The Effect of Interactional Justice on Quiet Quitting: Psychological Ownership as a Mediator, Passion as a Moderator

The purpose of this study was to identify the antecedents of quiet quitting, which has attracted attention in the corporate. Interactional justice was selected as an antecedent of quiet quitting, and the mediation of psychological ownership and the moderation of passion in the relationship between interactional justice and quiet quitting were examined to clarify the relationship between these variables. Interactional justice can be categorized into interpersonal and informational, but in this study, it is used as an aggregate. Passion was categorized into harmonious and obsessive. The research hypotheses were set by reviewing the literature, starting with the direct effect hypothesis, followed by the mediated effect, moderated effect, and moderated mediation effect hypotheses. The research hypotheses were tested through questionnaires. Two surveys were conducted with a one- month gap to eliminate the common method bias that occurs when use questionnaires(1st: interactional justice, psychological ownership; 2nd: passion, quiet quitting). A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed to organizational members working in 50 companies in Gwangju and Jeonnam, and a total of 295 questionnaires were used for the final analysis, excluding unreliable responses. The results showed that, first, interactional justice had a negative effect on quiet quitting and a positive effect on psychological ownership. Second, psychological ownership had a negative effect on quiet quitting moreover, psychological ownership mediated the relationship between interactional justice and quiet quitting. Third, harmonious and obsessive passion moderated the relationship between psychological ownership and quiet quitting. i.e., the negative relationship between psychological ownership and quiet quitting was stronger when harmoious passion was high on, and the negative relationship between psychological ownership and quiet quitting was buffered when obsessive passion was high on. Finally, the mediating effect of psychological ownership on the relationship between interactional justice and quiet quitting was moderated by harmonious and obsessive passion. This study of implication is that it reveals the importance of the issue of organizational justice by examining the role of interactional justice as a major antecedent of quiet quitting. It also has theoretical and practical implications by examining the mediation of psychological ownership and the moderation of passion.