DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE’S DIRECT AND INDIRECT LINKAGES TO TURNOVER INTENTION: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING APPROACH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/ijbs.10681.2025Keywords:
Distributive justice, turnover intention, organisational citizenship behaviour, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, public doctorsAbstract
This study examines the factors that influence turnover intention among public doctors in Malaysia, which is crucial for achieving universal health coverage. Drawing from Equity Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and the concept of reciprocity, a conceptual model is proposed in which distributive justice is hypothesised to affect turnover intention both directly and indirectly through the mediating of organisational citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, the study proposes that positive reciprocity moderates the relationship between distributive justice and organisational citizenship behaviour, while negative reciprocity moderates the link between distributive justice and turnover intention. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 380 public doctors selected through proportionate stratified random sampling in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia, using a self-administered questionnaire survey. Structural equation modelling revealed that distributive justice inversely impacts turnover intention both directly and indirectly through the partial mediation of organisational citizenship behaviour. Additionally, positive reciprocity strengthened the positive association between distributive justice and organisational citizenship behaviour, while negative reciprocity did not significantly moderate the distributive justice-turnover intention relationship. The findings underscore the importance of fostering distributive justice, organisational citizenship behaviour, and positive reciprocity norms to mitigate turnover intention among Malaysian public doctors, thereby supporting broader efforts to achieve universal health coverage.
References
Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267-299). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60108-2 Ahmad, D. (2019). Enhancing sustainability in healthcare delivery - A challenge to the new Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of https://doi.org/10.21315/mjms2019.26.1.1 Medical Sciences, 26(1), 1-4. Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to action: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). SpringerVerlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_2 Al Shbail, M. O., & Al Shbail, A. M. A. (2020). Organizational climate, organizational citizenship behaviour and turnover intention: Evidence from Jordan. Management Science Letters, 10(16), 3749-3756. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.7.037 Bateman, T. S., & Organ, D. W. (1983). Job satisfaction and the good soldier: The relationship between affect and employee "citizenship". Academy of Management Journal, 26(4), 587595. https://doi.org/10.2307/255908 Blau, P. M. (1964). Justice in social exchange. Sociological Inquiry, 34(2), 193-206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1964.tb00583.x Cao, T., Huang, X., Wang, L., Li, B., Dong, X., Lu, H., Wan, Q., & Shang, S. (2020). Effects of organisational justice, work engagement and nurses' perception of care quality on turnover intention among newly licensed registered nurses: A structural equation modelling approach. Journal of https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15285 Clinical Nursing, 29(13-14), 2626-2637. Chen, D., Lin, Q., Yang, T., Shi, L., Bao, X., & Wang, D. (2022). Distributive justice and turnover intention among medical staff in Shenzhen, China: The mediating effects of organizational commitment and work engagement. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 15, 665-676. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S357654 Cheng, K., Zhu, Q., & Lin, Y. (2021). Family-supportive supervisor behavior, felt obligation, and unethical pro-family behavior: The moderating role of positive reciprocity beliefs. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04765-9 Chisholm, D., & Evans, D. B. (2010). Improving health system efficiency as a means of moving towards universal coverage: World health report 2010 (Background Paper No. 28). World Health Organisation. Choi, H., & Shin, S. (2022). The factors that affect turnover intention according to clinical experience: A focus on organizational justice and nursing core competency. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3515), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063515 Cohen, G., Blake, R. S., & Goodman, D. (2016). Does turnover intention matter? Evaluating the usefulness of turnover intention rate as a predictor of actual turnover rate. Review of Public Personnel Administration, https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X1558185 36(3), 240-263. Colquitt, J. A., & Rodell, J. B. (2015). Measuring justice and fairness. In R. S. Cropanzano & M. L. Ambrose (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of justice in the workplace (pp. 187-202). Oxford University Press. Cropanzano, R. S., Rupp, D. E., Thornton, M. A., & Shao, R. (2016). Organizational justice and organizational citizenship. In P. M. Podsakoff, S. B. Mackenzie, & N. P. Podsakoff (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organizational citizenship behavior (pp. 255-283). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190219000.013.19 Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of Management, 31(6), 874-900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602 Deutsch, M. (1975). Equity, equality, and need: What determines which value will be used as the basis of distributive justice? Journal of Social Issues, 31(3), 137-149. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1975.tb01000.x Dulajis, N., Ibrahim, M. Y., Swe, M., Musleh, A. S., & Hidrus, A. (2022). Turnover intention among specialist medical practitioners in Sabah: A statewide multicenter cross sectional study. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 22(3), 244-252. https://doi.org/10.37268/mjphm/vol.22/no.3/art.1446 Fiaz, M., Ikram, A., Su, Q., & Ali, N. (2018). How to save the saviors?: Relationship between organizational justice and citizenship behavior. The Journal of Developing Areas, 52(1), 45-58. https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2018.0003 Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error: Algebra and statistics. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(3), 382388. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800313 Gaskin, J. (2012). 2 Way Interactions. Stats Tools Package. http://statwiki.gaskination.com Gouldner, A. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25(2), 161-178. https://doi.org/10.2307/2092623 Greenberg, J. (1990). Organizational justice: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Journal of Management, 16(2), 399-432. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639001600208 Greenland, S., Senn, S. J., Rothman, K. J., Carlin, J. B., Poole, C., Goodman, S. N., & Altman, D. G. (2016). Statistical tests, P values, confidence intervals, and power: A guide to misinterpretations. European Journal https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-016-0149-3 of Epidemiology, 31(4), 337-350. Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2018). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning. Harris, C. M., Lavelle, J. J., & McMahan, G. C. (2018). The effects of internal and external sources of justice on employee turnover intention and organizational citizenship behavior toward clients and workgroup members. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(17), 2141-2164. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1441163 Huang, X., Li, Z., & Wan, Q. (2019). From organisational justice to turnover intention among community nurses: A mediating model. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(21-22), 39573965. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15031 Hwang, E., & Yi, Y. (2022). Workplace spirituality and organizational justice in turnover intention of mental health professionals at small-sized centres. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(1), 328-335. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13459 Jahanzeb, S., Fatima, T., Bouckenooghe, D., & Bashir, F. (2019). The knowledge hiding link: A moderated mediation model of how abusive supervision affects employee creativity. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(6), 810-819. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2019.1659245 Kim, S., & Park, S. M. (2014). Determinants of job satisfaction and turnover intentions of public employees: Evidence from US federal agencies. International Review of Public Administration, 19(1), 63-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/12294659.2014.887354 Kline, R. B. (2016). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). The Guilford Press. Krejcie, R. V., & Morgan, D. W. (1970). Determining sample size for research activities. Educational and Psychological https://doi.org/10.1177/00131644700300030 Measurement, 30(3), 607-610. Lam, L. W. (2011). Impact of competitiveness on salespeople's commitment and performance. Journal of Business Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.026 65(9), 1328-1334. Lavee, E., & Pindek, S. (2020). The costs of customer service citizenship behaviors: A qualitative study. Frontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00460 in Psychology, 11, 1-14. Leventhal, G. S. (1980). What should be done with equity theory? In K. J. Gergen, M. S. Greenberg, & R. H. Willis (Eds.), Social exchange: Advances in theory and research (pp. 27-55). Plenum Press. Lu, W., Liu, X., Liu, S., & Qin, C. (2021). Job security and organizational citizenship behaviors in Chinese hybrid employment context: Organizational identification versus psychological contract breach perspective differences across employment status. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627934 Ma, E., Qu, H., Wilson, M., & Eastman, K. (2013). Modeling OCB for hotels: Don't forget the customers. Cornell Hospitality https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965513482520 Quarterly, 54(3), 308-317. Mamud, N. A. B., Kamil, N. L. M., & Hanafi, H. B. (2023). Fostering nurses' organisational citizenship behaviour through contextual factors. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 23(2), 36-46. https://doi.org/10.37268/mjphm/vol.23/no.2/art.1734 Manoppo, V. P. (2020). Transformational leadership as a factor that decreases turnover intention: A mediation of work stress and organizational citizenship behavior. TQM Journal, 32(6), 1395-1412. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-05-2020-0097 Matejkowski, J., McCarthy, K. S., & Draine, J. (2011). The personal norm of reciprocity among mental health service users: Conceptual development and measurement. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 34(3), 202-213. https://doi.org/10.2975/34.3.2011.202.213 Medina-Craven, M. N., & Ostermeier, K. (2021). Investigating justice and bullying among healthcare workers. Employee Relations, 43(1), 31-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-042019-0195 Memon, M. A., Cheah, J. H., Ramayah, T., Ting, H., & Chuah, F. (2018). Mediation analysis issues and recommendations. Journal of Applied Structural Equation Modeling, 2(1), i-ix. https://doi.org/10.47263/JASEM.2(1)01 Memon, M. A., Sallaeh, R., Baharom, M. N. R., Md Nordin, S., & Ting, H. (2017). The relationship between training satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and turnover intention: A PLS-SEM approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness, 4(3), 267-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOEPP-03-2017-0025 Mengstie, M. M. (2020). Perceived organizational justice and turnover intention among hospital healthcare workers. BMC Psychology, 8(19), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-0200387-8 Mitchell, M. S., & Ambrose, M. L. (2007). Abusive supervision and workplace deviance and the moderating effects of negative reciprocity beliefs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(4), 1159-1168. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1159 Mohd Ramlan, M. A., Rugayah, H., & Zarul Zafuan, M. D. (2014). Job satisfaction at workplace: A case of doctors in government hospital, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Journal of Administrative Science, 11(1). https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/44168/ Moorman, R. H. (1991). Relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors: Do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(6), 845-855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.6.845 Neumann, O. (2019). "Giving something back to society": A study exploring the role of reciprocity norms in public service motivation. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 39(2), 159-184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X17698187 Niehoff, B. P., & Moorman, R. H. (1993). Justice as a mediator of the relationship between methods of monitoring and organizational citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 36(3), 527-556. https://doi.org/10.2307/256591 Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington Books. Perreira, T. A., Berta, W., & Hebert, M. (2018). The employee retention triad in healthcare: Exploring relationships among organizational justice, affective commitment and turnover intention. Journal of https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14263 Clinical Nursing, 27(7-8), e1451-e1461. Persic-Beck, L., Goldhammer, F., & Kroehne, U. (2022). Disengaged response behavior when the response button is blocked: Evaluation of a micro-intervention. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 954532. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.954532 Perugini, M., Gallucci, M., Presaghi, F., & Ercolani, A. P. (2003). The personal norm of reciprocity. European https://doi.org/10.1002/per.474 Journal of Personality, 17(4), 251-283. Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879-891. https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.40.3.879 Roodt, G. (2004). Turnover intentions. Unpublished document. University of Johannesburg. Roslan, J. M., Abd Manaf, N. H., Nor Filzatun, B., & Azahadi, M. O. (2014). Turnover intention among public sector health workforce: Is job satisfaction the issue? International Medical Journal Malaysia, 13(1), 51-56. https://doi.org/10.31436/imjm.v13i1.492 Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2013). Research methods for business: A skill-building approach (7th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. Shanker, M. (2018). Organizational citizenship behavior in relation to employees' intention to stay in Indian organizations. Business: Theory and Practice, 19, 1355-1366. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-02-2018-0048 Smith, C. A., Organ, D. W., & Near, J. P. (1983). Organizational citizenship behavior: Its nature and antecedents. Journal of Applied https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.68.4.653 Psychology, 68(4), 653-663. Spector, P. E., Bauer, J. A., & Fox, S. (2010). Measurement artifacts in the assessment of counterproductive work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior: Do we know what we think we know? Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(4), 781-790. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019477 Suifan, T. S., Diab, H., & Abdallah, A. B. (2017). Does organizational justice affect turnoverintention in a developing country? The mediating role of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Journal of Management Development, 36(9), 1137-1148. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-02-2017-0048 Tangcharoensathien, V., Mills, A., & Palu, T. (2015). Accelerating health equity: The key role of universal health coverage in the Sustainable Development Goals. BMC Medicine, 13, Article 101. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0342-3 Tett, R. P., & Meyer, J. P. (1993). Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: Path analyses based on meta‐analytic findings. Personnel Psychology, 46(2), 259-293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x Umphress, E. E., Bingham, J. B., & Mitchell, M. S. (2010). Unethical behavior in the name of the company: The moderating effect of organizational identification and positive reciprocity beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(4), 769-780. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019214 Wen, T., Zhang, Y., Wang, X., & Tang, G. (2018). Factors influencing turnover intention among primary care doctors: A cross-sectional study in Chongqing, China. Human Resources for Health, 16(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-018-0274-z Williams, L. J., & Anderson, S. E. (1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors. Journal of Management, 17(3), 601-617. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700305 Yang, T., Jin, X., Shi, H., Liu, Y., Guo, Y., Gao, Y., & Deng, J. (2021). Occupational stress, distributive justice and turnover intention among public hospital nurses in China: A crosssectional study. Applied Nursing https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2021.151481 Research, 61, Article 151481. Zahednezhad, H., Hoseini, M. A., Ebadi, A., Farokhnezhad Afshar, P., & Ghanei Gheshlagh, R. (2021). Investigating the relationship between organizational justice, job satisfaction, and intention to leave the nursing profession: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 77(4), 1741-1750. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14717 Zhao, H., He, P., Qingxia, Sheard, G., & Wan, P. (2016). Workplace ostracism and knowledge hiding in service organizations. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 59, 8494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.09.009 Zou, W. C., Tian, Q., & Liu, J. (2015). Servant leadership, social exchange relationships, and follower's helping behavior: Positive reciprocity belief matters. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 51, 147-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.08.012
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 UNIMAS Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
