Analyzing the Relationship Between Organizational Justice and Job Engagement Among Nursing Professionals

Posted: Aug 13, 2017

• Selena Ford
• Chandler Moore
• Paisley Jenkins

Abstract

The nursing profession represents a critical component of healthcare delivery systems worldwide, characterized by high-stress environments, emotional labor, and complex organizational structures. Within this context, organizational justice—the perception of fairness in workplace procedures, distributions, and interpersonal treatment—has emerged as a significant factor influencing various occupational outcomes. However, the precise mechanisms through which organizational justice perceptions translate into job engagement among nursing professionals remain inadequately understood through conventional research methodologies. Traditional approaches to studying organizational justice and job engagement have predominantly relied on quantitative survey instruments that, while valuable, often fail to capture the rich contextual nuances and dynamic nature of these psychological constructs. The limitations of Likert-scale measurements in conveying the complexity of justice perceptions and the multidimensional nature of engagement necessitate innovative methodological approaches. This research addresses this gap by introducing a computational linguistics framework that analyzes qualitative narrative data to uncover previously undocumented relationships between organizational justice dimensions and engagement components. Our study is grounded in the theoretical framework that organizational justice operates through complex cognitive and affective pathways that influence how nursing professionals interpret workplace events and subsequently invest themselves in their roles. We posit that the relationship between justice and engagement is not merely linear but involves interactive effects between different justice dimensions and contextual moderators specific to healthcare environments. The nursing context presents unique challenges, including ethical dilemmas, resource constraints, and hierarchical power structures that shape justice perceptions in ways distinct from other professions.