
Figure 2.
9
Unstandardized path coefficients from structural equation modeling results.
ported, as cognition-based trust was a significant predictor of
uncertainty (b ⫽ ⫺.66) but affect-based trust was not. Hypothesis
7 predicted that uncertainty would be negatively related to job
performance. This hypothesis was supported, as uncertainty was a
significant predictor of job performance (b ⫽ ⫺.32).
Hypothesis 8 predicted that the relationship between justice and
job performance would be mediated by trust and normative commitment. Hypothesis 9 made the same prediction, substituting
uncertainty in place of normative commitment. We tested mediation using the “product of coefficients” approach described by
MacKinnon et al. (2002), in which mediation is demonstrated by a
statistically significant product of independent variable 3 mediator and mediator 3 outcome relationships (i.e., a statistically
significant indirect effect). There are a number of variants of the
product of coefficients approach, with the Sobel (1982) test being
the best known. We specifically utilized LISREL’s effect decomposition statistics to derive the indirect and total effects of the
justice dimensions on job performance. One benefit of using
LISREL’s statistics is that they can calculate the statistical significance of indirect effects with three stages (i.e., where justice leads
to trust, trust leads to normative commitment and uncertainty and
normative commitment and uncertainty lead to performance) and
indirect effects that involve multiple mediators (in the case of
normative commitment and uncertainty). The traditional “causal
steps” approach described by Baron and Kenny (1986) does not
provide a direct estimate of the indirect effect, nor does it test the
effect’s statistical significance (MacKinnon et al., 2002). It is also
not designed for models with three stages or with multiple mediators. Finally, the Baron and Kenny approach contains unnecessary steps that cause it to have lower statistical power than most
product of coefficients approaches (MacKinnon et al., 2002).
LISREL’s effect decomposition statistics are summarized in
Table 3. As shown in the top panel, all three justice dimensions
had significant indirect effects on job performance, with values of
.11, .09, and .08 for procedural, interpersonal, and distributive
justice, respectively. Mediation was only partial for procedural
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05.
justice, as evidenced by the fact that it maintained a statistically
significant direct effect on job performance when the mediators
were also modeled (b ⫽ .25). For purposes of clarity, note that the
indirect and direct effects sum to the total effects, with the total
effects indicating what would occur if job performance was regressed onto the three justice dimensions.
To tease apart the dual components of the trust mediation, we
attempted to isolate the exchange- and uncertainty-based mediation mechanisms. In particular, we tested a model in which the
uncertainty 3 job performance path was constrained to be 0,
forcing the justice dimensions to exert their indirect effects only
through normative commitment. This model provided a significantly worse fit to the data than the structure in Figure 2: ␹2(10) ⫽
39.44, p ⬍ .001, ⌬␹2(1) ⫽ 19.00, p ⬍ .001. As shown in the
middle panel of Table 3, the magnitude of the indirect effects was
reduced by around 60%, with interpersonal justice no longer
having a significant indirect effect on job performance. This pattern suggests that a considerable portion of trust’s mediating
impact is due to effects on uncertainty. We also tested a model in
which the normative commitment 3 job performance path was
constrained to be 0, forcing the justice dimensions to exert their
indirect effects only through uncertainty. This model also provided
a significantly worse fit to the data than the structure in Figure 2:
␹2(10) ⫽ 49.47, p ⬍ .001, ⌬␹2(1) ⫽ 29.03, p ⬍ .001. As shown
in the bottom panel of Table 3, the magnitude of the indirect
effects was reduced by around 40%, though all three justice
dimensions retained their significant indirect effects. This pattern
suggests that a substantial portion of trust’s mediating impact is
due to effects on normative commitment.
Discussion
One potential explanation for the continued popularity of justice
as a topic of study is the relationship between the justice dimensions and job performance. However, the theoretical and practical
value in such effects depends, to some extent, on understanding
COLQUITT ET AL.
10
Table 3
Effect Decomposition Results for Mediation Tests
Effects on job performance
Justice dimension
Indirect effect
Direct effect
Total effect
Exchange and uncertainty-based mediation
(the structure in Figure 2)
Procedural justice
Interpersonal justice
Distributive justice
.11ⴱ
.09ⴱ
.08ⴱ
.25ⴱ
.09ⴱ
.11ⴱ
.36ⴱ
.18ⴱ
.19ⴱ
Exchange-based mediation only
(uncertainty 3 performance constrained to 0)
Procedural justice
Interpersonal justice
Distributive justice
.05ⴱ
.03ⴱ
.04ⴱ
.27ⴱ
.15ⴱ
.22ⴱ
.32ⴱ
.18ⴱ
.26ⴱ
Uncertainty-based mediation only
(normative commitment 3 performance constrained to 0)
Procedural justice
Interpersonal justice
Distributive justice
.07ⴱ
.07ⴱ
.05ⴱ
.27ⴱ
.11ⴱ
.21ⴱ
.34ⴱ
.18ⴱ
.26ⴱ
Note. n ⫽ 156.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05.
exactly why they exist. Scholars have suggested that trust can act
as a mediator of justice-performance effects (e.g., Aryee et al.,
2002; Konovsky & Pugh, 1994; Pillai et al., 1999), and social
exchange theory has been offered as a theoretical explanation for
trust mediation (Blau, 1964). However, the social exchange relevance of trust has only been assumed in such studies, and those
studies fail to account for the other potential reason for trust’s
importance: uncertainty reduction (Lind & van den Bos, 2002; van
den Bos & Lind, 2002). With those issues in mind, our study tested
a model that included both exchange-based and uncertainty-based
mechanisms for trust mediation. In so doing, we also answered
Lewicki et al.’s (2005) call for more research linking justice to
multiple trust types by operationalizing both affect- and cognitionbased trust (McAllister, 1995).
Our results showed that procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice were each significantly related to affect- and cognitionbased trust. We reasoned that the consistency and accuracy aspects
of procedural justice could instill the sort of legitimacy needed to
foster cognition-based trust, whereas the voice and representativeness aspects could foster the sort of mutual communication and
investment that underlies affect-based trust. In the case of interpersonal justice, we reasoned, dignified and proper communication
could allow reciprocal care and concern to develop, encouraging
affect-based trust, while signaling an adherence to professional
norms and climates, encouraging cognition-based trust. Finally,
distributively just outcomes prevent the anger and guilt that could
undermine affect-based trust while highlighting the sort of effective role fulfillment that underlies cognition-based trust in organizational authorities. These results show that justice is relevant to
trust for both “hot” and “cold” reasons. It can foster a sense of
mutual emotional investment while also signaling that authorities
are reliable and dependable.
Aside from the specific linkages with affect- and cognitionbased trust, what stands out most from our results is that the
exchange-deepening and uncertainty-reducing mechanisms both
had significant mediating roles in the justice–performance relationship. When combined into the structure in Figure 2, they
resulted in significant indirect effects for all three justice dimensions. Indeed, interpersonal and distributive justice failed to exert
significant direct effects when the exchange and uncertainty-based
trust effects were controlled. That the procedural justice direct
effect remained significant represents an interesting avenue for
future research. It may be that procedural effects are also transmitted through mechanisms from other theoretical perspectives.
For example, Moorman and Byrne (2005) suggested that justice
could impact performance behaviors though social-identity-based
mechanisms, such as group identification or group pride. Regardless, our results showed that the exchange- and uncertainty-based
mechanisms were both needed to fully capture the mediating
effects of trust. Removing either mechanism from the structure in
Figure 2 resulted in a significantly worse fitting model and less of
a trust-based indirect effect of justice on performance.
Looking more closely at our results for trust as an exchange
deepener, it is important to note that affect-based trust had a
significant relationship with normative commitment but cognitionbased trust did not. Drawing on Blau’s (1964) theorizing, we had
reasoned that affect-based trust would reflect the sort of mutual
investment that instills a mind-set of obligation among exchange
partners, with cognition-based trust signaling an abundance of the
instrumental services that Blau described. We suspect that the
more significant effects of affect-based trust can be explained by
its more reciprocal nature. McAllister’s conceptualization (1995)
emphasizes a mutual sharing of ideas, a mutual sharing of workrelated difficulties, and a mutual sense of caring and investment.
That sense of reciprocation is echoed in Blau’s discussion of the
social exchange dynamic, which emphasizes a mutual sense of
obligation, owing, debt, and loyalty. It is also worth noting that
both McAllister and Lewicki and Bunker (1995, 1996) viewed
affect-based trust as signaling a more mature and established
relationship. Indeed, they described affect-based trust as building
JUSTICE, TRUST, AND PERFORMANCE
on a foundation of cognition-based trust in much the same way that
Blau described social exchanges as supplanting economic exchanges. Regardless, these results suggest that much of the socialexchange-based mediation observed in past research may be due
primarily to the affect-based aspect of trust.
In contrast, cognition-based trust had a significant relationship
with uncertainty but affect-based trust did not. We had suggested
that the dependability and reliability inherent in cognition-based
trust would give employees a sense of confidence when thinking
about future circumstances, with affect-based trust signaling that
employee needs would be protected as a show of care and concern.
It may be that a dependable track record is simply more salient in
uncertain situations than a sense of emotional investment. In
indirect support of that premise, past research has suggested that
trustee ability is a stronger driver of risk-taking decisions than
is trustee benevolence (Colquitt et al., 2007). Alternatively, it may
be that the effects of the two trust forms would differ if the
uncertainty was made more specific. Lind and van den Bos described a number of different forms of uncertainty in their writings
on uncertainty management theory (Lind & van den Bos, 2002;
van den Bos & Lind, 2002). Consistent with their explications, our
measure of uncertainty perceptions was intentionally global, reflecting a general sense that work events were unpredictable.
However, one might expect cognition-based trust to matter more
during times of organizational crisis, whereas affect-based trust
might matter more during political struggles or times of relationship conflict.
Taken together, these results offer three important theoretical
contributions to the justice literature. First, they reinforce Lewicki
et al.’s (2005) suggestion that justice scholars should adopt a more
nuanced view of trust in their theorizing. It may be that the past
reliance on the unidimensional confident, positive expectations
perspective has obscured some potentially important distinctions
that can explain exactly why justice impacts performance behaviors. We would therefore suggest that scholars continue to assess
both affect- and cognition-based trust (or, alternatively, the
benevolence-, ability-, and integrity-based forms of trustworthiness described by Mayer et al., 1995) in order to further explore
those nuances (see also Colquitt & Mueller, 2008).
Second, our results show that social exchange theory should not
be the only theoretical lens used to explain the effects of justice on
performance behaviors. A combination of exchange-based mechanisms and mechanisms rooted in uncertainty management theory
was needed to more fully explain why trust served as a mediator of
justice effects. Supplementing social-exchange-based mechanisms
with more uncertainty-based mechanisms could complement recent research that examines justice from a workplace stress lens
(e.g., Greenberg, 2006). Given that work uncertainty is framed as
a stressor in many stress models, justice could be viewed as having
a buffering role that is similar to the functioning of supervisor or
coworker support in the stress literature (Sonnentag & Frese,
2003).
Third, our results illustrate the value in integrating multiple
theories when examining justice phenomena. The mechanisms in
different theories may often be complementary to one another by
emphasizing different aspects of the psychological experience of
justice—aspects that may uniquely explain subsequent reactions.
That observation is particularly relevant to the literatures on fairness heuristic theory and uncertainty management theory. We
11
noted earlier that uncertainty management theory was cast as a
successor to fairness heuristic theory. The discussions of uncertainty management theory ascribe no special importance to trust
(Lind & van den Bos, 2002; van den Bos & Lind, 2002), and tests
of the theory do not operationalize any trust-related constructs (van
den Bos, 2001b; van den Bos & Miedema, 2000). Moreover, the
introduction of uncertainty management theory seems to have had
a dampening effect on studies that apply fairness heuristic theory
to ground predictions or that use its mechanisms to inspire the
choice of independent or mediating variables. Our results suggest
that fairness heuristic theory remains a valuable conceptual lens
because it simultaneously emphasizes the importance of trust and
of uncertainty. As a result, there may be value in viewing fairness
heuristic theory as a complement to uncertainty management theory, rather than as an ancestor that has lost its usefulness. Moreover, there may be value in moving beyond the global uncertainty
that is described and tested in uncertainty management theory, to
see if a more nuanced operationalization would shed new insights.
For example, there could be value in articulating a taxonomy of
work and nonwork-related uncertainty, to see if those facets contribute beyond a global form, or to see if justice is uniquely
relevant to some facets more than others.
Limitations
This study has some limitations that should be noted. One
limitation is the use of self-report scales for the justice, trust,
normative commitment, and uncertainty variables. The reliance on
self-reports raises the possibility that the relationships among those
variables are inflated by common method variance (Podsakoff,
MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). However, it should be noted
that the relationships with job performance were not same source,
given the use of archival data. Common method variance could
have contributed to some of the high correlations between our
predictors, especially affect- and cognition-based trust. Such significant multicollinearity raises questions about the robustness of
the results for those predictors in Figure 2. Fortunately, a dominance analysis supported the relative importance of those predictors for normative commitment and uncertainty (Azen & Budescu,
2003; Lebreton, Ployhart, & Ladd, 2004).2
Another limitation concerns the correlational nature of our data.
The term mediation conveys a causal quality to the examined
relationships that cannot be inferred from correlational data
(Stone-Romero & Rosopa, 2004). Although our job performance
data were collected several months after our self-report variables,
we would have needed to collect experimental or cross-lagged data
to test the causal nature of the relationships among justice, trust,
and performance. In the absence of such data, the only means of
judging the validity of our causal order is to compare the structure
in Figure 2 with structures with alternative orderings of the justice,
trust, and mediator linkages. We investigated five such alternatives. Four provided a worse fit to the data, three of those to a
statistically significant degree (full details of this analysis are
available from the first author upon request). The fifth alternative
provided an equivalent fit and cast normative commitment and
uncertainty as antecedents of the trust dimensions and the trust
2
Those analyses are available from the first author upon request.
12
COLQUITT ET AL.
dimensions as antecedents of the justice dimensions. However, we
are not aware of any theories that would support that structure,
unlike our a priori structure in Figure 2.
Other limitations concern our use of normative commitment to
operationalize the exchange-deepening dynamic in our study. We
chose to use normative commitment because it captures the notion
of obligation, which is central to Blau’s (1964) description of
social exchange relationships. Other common operationalizations
of social exchange, such as Eisenberger, Armeli, Rexwinkle,
Lynch, and Rhoades’s (2001) perceived support (e.g., Masterson et
al., 2000; Moorman et al., 1998; Tekleab et al., 2005; Wayne et al.,
2002), Graen and Uhl-Bien’s (1995) leader–member exchange
(e.g., Masterson et al., 2000; Wayne et al., 2002), and Meyer and
Allen’s (1991, 1997) affective commitment (e.g., Shore & Tetrick,
1991; Shore & Wayne, 1993) do not reference a sense of obligation in any way. However, four of the six items in Meyer and
Allen’s (1997) normative commitment scale bound the obligation
to the desire to remain, which is only one aspect of reciprocation.
A better operationalization of the exchange-deepening dynamic
might therefore have been Eisenberger et al.’s felt obligation
construct, which represents a more all-encompassing sense of
reciprocation. Alternatively, we could have utilized Morrison and
Phelps’s (1999) felt responsibility scale, or we could have conceptualized obligation as a broadening of role definitions, along the
lines of McAllister, Kamdar, Morrison, and Turban (2007). Our
normative commitment measure was also referenced to the organization, whereas our justice and trust measures were referenced to
the supervisor. Although we believe that employees can reciprocate for beneficial supervisory treatment with attitudes and behaviors that support the organization— because the supervisor is an
agent of the organization—a supervisor-targeted measure of obligation would have yielded a cleaner test. We therefore suspect that
the path coefficients involving normative commitment would have
been stronger if supervisory normative commitment (or felt obligation toward one’s supervisor) had served as our operationalization of the exchange dynamic.
Practical Implications
Despite those limitations, our results offer a number of practical
implications. First and foremost, the justice effects observed in our
data reinforce the practical value in sensitizing managers to justice
concerns. Fortunately, a stream of research has shown that managers can be successfully trained to adhere to justice rules (for a
review, see Skarlicki & Latham, 2005). Such training could become an aspect of the managerial and executive development
programs that are already so common in today’s organizations. We
would further suggest pairing such programs with annual survey
assessments of justice and trust variables. Many organizations
already conduct annual attitude surveys, but often those surveys
focus more on general job attitudes than on specific justice or trust
variables. Such survey efforts would allow individuals to identify
the departments or work units in which justice or trust is particularly low, making justice training a more immediate priority. Our
results for affect-based trust illustrate the value in initiatives that
increase the frequency and transparency of communications with
employees, as the frequent sharing of ideas and information is a
key component of that trust form (McAllister, 1995). Finally, our
results for cognition-based trust reinforce the importance of staff-
ing and training strategies, all of which can be leveraged to
improve the competence and reliability of organizational employees (Arthur, Bennett, Edens, & Bell, 2003; Rynes, 1991). Fostering
affect- and cognition-based trust in these manners should help
employees cope with uncertain periods in their organizational lives
while they maintain their focus on their work obligations.
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Received February 1, 2008
Revision received June 20, 2011
Accepted June 27, 2011 䡲