Analyzing the impact of organizational justice on seafarers' commitment: job satisfaction as a key mediator

The shipping industry is facing a shortage of seafarers and a high turnover rate which highlights the critical importance of seafarers' job satisfaction and commitment. This study investigates the intricate relationships among organisational justice, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment among seafarers working in international merchant vessels. This study specifically examines the impact of organisational justice, which encompasses distributive justice (DJ), procedural justice (PJ), and interactional justice (IJ), on organisational commitment with the mediating role of job satisfaction of international seafarers. Utilising a unique dataset from 211 seafarers representing major seafaring nationalities, this study employs structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyze the relationships. The findings of this study shed light on how seafarers' perceptions of equality and fairness in resource distribution, management policies and procedures, and the quality of interpersonal treatment affect their job satisfaction and, in turn, their commitment to their employing organisations. This study uses a unique data set collected from seafarers from the major seafaring nations that has not been done in previous studies. Moreover, this study, for the first time, includes all three dimensions of organisational justice and explores their impact on the overall justice perception of seafarers.